Western Residences Compared: Traditional, Hybrid, Suite

These are Western's published 2026-27 figures for eight months. Room rates include utilities, internet and tenant insurance. Most first-year rooms also need a meal plan, covered in the next section. Fall 2027 rates aren't published yet.

Traditional halls put most students in shared double rooms along a floor, with washrooms down the hall. Delaware, Medway-Sydenham and Saugeen-Maitland all list singles, but Western notes these buildings have only some single rooms. Saugeen-Maitland is the largest first-year building, with 1,246 beds.

Hybrid halls sit between the two. Ontario and Perth also have only some singles, so most residents share a double. Clare Hall is an all-women building with single rooms, queen beds and a kitchen shared by the floor. Bayfield has double rooms with an in-suite washroom and kitchen; its residents use the lounge and workout room in Saugeen-Maitland.

Suite-style halls give each student a single bedroom in a shared suite with a kitchen. Medway-Sydenham and Alumni House have no elevator, and Bayfield and Lambton have no air conditioning. Western's pages conflict on Alumni House and London Hall: the building list and fee rules include them for first year, while the application steps page calls them upper-year only. Confirm both in myHousing before ranking them high.

Western says meal plans are mandatory for first-year students except in Bayfield and Lambton. Meal Plan 1 costs $8,300 and Meal Plan 2 costs $7,700. Western recommends Plan 1 for traditional and hybrid buildings without in-suite cooking and Plan 2 for suite-style buildings. One Western dining page names only Lambton as the exception, so confirm Bayfield in your residence contract.

To hold your place, you pay a $900 residence prepayment through myHousing. The totals below use Western's recommended plan for each style.

Once your offer includes a residence guarantee, you complete the Residence Placement Questionnaire in the myHousing Portal. You rank buildings, answer lifestyle questions for roommate matching and pay the prepayment. Western then gives you a random number. When your number is drawn, you get your first-choice building if it still has space; if not, your second choice, and so on.

Some scholarships change the draw. The Western Scholarship of Excellence guarantees one of your top three buildings in first and second year. The National Scholarship Program, Schulich Leader Scholarships and National Indigenous Scholarship guarantee your first-choice building and a single room.

You can choose a themed floor while completing the questionnaire. Western charges nothing extra for these floors, and availability depends on demand. To share a room on a faculty-based floor, you and your requested roommate must be in the same faculty or program.

For Fall 2027, Western lists June 3, 2027 as the deadline for the questionnaire and the $900 prepayment. The 2027-28 room rates and comparison chart aren't published yet. Western's residence section of our university guide covers the full guarantee rules.

Accessibility requests also go through myHousing, after you've started the questionnaire. Requests after the deadline are considered only if space is available. Western says every residence except Medway-Sydenham and Alumni House is accessible, with barrier-free suites in Essex, Elgin, Perth, Ontario and London Hall. Students with severe allergies should also file a request before the deadline.

Huron and King's students can't live in main-campus residence. Huron runs its own residences. King's says it guarantees first-year residence for students who apply before June 2.