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Temple University

Temple is a big, urban public research university planted right in the middle of North Philadelphia — around 30,000 students and a real-city campus where the Owls, the Bell Tower, and the SEPTA subway are all part of daily life. It's a scrappy, diverse, deeply Philadelphian school with Division I sports and the whole city as its backyard. Pack for a hot, humid August move-in and a cold, gray winter — and for a campus where everything, from a cheesesteak to Center City, is a short walk or a subway stop away.

Move-inMid–late August

BedsTwin XL

A/CVaries by hall

Jump to the checklist ↓

The one thing generic lists get wrong

What to wear in Philadelphia, month by month

This region runs from a humid late summer to a hard winter in about ten weeks. The mistake out-of-region families make is packing the whole year in August.

Move-in (Aug)	78–88°F	Hot, humid North Philly late summer — sticky afternoons, warm nights, the occasional thunderstorm. Tees, shorts, and a fan.
Sept–Oct	55–78°F	Classic Mid-Atlantic fall — crisp mornings warming into mild afternoons. Jeans, sweaters, and a light jacket.
Nov–Dec	35–52°F	Cold and gray, wind funneling down Broad Street, first snow by December. A real coat, hat, and gloves.
Jan–Feb	25–40°F	Deep Philadelphia winter — raw, damp cold and the odd nor'easter. Heaviest coat, boots, and thermals for the subway platform.
Mar–May	48–74°F	An unsettled thaw into a green, fast spring — 20-degree swings inside a single week. A jacket and layers.

The move: August in Philadelphia is hot and sticky, so pack tees, shorts, and a fan first — A/C varies by hall (Morgan and the newer buildings have it; the older ones don't always). Then bring the winter arsenal — a real coat, waterproof boots, and layers — back at Thanksgiving, when the raw Philly cold and the wind down Broad Street set in for good.

Straight from the housing office

What Temple University lets you bring

✓ Bring it

Twin XL bedding (confirm your specific hall)
UL/ETL power strip with a built-in circuit breaker — not a bare extension cord
Damage-free wall hangings like Command strips — no nails or screws
Low-draw LED desk and task lamps
A fan, a reusable water bottle, and UL-listed electronics

✕ Leave it home

Open-coil / open-flame cooking: toasters, toaster ovens, air fryers, hot plates, electric grills, sandwich makers
Candles, incense, wax warmers, and anything with an open flame
Halogen lamps
Extension cords without a breaker; outlet splitters and multi-plug adapters
Space heaters and personal A/C units (unless your school provides/approves them)
Hoverboards, e-scooters, e-bikes, and other e-mobility devices
Weapons of any kind — including decorative — and fireworks

These come from Temple University's official housing pages and cover the essentials plus the genuinely local rules. Double-check the current official guidance before you buy — policies and renovations change every year.

Before you can move in

Getting your room at Temple University

01
By May 1
Deposit + apply to lock the housing guarantee
Activate your AccessNet credentials, then open MyHousing in TUPortal (TUApplications → Academic Year Housing) and complete the application. Pay the $250 housing deposit through TUpay — deposit and application in by May 1 guarantees you first-year housing.
02
The earlier the better
Deposit early for better rooms
Room-selection priority runs entirely by how early your deposit lands, so depositing well before the May 1 deadline meaningfully improves your odds at a preferred hall and room type.
03
Mid-May
Get your timeslot, then select your room
New and transfer students receive room-selection timeslots in mid-May; log into MyHousing at your assigned time to choose a hall and room, and use the roommate-matching tools to pair up with someone specific or select solo and get matched.
04
Mid–late August
Move in + welcome week
First-years move in over several days in mid-to-late August by scheduled slot, then roll straight into Temple's welcome-week programming and the first Owls events before classes start.

The actual buildings

Where you'll live at Temple University

First-year residence halls

Temple guarantees first-year housing to anyone who deposits and applies by the May 1 deadline, then hands out a mid-May room-selection window ordered by how early you paid. Most first-years land in the traditional communal-style halls clustered around Liacouras Walk and Broad Street — Johnson & Hardwick, White, and Peabody — while others opt for the suite- and apartment-style high-rises, 1300 and the landmark cherry-and-white Morgan Hall tower. Every one is a short walk from the Bell Tower, the TECH Center, and the Broad Street Line.

Johnson & Hardwick (J&H)The classic first-year pair

Twin 11-story communal-style towers built entirely around the first-year experience — about 465 students each on floors 2 through 11, traditional shared-floor bathrooms, and the J&H dining hall right in the complex. Loud, social, and the quintessential Temple freshman dorm.

Morgan HallThe landmark tower · suites · A/C

Temple's cherry-and-white high-rise on Broad Street and the tallest building on campus — Morgan South houses first-years in air-conditioned suite-style rooms, with a dining hall and market on the ground floor and real skyline views from the upper floors.

1300 Residence HallSuites & apartments · A/C

A big air-conditioned complex on Cecil B. Moore holding around a thousand students — suite-style rooms on the lower floors and apartments with kitchens up top. A step toward independent living while still on campus.

James S. White HallTraditional double

A central first-year hall of traditional double rooms with shared floor bathrooms, steps from the Bell Tower and the Charles Library at the heart of campus — as convenient as first-year housing gets.

Peabody HallHistoric low-rise

A four-story, roughly 287-student hall right next to Johnson & Hardwick — one of the oldest and smallest on campus, traditional corridor-style, tight-knit by design.

The stuff nobody puts in one place

Philadelphia logistics, sorted

How to send mail to a Temple student

[Student Full Name]
[Residence Hall], Room [Room #]
[Hall Street Address]
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Address to the hall’s own street address with the room number — and leave “Temple University” off entirely, since it only slows delivery. Each hall runs its own mailroom with front-desk package pickup; USPS routes through city sorting centers on weekdays, while FedEx and UPS deliver straight to campus, Saturdays included. The exact hall address arrives with your assignment.

Cherry, white, and the Bell Tower

Temple's teams are the Owls, in cherry and white — the first school ever to adopt the owl as a mascot, a nod to founder Russell Conwell's night classes for working students. The Bell Tower at the center of Main Campus is the landmark meeting spot and rally point, and Temple basketball and football pull real Philadelphia crowds. It's a big, diverse, unpretentious school woven into North Philadelphia, not a walled-off quad.

The subway puts the whole city 15 minutes away

SEPTA's Broad Street Line subway stops right at Cecil B. Moore station on the edge of campus and drops you in Center City in about fifteen minutes; Regional Rail's Temple University station connects to the suburbs and the airport line. Temple students genuinely treat the whole city as their campus — the reason 'commuter energy' and 'city kid' are compliments here.

Beyond the campus gates

Philadelphia & around

The campus spine

Liacouras Walk

The pedestrian heart of campus — Saxby's Coffee, Maxi's Bar and its pizza, Philly Pretzel Factory, Rich's cheesesteaks, and the snake-shaped ledges where everyone hangs out between classes.

Just off campus

Cecil B. Moore Avenue

The bordering strip — Cecil B. Moore Plaza to grab lunch in the sun, the Draught Horse for a bite and a game, food trucks along the curb, and the Broad Street Line station that gets you downtown.

15 minutes south

Center City Philadelphia

The Broad Street Line runs straight down to City Hall and the Avenue of the Arts — the Kimmel Center, Reading Terminal Market, Rittenhouse Square, and the Parkway museums, all a short subway ride away.

On campus

The Liacouras Center

Temple's 10,000-seat arena on Broad Street — Owls basketball, big concerts, and campus events, right at the edge of the residence halls.

For move-in, family weekend & graduation

Where to stay near Temple University

On campus

The Conwell Inn

On campus · Pollet Walk

The only hotel actually on Temple's campus and the official university inn — a small historic hotel steps from the residence halls, and the move-in and Family-Weekend default. Book direct at conwellinn.com or 215-235-6200.

Center City

Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square

~2 mi south

A full-service Center City hotel about two miles down Broad Street — bigger and amenity-rich, with a pool and restaurant and a quick subway or rideshare back to campus.

Downtown

Avenue of the Arts hotels

~15-min subway

Broad Street's downtown hotels — the Kimpton, DoubleTree, and more along the Avenue of the Arts — put you in the middle of Center City with a straight Broad Street Line ride back to campus. Deep inventory when campus books up.

On-campus rooms at the Conwell Inn are limited and go first for move-in, Family Weekend, and May commencement — book the moment you have dates. Center City, a 15-minute subway ride south, adds deep inventory. Fly into Philadelphia International (PHL), about 30 minutes away, with a direct SEPTA Airport Line to Temple.

Gear up