Moving in

After a long planning and construction phase, the first 176 residents finally moved into our new dormitory in February 2023 and are shaping the CA into a place of collaborative, sustainable and self-managed living together.

In our dormitory, we are regularly looking for new residents to fill vacant rooms. Moving-in is always possible at the beginning of a quarter (October 1, January 1, April 1, and July 1). The next possible move-in date is October 1, 2023. For the move-in in October you can apply via the application form here on our website from now until Friday, August 4, 2023 at the latest.

We have answered to the most common questions in our FAQ. If you have further questions, you can write us at einziehen@collegiumacademicum.de.

If you are interested in sustainability, education and self-organisation, our address could become your address. Maybe you'll start studying in Heidelberg and will be looking for an apartment? Or maybe you are enthusiastic about living in a large community? Or you may simply be looking for a change of scenery?

A room in our dormitory costs a total of 345 € per month (315,20 € warm rent plus about 30 € costs for electricity and internet). As a self-managed housing project, we don’t want to make a profit with the income, but instead we try to keep the rents as low as possible. You can get an overview of the project’s funding here.

The rooms are approximately 14 m² big and are contained in shared flats of 3 or 4 rooms each. The private rooms can be halved into 7 m² to have more common space in the shared flat. The rent also includes the large common areas in the entire house, such as the large auditorium for more than 600 people, the multifunctional room as the house meeting place, the workshop and the roof terrace.

The flats are prepared to be barrier-free. We have summarized detailed information regarding accessibility on this page.

A requirement for living in our dormitory is that you are studying, doing an apprenticeship or a doctorate. But what is most important to us is that you would like to actively participate in our project and in the self-management. We wish that you are open to the values and goals that we have defined in our vision and that you like the basic idea of the Mietshäuser Syndikat.

As we usually receive more applications than we can offer rooms, we do have to formalize the application process a bit. We have developed the application process over a longer time, and we think it is reasonably transparent, fair and inclusive. If you feel you are disadvantaged by the process or unhappy with it out of other reasons, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Here is how the application for a room in our dormitory works:

1. You fill out the application form, either in German or in English. Please take note of the maximum text lengths.
2. We read the incoming applications. We would like to invite all applicants who have filled out the application form completely and answered the two questions to our application day. If we want to invite more applicants than can take part in the application day, we first assign places on the basis of a quota to enable apprentices in particular to take part in the application day. After that, we assign places by drawing lots. How many applicants can participate in the application day depends on our capacities, but also on how many rooms will become vacant in the dormitory. Therefore, we can only give you feedback after the application deadline whether you can participate in the application day.
3. About two weeks after the application deadline, the application day takes place. For the October move-in, the application day will be on Sunday, August 20. The intention of this day is to give you an insight into life in the CA and the structure of the self-government. It also allows us to get to know you better so that we can make an informed decision. We will first introduce the CA, followed by a group phase and a 15-minute individual interview. If you are invited to the application day, you are free to choose whether you want to participate on-site at the CA or online. We take care not to favor or disadvantage applicants because of their participation in presence or online. However, we recommend you to come to the application day in presence, if it’s possible for you, so that you can get to know our project better. Throughout the day we will make notes. Not to assess you and put you into fixed categories, but to have a clear image of your afterwards and also to mitigate our own biases. After the application day, we decide which applicants we would like to accept. If we want to accept more applicants than we have vacant rooms, we first assign acceptances on the basis of a quota to enable apprentices in particular to move into the CA. After that, we assign acceptances by drawing lots.
4. Within one week after the application day, you will receive a feedback from us via email. If you are accepted, you have two days to decide whether you want to move in. We will then invite you to a WG finding day, where you can get to know the different WGs in which rooms become vacant. Afterwards, you can give feedback on which WGs you would or would not like to move into. Likewise, the WGs can give feedback. We try to take all wishes into account as good as possible. As soon as it has been decided which WG you will move into, the AG Mietverwaltung will set up your rental contract.

If you are interested in living in our dormitory, but would only like to move in at a later date, you can sign up here for our moving-in newsletter. Then we will always inform you directly as soon as a new application process has started.