Moving In: What You Need to Know

Essential information for fall 2024 move-in

When can I move into UMass Dartmouth?

• New students move-in: Sunday, September 1
• Returning students move-in: Tuesday, September 3

Move-in times are emailed to students when they are eligible to move-in, usually in August.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to check-in, all residents need to be:

• Enrolled for the fall 2024 semester.
• Cleared through Health Services as having uploaded all needed documentation.
• Cleared through our Student Service Center through one of the following ways:
  • Pay fall charges in full
  • Have enough Financial Aid to cover your tuition, fees, and housing 
  • Sign up for a payment plan for your tuition, fees, dining and housing bills and complete the first required payment. (Please note, if you live in Balsam or Spruce Hall, your housing bill is separate and also must be covered in one of these ways. Please see the information sent to your umassd.edu email for more information!)

Check in time

Once you are fully eligible to move in, you will be assigned a check in date and time. This information can also be found in your Housing Portal. Please know, this time has been assigned, based on your room location, in order to most effectively move our campus community into our halls. Because of this, we ask that students please arrive to campus within 15 minutes of this appointment time, as the number of people we can process at any one time will be limited.

UMass Pass

Upload your photo for your UMass Pass, if you haven't already done it!

You will need your UMass Pass (ID) in order to move in. You will not have access to your room without your ID. Your ID is your key into your building (and, in some cases, into your room), and you'll need it to use your meal plan! 

On move-in day, if you:

• already have your UMass Pass: Remember to bring it with you, and have it somewhere that is easy to grab!
• submitted your photo but haven't received your UMass Pass: You will pick up your ID at check-in.
• have not submitted your photo yet: You will need to go to the UMass Pass Office. Note: The office will only be available for limited hours and may have lines. You should upload your photo in advance to avoid having to visit the UMass Pass Office during move-in.

Once you make it to campus, the process is as easy as 1, 2, 3!  

1. When you get to campus, please look for signage that will direct you to the correct parking lot to begin the check in process. Please note that everyone will need to check in at your designated parking lot FIRST, before proceeding to their building. If you live in Balsam, Spruce, or any of our Woodland apartment communities, you’ll start in Lot 15. Folks in Pine Dale and Oak Glen will start in Lot 3. At that parking lot, we will verify you are eligible to check in and get your car in the line for your specific building. We will move cars from that lot as quickly as we are able, but there is sometimes a wait at this stage of the process.  
2. Once at the hall, unload everything from the vehicle into a bin, which will be available at the curb. We ask that students make efficient use of bins. If you can get everything into one, it will all get up to your room faster! Once unloaded, the vehicle should be moved to the proper parking lot immediately. Please do NOT leave your vehicle unattended in the unloading zone, as we will need to make room for the next vehicle. Residents should plan to park in your designated location (see the campus parking designation map for further detail) in a legal parking space:  

• • • Balsam and Spruce residents – Lots 18, 19, 20  
    • Oak Glen and Pine Dale residents – Lot 21  
    • Woodland Apartment residents – Lots 9, 10  
    • Family and friends with a vehicle that will not stay on campus, please look for signs to “short term parking”  

3. Once your vehicle is unloaded and parked, you and your bin will join the line for our elevators (or let us know if you’d like to carry things up stairs, and we can point the way). This is the second time in the process you may have a bit of a wait, but we’ll go as quickly as we can, and have a good time along the way. We ask that once you get to your room, before you start to fully unpack and set things up, please unload everything from the bin and quickly return it to the elevator or even the lobby of the building, so we can consistently have some available for the next folks.   

Don't forget!

Some important things to check off your list and to keep in mind once you’re moved in: 

• If you have a car that you will keep on campus, make sure you have the correct parking permit, it is in the correct lot, and it is displayed correctly, to avoid tickets.  
• If you are a first year student, take a look at your orientation schedule so you know when your next commitment will be. All of our residents will likely have a floor meeting on their first day, to meet your RA and review community expectations.  
• It is the student’s responsibility to take ALL trash and recycling out to the dumpsters. We have large capacity dumpsters on campus specifically for move in days. It is the community expectation that all personal trash is removed from the building by residents.  
• Once we secure our buildings after the move in process, propping of exterior building doors is strictly prohibited, to maintain security of our buildings. Please note that the entrances and exits that can be used are all in the main lobby area. All exterior doors at the ends of hallways/stairwells are for emergency exit only. For the safety of our communities, using these doors at any other time is not permitted. 
• Be sure to check out our tips on what to bring.

Stow & Go

This was a new initiative out of COVID and was popular with our residents, so we’re making it a full-fledged tradition! Stow & Go is essentially an appointment the week prior to move in day, where you can come and drop off the bulk of your belongings right into your fall assignment to speed up the process of move in day. This year, we will have Stow & Go appointments on Saturday, August 24th and the afternoon/evening of Tuesday, August 27th.  

Please note, you will NOT be able to check in and stay in housing at that time and will not be issued keys to your space until you return on move in day, assigned above.   

Why would you want to do Stow & Go?  

• You have folks or a vehicle to help you move on the Stow & Go date, but not on move in day 

• You want to avoid the elevator line and do a quicker check-in process on move-in day  

• You think the name sounds fun  

Appointments are one hour long and you can claim an appointment timeslot by logging into your Housing Portal and selecting "Housing Forms" and then "Stow and Go"

Things to keep in mind:  

• You will ONLY be able to sign up for Stow & Go if you are fully eligible to check in to housing. 

• Limited appointments are available for each building to ensure we can assist everyone with our limited staffing. Once the appointments for your building are full in a specific timeslot, no more appointments may be added. The times you see to select are all the available appointments. If all the appointments are full or at times that do not work for you, we look forward to seeing you on our move-in days at the end of August.   

• Only students with a pre-scheduled appointment will be given access to their space to drop off items on these dates. Appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance, and all individuals must vacate the building again at the end of their one-hour appointment.  

• We encourage you to bring carts, etc. to help you with your move. We rent bins for move in days, but they will not be on campus yet at this time, so availability of bins cannot be guaranteed.