Questions on how to get a room (thurne) at the ENS, or change it. All you need to know about the organisation and the procedure of the room allocations (thurnages).
In addition to this FAQ, we recommend that you read the appendix on the thurnage of our internal rules.
Updated on 15 May 2024
A Monthly Room Allocation (TP) is a room assignment if some rooms (thurnes) are available and if people ask to get them.
There is generally one at the end of each month. Students who get a thurne at a TP must grab the key at the beginning of the following month.
It really depends on the rooms availability. Generally, few rooms are available on Ulm before the spring. It is possible to get a room at Jourdan or Montrouge as soon as in November, but it really varies with years.
It then depends on how many years you have already been housed* and the number of jokers you play (see article 15 in thurnage rule). The more joker you play and the less you were lodged, the more likely you are to have a good room.
*Is counted as "lodged" anyone who got a room for September/October/November, which means people getting a room at Yearly Room Allocation (Thurnage Général, TG) or a TP in August, September and October. Note that first year never counts as a lodged year.
Monthly Room Allocations happen at time, date and place described in the announcement email and in the "News" section of the DG website.
People in the room choose words, allowing DG to create a key to randomly sort people, following their section (joker - lodged years).
Then, following their rank, participants choose a room from among those available, or decide not to change room. When a room is vacated, either it is immediately taken over by someone who has already been called (because they have a better ranking), or it is added to the list of available rooms.
No, DG can represent you. In this case, you MUST indicate your choices/wishes precisely, through degette or alternatively by email.
At the beginning of the following month.
If you change room at the TP, you have to return the keys of your previous room the same day you get the new ones (otherwise you will pay for 2 rooms as far as you have 2 keys).
It very very easier for everyone to change room on the first day of the month, or the 2nd if the 1st is a Sunday, or the 30th/31st if the 1st is a Saturday. It avoids the Housing Office (Pôle Hébergement) to make 2 pay sheets for the same person the same month.
Changes of keys must be made through the Housing Office. You cannot give your keys directly to your successor.
Do not forget to contact your insurance company after the TP to inform them of the change of room.
By default, degette offers you to play 0 joker when you register. If you have played jokers at the TG, you can indicate the same number of jokers when you register for the TP: they are the same, they are valid for the whole current year, and they will not be additionnally counted.
However, it is possible to add one or more jokers for a TP to those you played at the TG. If you get a room, they will be deducted and will be valid for the rest of the current school year (excluding next TG).
For example, if you have played 1 joker at the TG and you do not want to play any more at the TP, indicate "1". If you can and want to play one more, indicate "2": in this case, only 1 extra joker will be debited to you at the end of the TP (provided of course that you get a room).
Updated on 15 May 2024
Yearly Room Allocation (TG) is the room allocation in June for the next year. Can participate any ENS/International Selection students still in scolarity the following year, including étalement de scolarité but excluding interruption de scolarité.
Some emails will be sent before the TG to give instructions. You should read them.
As there are not enough rooms for everyone, that rooms are not identical, that students do not all want the same ones, the Room Allocation system was put into place to enable a fair room allocation.
The general principle is to sort people by category (order of the categories is described in article 15 of the Turnage appendix), randomly sort them inside each category, and then ask them following their rank which room they want. It is thus necessary to be there at the TG, or to efficiently declare your choices to the DG.
TG process is described in articles 21 to 29 of the same appendix.
To enable students to have a better room in the year when they need it most, there is a system of jokers: each student has a certain number of jokers, to be used during their school years.
The ranking is by decreasing number of jokers and then, among those who played the same number of jokers, by increasing number of years of accommodation.
If you did not get a room at the TG, but you are relatively well ranked, you can be recalled during the month of July. In practice, this is very likely if you are in the top 20 not having obtained a room. Read your emails regularly!
The more jokers you play, the more you move up in the rankings, and the more you increase your chances of getting the room of your dreams; the more you've been housed out of your first year, the less likely you are to be housed again.
Attention, to be housed at the TG, in practice, you must play at least one joker. If you have already been housed one year out of your first year, it is advisable to play at least two of them (unless you are an International Selection (SI) or CROUS scholarship holder, in which case one joker is enough). You can look at the results of the previous TGs to get an idea, bearing in mind that this is not an exact science.
Generally speaking, if you don't have a room at the end of the TG, or if you resign to your room before the end of July, you will have your jokers back.
Updated on 15 May 2024
The Extraordinary General Meeting of May 12, 2025 adopted a reform of the rules governing the allocation of boarding rooms (thurnage). The Room Allocation rules are updated on this site.
It essentially consists of allowing students who register to modulate their stake (number of jokers played for the Roo) Allocation, according to the desired campus. This allows you to pay fewer jokers for a lower-quality room than you initially hoped for, if there are none available.
When you register, for each campus (Carré, Annexe/Erasme/NIR/Rataud, Montrouge A B C, Hypnos 1 and 2, Building L+Annexe studios), you declare whether you are prepared to pay 1, 2 or 3 jokers, or whether you are not interested in this campus. You will therefore potentially have a 1J registration, a 2J registration, AND a 3J registration. A registration corresponds to a list of desired campuses for a given number of jokers (1 registration ≡ 1 list). A single registration including all campuses is exactly equivalent to a TG registration according to the pre-reform rules, and is of course still permitted. At the same time, you can request to register as a pair or trio (details below).
Registrations are closed no more than 10 days before the evening of the Year Room Allocation, and then sorted by number of jokers, then trio>pair>alone, then number of years of housing, and finally by drawing lots, as was already the case. The rankings are then published no more than 4 days before the evening of the Year
Room Allocation. In this case, you will potentially be called several times (e.g. at the 3J call for your 3J listing, then at the 2J call for your 2J listing). When one of your lists is called, you can then choose a room from among the remaining ones, in one of the campuses you've placed in that list. You can also abandon a list at any time, with no effect on your other lists, and wait for a subsequent call for other campuses.
Alice has 3J and wants a room in the carré or in Montrouge.
To avoid any risk of under-occupation of the boarding school, each student (and master's student, including for TG 2025) can also form a 0J registration, including all the campuses he or she wishes, independently of the campuses listed in the 1J, 2J, 3J registrations. Ranking follows the same rules as before, with priority given to students over masters students, then in ascending order of the number of years of housing. (article 11-1 Room Allocation Appendix)
You can share (at least one) jokers with one or two other people in order to live together in a room. To do so, please send an e-mail to dg[at]ens.fr when registration opens. In addition to the individual entries for each member of the duo or trio, a single additional joint list will then be entered before the ranking is published. This list includes all campuses. With an equal number of jokers, trios have priority over pairs, and pairs have priority over individuals. So as not to interfere with the thurnage process, you cannot form an individual entry above the group entry (pair or trio) to which you belong. (articles 13, 14, 15 Room Allocation Appendix)
Students from the International Selection and CROUS scholarship holders are guaranteed housing if they register on a list at least 1J. If they register on a 2D or 3D list, they must certify in writing that they understand that this may entail renouncing their housing guarantee for the remainder of their ENS studies. This form must be signed before the end of registration. (article 17 Room Allocation Appendix)
No. Since the number of jokers is fixed for each campus, there will be no panic on TG evening, prompting students to pay a higher-than-usual number of jokers to “secure” a room. To get a rough estimate of the number of jokers to bet for a campus, we invite you to consult the results of previous years' Room Allocations. We would also like to remind you that as of September 2025, thurn fees will rise from €315/month to €465/month for non-CROUS scolarship holders, as well as a €50 annual cleaning fee.
In order to guarantee full occupancy of ENS boarding facilities at the start of the 2025 school year, the Direction Générale des Services (DGS) and the Student-led Housing Committee (DG) have decided to allow master's students to participate in the Year Room Allocation with zero joker, in violation of article 15 of the Room Allocation Appendix. As master's students are in the “Other status” category for the Year Room Allocation, they are classified after students (in the sense of article 3 of the RI). If you have any suggestions for next year, please send us a postcard or e-mail (dg[at]ens.fr).
The DG does not make predictions, first because we can't and second because we don't want to. We can't because estimating the TG's ranking to the nearest person is impossible in advance (we're great, beautiful and strong, but we don't see the future!) and we don't want to because we don't want to assure someone that they will have a room or that they will have the room of their dreams when we're not sure and we won't be able to be sure before the TG.
On the other hand, you can go and see the TG results of previous years to get an idea : they are available on degette.
Caution : since the 2021 referendum, the étudiants and International Selection (SI) students have 3 jokers : this inflation could have an impact on the TG 21 and on the following TG with regards to the TG before (especially, more jokers may be needed to obtain a room).
Ok, it's not a question, but it's just to make it clear, because a lot of people ask us by email.
Updated on 15 May 2024
Anyone with a clipper account, i.e. the ENS students (normalien·ne·s), the master students of a master operated by the ENS (mastérien·ne·s non-cohabilité·e·s) and the Foreign Residents (Pensionnaires Étranger·e·s), can have access to it and fill in their identity. For all the persons who are housed or who wish to benefit from a service of the DG (locker, parking, etc.), it is good to fill in their identity form. This allows us to contact you in case of problems.
All persons represented by the DG, i.e. students as defined in Article 3 of our IR. These are normalien·ne·s élèves, normalien·ne·s étudiant·e·s and students of the International Selection. This procedure is also required for Foreign Residents (Pensionnaires Étranger·e·s) and master students whose main inscription is at the ENS (mastérien·ne·s non-cohabilité·e·s) who wish to participate in a Monthly Room Allocation (TP). Mastérien·ne·s whose main inscription is not at the ENS and doctoral students are not needed to do so, since they are not integrated into the Room Allocation system, so their situations are not provided for in degette.
This formality is independent from the participation in the Yearly Room Allocation: you have to fill in your situation even if you don't want a room! But it is very important (and will take you 5 minutes at the most) since it allows our interface, degette, to follow your schooling and therefore to assign you the jokers corresponding to your status and your situation, as well as to make you lodgable beyond 3 or 4 years of schooling depending on your breaks. Do not neglect it, it will simplify your life (and ours) if you want to have a room in some time!
Go to https://www.dg.ens.fr/degetteweb/tg/situation and fill in your situation for next year (next year of schooling, étalement de scolarité or interruption de scolarité).
Once you have filled in your situation, you will receive an automatic email from the DG entitled "[degetteweb-tg] Formulaire situation de example" (if your name is randomly Edward XAMPLE) indicating that your situation has been filled in correctly.
You are in étalement (or interruption) de scolarité if, and only if, you have completed an application for étalement (or interruption) de scolarité with the CoST, your department and the Office of Studies (Direction des Études, DEVEC).
If you have not completed this form, regardless of your situation, you cannot be placed on étalement/interruption de scolarité on degette.
As you wish! Degette does not take into account half-étalements. If you do half an étalement at one time and another later, you choose the year in which you declare yourself as an étalement and the year in which you declare yourself in schooling.
With the étalement, you continue to have schooling obligations at the ENS, not with the interruption. Be careful not to confuse étalement de scolarité with année exclusivement DENS (which is a school year on Degette).
Whether you do an étalement or an interruption, you must follow a whole procedure with your department, the CoST (Admissions and Registration Office) and the DEVEC (Office of studies, student affairs and careers).
Concerning housing, you should know that the interruption de scolarité makes you non-housable during the year in which it is carried out (contrary to the étalement).
Declaring yourself to be in étalement while you are in interruption is therefore a serious fraud. We will check on this point and will not hesitate to sanction you, in agreement with the DEVEC.
More details on schooling arrangements here.
Updated on 15 May 2024
Only persons represented by the DG can register for the TG, i.e. normalien·ne·s élèves, normalien·ne·s étudiant·e·s and students of the International Selection (SI). Thus, masters and doctoral students cannot register for the TG.
Registrations generally open in late May or early June and close 10 days before the TG. Please note the closing date and time: after this deadline, you will not be able to register anymore.
To register, nothing could be simpler: just log on to degette and fill out the registration form. You will receive an automatic email from the DG entitled "[degetteweb-tg] Inscription au turnage général de example02" (if you are Edward's sister and your name is randomly Emily XAMPLE) indicating that you are registered.
Yes, you just have to indicate it in your registration and fill in your wishes precisely, so that we do not hesitate when choosing a room for you. Be careful, if you are represented and your wishes are not exhaustive, you may not get a room. For example, if you put "first Ulm, then Jourdan" and we only have rooms left in Montrouge, we will consider that you are withdrawing from the TG. In general, to make your wishes perfectly clear, please always write "otherwise nothing" on the last line.
Every year, a boarding school charter is sent to the interns at the beginning of the school year to specify the rules of the boarding school. This charter is contractual. You undertake to respect it when you register for the TG. It will be distributed to you again at the beginning of the school year.
This charter is available on the intranet (in French only).
As all rooms in Montrouge are equivalent, there is a informal system of "floor lists" to allow a group of friend to gather and ask for a common floor. We send out a spreadsheet by e-mail to enable you to organise yourselves, which arrives a few days before the TG (as the DG does not know earlier which rooms are to be open).
At the TG, the DG ask if "floor lists" are made, and we then try gather everyone on the list at the same place. However this list is only indicative and the TG still happens following the ranking. Students who are not on any list can be invited to choose a room in a level not previously chosen, but they are aboslutely free to choose any available room when it is their turn to pick one.
Generally everything happens fine and most people who formed a list are together at the end.
No, you can totally participate in the TG without being in a floor list.
You can participate in the TG with another student of the ENS by forming a pair. To form a pair, each member of the pair must play at least one joker. The pair is only formed if both can have a room in the TG, i.e. the algorithm looks at the number of rooms and the ranking of the two people and only forms the pair if both are ranked higher than the number of rooms available. For example, if there are 300 rooms available, the two have to be individually in the top 300 of the ranking.
The pairs do not take into account the housing years and mutualize the jokers. They are therefore ranked at the top of the joker categories. For example, a pair 3J.P will be classified before the category 3J.0AL.
Any couple of people can ask to play a TP as a pair. The two members of a pair may unpair at any time, in which case they are obliged to take part in a TP where they will be given priority, and their room is put back into play. If the number of jokers played by one of the members of the pair is considered to be sufficiently high, the Assembly may unanimously decide to grant an exemption and let them keep the room. If one of the members leaves the dormitories, the pair is broken.
The way trios work is the same as pairs. Note that unlike pairs, trios are inseparable for a period of one year.
It depends.
Updated on 15 May 2024
Some PRM (person with reduced mobility) rooms are available on the Ulm campus. Following the medical issues, if no specific need is requested but only a proximity to the place of study, the Housing Office (Pôle Hébergement) and the DG can have you a "normal" room on the designated campus.
You must contact the School's Health Centre (Pôle Santé) (info here), which can attest to the need for accommodation in a PMR room or close to your place of study, on a specific campus. Do not send us your medical certificate! This is none of our business, an email from the Health Centre is more than enough for us.
NB : if you're a first-year coming at ENS, be careful in August of the Health Centre holidays! We cannot accept applications due to health problems without the advice of the Health Centre.
Not without playing two or even three jokers! The DG does not classify students according to the studies they do, and does not favour students who prepare the agrégation compared to those who are in master or do a break with a humanitarian association. If you think that your year of preparation for the agrégation is the most important, it's up to you to keep your jokers (and your number of lodged years!) for that year. (And not to choose a room above the K-Fêt. Yes, you can hear the bass during the parties).
The guarantee of being housed only works if you play at least one joker per year. If you want to play several jokers one year, it is therefore possible that you will not be housed in another year because you will not have any jokers left that year. We will therefore ask you to fill in a form declaring that you are aware of this risk.
Even if you are not a scholarship holder, you can apply for one-off or annual grants. See the following pages: Service public, CROUS.
If your situation is critical, do not hesitate to contact the Office of Studies and Student affairs (Direction des Études et de la Vie Étudiante, DEVEC) by email at vie.etudiante@ens.psl.eu, who will also be able to inform you about the additional aid you may be eligible for and who can offer personalised solutions.
If your friend isn't a student of the ENS or has no more jokers, it's a no.
If your partner still has jokers, you can play together at the TG, if and only if you both have played at least one joker and are well enough ranked (i.e. if you could be housed individually). You will move up in the rankings and potentially get a bigger room.
You can decide at any time to take back your freedom, and your jokers. You will then go back to the TP which will decide if one of you can keep the room. If one of the two people goes on an internship and leaves the dorms, you also will have to go through a TP.
Of course, you can decide to put in common jokers to share a room with any kind of friend, even if you are not a couple. However, you MUST actually live together in the room, i.e. use it as your main residence. Otherwise, you will not only both lose your room but also all your remaining jokers, and you will be classified in the "Fraudster" category of room allocations (i.e. all last).
Updated on 15 May 2024
The detailed list of accomodations that will be open at the TG24 is not yet available; however, there will probably be flats in Montrouge, you can find their prices here.
Rooms cost €315, regardless of the campus (Ulm, Jourdan, Montrouge). The rare double rooms on the Panthéon campus (A612, for example) cost €750 per month.
The exthurnes for which conditions apply, those of the Tombe-Issoire and the Daviel residences, are allocated outside the TG, between the publication of the ranking and the TG, according to the wishes expressed by the eligible persons, and following their ranking for the TG. Even if the allocation is made a few days before the big TG evening, those interested should still register for the TG, putting CROUS at the top of their wish list.
The apartments will be put at the TG normally.
In 2024, the agreement covers 5 rooms on the Tombe-Issoire site and 5 rooms on the Daviel site. They will be reserved for international students, as well as CROUS scholarship holders if there are not enough international applicants.
Updated on 15 May 2024
In 2016, when the normalien·ne·s étudiant·e·s were integrated to the Room Allocation, the problem of housing for the first-year students in Ulm arose. A year of normalien·ne·s is about 350 people and there are about 260 rooms in Ulm for the first-year students. So there is a risk that not all the first-year students can be accommodated in Ulm if too many of them ask for a room.
The system adopted and used since then consists in providing a few floors of Jourdan, called "quantum floors", and to move at least ten first-year students drawn at random as a group to these floors, if the first-year students are too many asking for a room to be all accommodated in Ulm.
This technique avoids the poor supernumerary first-year student from being alone in Jourdan since we move the first-year students in a group.
Updated on 15 May 2024
Oh they're fine! They are brand new, after the annual heron visit last spring!
Yes, we are fine! Except when you get lots of questions from people who haven't read the FAQ, which you spend hours updating...
Oh yes! We'll always be happy to receive your nice cards :-)