Housing Charges Deadlines and Payments

These past couple days we have had a ton of questions concerning payments and housing fees! All of your housing fees will be posted under the Finance Section of your PAWS Student Center page and can be paid through The Bursar's Office! If you have been assigned a room, you will notice that the Fall semester your housing and meal plan fees have been posted on your PAWS account. 

On August 1st, 60% of your Fall semester housing and meal plan charges are due, with the remaining 40% due on September 2nd. While financial aid will not disburse by August 1st, University Housing can take your financial aid award into account at the time the first payment is due.  If you wish to have financial aid considered in lieu of an August 1st payment out of pocket, the following must be completed:

-You must complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

-You must have a valid financial aid award from UWM Financial Aid.

-You must have accepted the financial aid award in PAWS.uwm.edu

-The aid award must be large enough to cover the August 1 charges.

If your financial aid award is not enough to cover the August 1st payment, you will need to pay the difference. If you determine you need additional financial assistance, you are encouraged to consider a PLUS Loan or a Private Alternative Educational Loan (please apply for the amount needed for the entire year). Details on these programs are found at loans.uwm.edu or by contacting The Financial Aid Office.  

If you have registered for classes, tuition charges will be posted on your PAWS Student Center page approximately July 25th and is due September 2nd.  

 

 If you have not been assigned a room yet, any assignments posted prior to July 25th will still have 60% due August 1st. If you do not get assigned until July 28th or after, your 60% will be due approximately two weeks after the assignment. 

More information can also be found in The Contract Guidebook concerning payments and charges! As always if you have any further questions please give our office a call at 414-229-4065 or email us at university-housing@uwm.edu!

My Experience at UWM!

Way back in 2012 while I was sitting in my yearbook class at Menomonee Falls High School, I would see all of my fellow seniors stressing out about what colleges to apply for. I wasn't one of these frantic students because I knew that the only school I wanted to go to was UW-Milwaukee. My older brother previously went to UWM and when I toured the campus I fell in love. To know that UWM has an amazing journalism program was icing on the cake.

My freshman year I decided to live at home to save money and being from milwaukee it wasn't that far of a drive compared to a lot of others. I was taking about 17 credits, working 40 hours a week at Ernie Von Scheldorn car dealership, and dealing with the stress of commuting. This was just way too much on my plate and I made the decision that I was going to live on campus to alleviate this stress.

My sophomore year I lived on the 2nd floor of East Tower. It was so convenient that I was only 10 minutes away from class instead of having to wake up two hours earlier due to commuting. Not only did university housing give me the chance to actually make new connections with people I was going to class with, but with my roommate and suitemates as well. I started to take yoga at the Klotsche Center, made new friends watching the packers games down at the Gasthaus, and even played some intramural floor hockey! I wish I could go back to my freshman year and live on campus because it was the best decision I ever made. Yes staying at home does save you money, but when it all came down to it living at home did cost me lack of sleep, stress of commuting, and my sanity.

This year I will be living on the 15th floor of North Tower. I choose north tower because I liked the house lounge set up and the amazing view of the lake. Yes east tower does have a kitchen in every suite, but since I can't cook to save my life, the microwave will be more than enough. If you have any questions about housing or UWM in general I will be here to help!

Hope you have a wonderful University Housing experience like I have!

-Valerie

Move In!

We posted the first round of assigned move-in times to your MyHousing accounts today! (this only applies to incoming first-year students). With the high volume of students moving in, this is important information to know because each resident will be getting a specific time slot when they will be allowed to be in the parking garage to move their items into their room. When you arrive in the parking garage at your assigned time, there will be a multitude of housing employees and volunteers around to help make moving in as easy as possible. To prepare yourself for move in day, pack in a manner that will allow you to stack your belongings vertically on our carts. These carts will be available for your use, so then we can plasticwrap everything together so you can move your items in to your room in as few trips as possible!

Before you get all your items loaded into your vehicle, make sure to take a look at the list of What to Bring to make sure that you aren't packing any prohibited items! Also you can use this list as a checklist and make sure you have everything you need packed up and ready to go! It is also a good idea to read through the Move-in Guide so you know the ins and outs of moving into your new residence hall room! The guide is accessible via the link and each resident will receive a hard copy in the mail around the middle of July.

If you are already familiar with the Guest Pass system you may be wondering if your parents/helpers will need to be swiped in with you every time you bring another load up to your rooms. The answer is no. Due to the high volume during move-in hours, this is the one time where you will not need to swipe in to get past security. Once move-in is completed for the day (about 7 PM), guests will need to have their passes and be swiped in.

Once you are all settled in go check out all of the fun-filled Fall Welcome Events and meet some of your fellow Panthers before classes begin! Hint: if you do you will be rewarded with free food and Panthers swag!

If you have any questions regarding move-in please direct them to the University Housing office via phone (414) 229-4065 or e-mail university-housing@uwm.edu.

Have a great rest of the summer!

Eric