Franklin & Marshall College

All First Year Students  will be directed to log in to complete a resident housing application on line.  Answers to the housing application will be used to match each student to a compatible roommate. Students will receive their housing assignment and roommate information in early August.

Yes.  All enrolled students must reside in a college approved housing option all four years.  Students choose from the college's portfolio of housing.  

A set number of meals/flex dollars are added to your ID card for the semester based on the plan you choose (first-year students are required to carry the 225 block plan). Each time a meal swipe is used, your meal balance declines by one swipe. You may use as many meals in a period as you would like.  In addition, each block meal plan comes with Flex dollars that work the same as debit dollars, but can only be used for dining services. If your total purchase at Vocelli's or Zime exceeds your equivalency value, you may use your flex dollars, Ben's Bucks or cash to cover the difference. It's your choice!

You can also purchase Bens Bucks to be used on and around campus.  Meal swipes do not carry over from the Fall to the Spring semester, however, unused flex dollars will carry from the Fall to the Spring semester if the student has a meal plan in the Spring semester.  At the end of the Spring semester, balances reduce to zero until the start of the new semester.

All first-year students are automatically assigned a 225 block meal plan (this means 215 meal swipes with 10 guest passes per semester). Sophomore students are required to purchase either a 225 or a 150 block mean plan.  Upper class, junior or senior, students may choose one of five meal plans offered or they may opt out of the meal plan altogether.  

The street address is 415 Harrisburg Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603

Your campus address is:

Student Name, Franklin & Marshall College, PO Box  3220, Lancaster, PA 17604 Your specific F&M box number is assigned approximately one week before you arrive to campus. Mail services will provide you with your number upon your arrival.  If you wish to ship items to campus prior to your arrival, please see the shipping and storage section of the website.

Franklin & Marshall is a smoke-free campus.  Smoking is not permitted in any common areas on campus (i.e., bathrooms, lounges, classrooms, stairwells, residence halls, etc.). Students may not smoke in their residence hall rooms or cover a life saving smoke detector.  Distance from the building is required when smoking outdoors.

The residence halls are locked 24 hours a day to insure the safety of everyone in our community.  Residential students are provided with an electronic door FOB for access to the residence halls. Resident students have access to all residential buildings from 7 a.m. to midnight each day.

House Advisers (HAs) are upper-class students employed by the Office of the Dean of the College. Each floor has an HA who is available to assist students in their transition to college life.  They facilitate floor decision-making, serve as a resource for information about the College, enforce College policies, plan programs to bring the residents of a floor together, help to foster a sense of community among residents and much more. You will find your HA to be an invaluable resource at F&M.

First-year students live in one of the five college houses on floors with other first-year students.  If you have a special medical need for a single room as a first-year student, our campus physician, Dr. Amy Myers, will need to evaluate documentation from a treating physician to determine the student's particular housing need.

Roommates are carefully matched according to the living habits and a personal interview conducted prior to arrival. That said, we do realize that not all roommates are destined to become the best of friends. We encourage students to speak with their House Adviser (HA) if they have concerns.  HAs are carefully trained to handle roommate concerns of all types. If, after trying to work through a roommate issue, a student still wants to change rooms, the House Dean will work closely with the student to find a suitable and compatible match.

No. First-year students are not permitted to bring a car to campus.  They may not register their car or park on or around campus.  Exceptions are granted for local commuting students.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer tours of individual rooms during the summer.  We simply cannot accommodate these requests.  Our residence hall rooms are occupied by camps and events over the summer months.

Students often choose to bring a fan to circulate air in their rooms, but it is not required or necessary.  It is a personal choice.

Each room comes with a trash can for each student.

There is a full length mirror behind each entry door in every residence hall room.

Our windows do not have screens. If you'd like the option of opening your window, you may purchase an expandable screen at a home improvement store.  We do, however, recommend the windows remain closed to keep humidity out of the building especially in the spring and summer months.

Yes, every residence hall room on campus is centrally air conditioned.

Yes.  Each room is equipped with mini-blinds on the windows.

It varies by building and by room.  It can be wall-to-wall carpeting or VCT (Quartz) tile.

All rooms are equipped with lighting.   There is overhead lighting and a light in the desk hutch.  Students often choose to bring a lamp in the event they do not wish to use the overhead fluorescent lighting.

No.  Electric blankets are not permitted.  They present a safety risk.  They also may cause electrical breakers to trip in the residence halls.

No.  Stand along microwaves are not permitted in the residence halls.  We've found if students bring their own microwaves they can cause circuit outages in the residential halls.  Microwave/refrigerator combination units are available for rental.  The units provided by the suggested rental company meet all voltage requirements.

Each desk comes with a chair, so you do not need to bring your own.  If you elect to bring your own chair, that's OK, but we ask the college-issued desk chair stay in your room as well.

You may bring a 1.8 cu ft up to a 4 cu ft refrigerator (no larger than 4 cu ft). Two 1.8 cu ft. refrigerators could fit in most rooms, but the majority of students share one TV and one refrigerator per room.   

The walls are made with cinder block construction, so we ask that you not drill into the walls.  Most student find that poster putty or 3M removable hooks work well for the purpose of hanging things on the walls.

All rooms are neutral in decor.  Most rooms have white walls.  Carpet remnants and accessories can be used to bring color to the room. 

Some residence halls have loftable furniture.  Please see residence hall information for details.

All mattresses in the residence halls on campus are twin XL.  Regular twin sheets will not fit.  You can purchase twin XL sheets at most bedding and bath stores or retail discount stores.  

Each room contains a desk, a chair, a dresser, a wardrobe and a twin XL bed for each student.  Furniture types vary from building to building.  Because all housing options are furnished, the College does not permit students to bring upholstered furniture to campus residence halls, theme houses or apartment spaces.

If a student leases a College Row apartment they pick up their keys at the College Row leasing office on Harrisburg Pike located in the College Row facility.  The phone number is 717.291.9333.  Please call ahead for hours of operation.

If a student leases a College Hill apartment they would pick up their keys at the Susquehanna Realty Office at the corner of Mulberry and W. James (first floor). The phone number is 717.393.8400.  Please call ahead for hours of operation.

If a student rents a James Street Property (JSP) they pick up their keys at the JSP office at 448 W. James Street.  The phone number is 717.330.4320.  Please call ahead for hours of operation.

For an on campus or theme house space, please return keys to the F&M Key Shop located at 415 Harrisburg Avenue.  A key drop box is also available around the rear in the wall next to the blue awning with "415".

For College Row, please return keys to the College Row office on Harrisburg Avenue.

For College Hill, please return keys to the College Hill property management office, Susuehanna Realty Management at the corner of W. James and Mulberry Streets.

For James Street Properties, please return keys to the property manager at 448 W. James Street.