Room of the Year Contest
The 2026 Room of the Year Contest here!
It’s that time of year! Housing and Residential Life’s Room of the Year Contest is live! Show us your style and submit your room now through September 27 at 11:59p.m. This is a great way for you to showcase your room’s transformation into your new on-campus home. Students are encouraged to enter their room online, and the winners will receive prizes and the opportunity to be featured in Housing and Residential Life’s Instagram feed and other promotional materials.
Winners will be chosen from every building, so enter your room today!
Submit your room to the 2026 Room of the Year Contest
Prizes
One winning room will be selected from every building or community, with top rooms then be posted for voting to determine the contest finalists and grand prize winner.
- Prizes Building or Community winners: $100
- Finalists: $200
- Grand Prize winner: $500
All prizes will be a combination of Cornell Store gift cards and Cornell Dining BRBs and will be shared among the occupants of the selected rooms.
Judging Criteria
Entries are judged based on the the photographs submitted by residents. In submitting a photo, residents give permission for any images taken during this process to be used indefinitely on Cornell University or departmental websites and in marketing materials for the purposes of providing visual examples of on-campus living.
Residents should not invest money into improving their rooms solely for the purpose of this contest. Room entries are not judged on how luxurious they appear; instead, entries are judged on the innovative and creative ways that residents have worked together to personalize their rooms and highlight their unique spaces.
Rooms will be judged on style, creativity, detail, best use of space, and overall impact. Winners will be selected from each residence hall, one for each of the five West Campus Housing System Houses, as well as a co-op house. The top rooms from across campus will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize, as determined by votes from your peers.
Rooms submissions must be compliant with the Student Code of Conduct and must follow the Community Rules and Standards guidelines, including fire safety violations. Rooms with violations must either address these violations or risk being disqualified.
Common violations are but are not limited to:
- Artificial plants
- Items hanging from sprinklers or ceilings
- Bed moved in front of window