McGill First-Year Residences Compared: Styles and Costs

These are McGill's published 2026-27 figures. Rent covers electricity, hot water, heating, internet and laundry. The lease runs from August 20, 2026 to May 2, 2027. Resident counts come from McGill's first-year comparison chart; a few building pages list slightly different totals. Fall 2027 rates aren't published yet.

Laird Hall at Macdonald Campus is also a first-year option. McGill's chart puts it about 40 minutes from downtown by shuttle, so it has its own guide, linked at the end of this page.

Traditional dorms put you on a floor with shared washrooms and a shared kitchenette. RVC sits across the street from the main campus. Its West Wing is women-only and was fully renovated in summer 2025. The mixed-gender Tower houses first- and upper-year students and was due for the same upgrades by Fall 2026 move-in. McConnell, Molson and Gardner, together called Upper Residence, were built in 1962 just north of campus by Mount Royal. They surround the Bishop Mountain Hall dining hall, have mixed-gender floors and are mostly single rooms.

Modern dorms add a private bathroom and a front desk, and more of their rooms are doubles. New Residence Hall is the largest, with 757 students. It connects to an underground mall with two grocery stores, a pharmacy and a movie theatre. Its Le Parc gym includes a membership to McGill's B2 Gym. Carrefour Sherbrooke, a former hotel two blocks east of campus, is mostly doubles with queen beds. La Citadelle has air conditioning in every room and a shared full kitchen, and its café serves breakfast and lunch rather than full meals.

Quiet residences suit you if you want calmer floors. Douglas Hall, built in 1936, is split into eight houses and has a pantry-style café. Bishop Mountain Hall, close by, serves hot meals every day. University Hall is a small dorm across from the Milton Gates. The shared houses give you your own bedroom with a shared kitchen, washrooms and living room, a short walk from campus.

Solin Hall is southwest of campus near Atwater Market and the Lachine Canal. You live in a two-, three- or four-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, so you shop and cook for yourself. McGill says most Solin residents buy a monthly transit pass for the four-stop metro commute.

Dorm residents pay the $6,150 All You Care to Eat meal plan, $500 in oneCard Flex dollars and a $35 Residence Life activity fee. That adds $6,685 to the year's rent. Shared-house and Solin residents skip the meal plan but pay $600 in oneCard dollars and the $35 fee, so plan your own grocery budget on top.

The totals below are McGill's own figures from its 2026-27 comparison chart. Solin's chart total is higher than 8.45 months of its published rent plus $635, which works out to about $10,226 to $12,634. Ask Student Housing which lease length applies before you rank Solin to save money.

McGill guarantees residence to newly admitted undergraduates who are 22 or under on September 1, starting their first year of university, and who accept their offer and apply before the housing lottery deadline. For 2026-27 that deadline was June 14, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. McGill hasn't published the Fall 2027 deadline yet. Renewable and one-year McGill Entrance Scholarship winners are guaranteed one of their top two buildings if they apply by the deadline.

To apply, answer yes to the residence question on your McGill application. After admission, go to Minerva's Applicant tab and open Student Housing Status. You accept the offer, agree to the room reservation terms and rank every available building and room type with a number. Then you answer a short survey and pay a $1,500 deposit plus a $35 application fee by credit card. McGill uses the survey to match roommates in doubles, not to choose your hall.

Shortly after the lottery, Minerva shows your building and room type. You get your room number when you arrive, and you sign a Quebec Educational Lease online before check-in. If Minerva says Temporary Assignment, your housing is still secured. McGill may place you in one of its residences or in a contracted third-party residence.

When you accept a residence offer, you commit to a lease under Quebec law. For Fall 2026 first-years, the deposit was non-refundable if you didn't move in by September 9, 2026. If you withdraw from McGill altogether, your lease ends one month after your withdrawal date. The table shows the 2026-27 penalties for leaving residence while staying at McGill.