As all the residential colleges offer similar facilities and a high standard of pastoral care, it is recommended that you accept any offer received, even if it isn't from your preferred college. You may not necessarily receive another offer in time for the start of semester.
Once you accept a college's offer and pay the Student Placement and Activities Fee, you are in a legal binding contract with them, and no other college can subsequently consider your application.
If you decline an offer you will need to inform the college who made you the offer and advise them that you wish to be placed on the waitlist which is held at the Student Accommodation Centre.
If you do not receive an offer in the first round, you will be automatically placed on the general waitlist for consideration by residential colleges as spaces become available.
Students who have been awarded an entrance scholarship (except for New Frontiers) are guaranteed a residential college offer. However, these students are still subject to the normal selection process meaning they may not get an offer from their three preferences.
If a student's application for a place in a residential college is received after 30 September but before 1 February for their first year of study, recipients will have high priority for a place in a residential college for their first year of study, but an offer of place cannot be guaranteed.
Students are advised of the outcomes of both applications in October. Entrance scholarships are awarded in mid-October, and selection for accommodation commences on 1 October.
AskOtago SharePoint: Accommodation Offers