Hi all, we heard while visiting MU that there had been a housing shortage on & off campus. The shortage on campus was actually causing the university to house some Sophomores in off campus housing. Is this still the case? Our tour guide also told us that at the end of her freshman year she had already organized her off campus junior year housing before even starting her sophomore year because of the competition in getting into a house. Is this the norm at Miami? Thanks.
@melbkangaroo - Freshmen and Sophomores should be OK. My son will be a sophomore next year. Here’s an excerpt from an email we received yesterday:
We anticipate full occupancy this fall, which means that during room selection we expect to have periods of time when there are no open rooms to choose from. This is completely normal. During the spring and summer months, we learn of a large number of students who will not be returning to University housing, which enables us to open rooms that were previously shown as unavailable. Depending upon the lottery timeframe received, a small number of students may not see any available rooms when they enter the process. If this happens to your student, we ask that your student proceed with signing a housing contract. Instead of choosing a room, your student would be assigned to Assignment Pending Status. Students placed in the Assignment Pending Status, will be able to enter roommate requests, as well as housing preferences immediately online. As spaces become available, we will use those preferences to make room assignments.
Each year we are able to assign every returning Second Year student by mid-summer.
Thank-you @Beaudreau. Do you know if Miami is planning to build anymore residence halls, or if this shortage is in part due to halls being closed for renovation? Our D has been accepted into the FSB. She is very keen to attend a residential campus so if housing is an issue it may sway her decision since several of her other acceptances are from campus’ that are very residential.
@melbakangaroo - I don’t know about housing plans. I do know that they have been closing dorms for renovation, sot that’s certainly explains some of the issues. Here’s one article about recent renovations at North Quad and also adding 110 new rooms. http://miamioh.edu/news/campus-news/2015/03/trees-hane.html My son says the renovated dorms are really nice. And growing pains are a good symptom. The size and quality of the admitted students continues to grow. http://miamioh.edu/news/top-stories/2016/02/application-record.html These stats may Miami ahead of Ohio State for number one in the State.
Thank-you @Beaudreau! Has your son settled well into life at Miami? Anything that he didn’t anticipate that has caused him concerns? Our D is an international student, although we currently live in the US. She has lived in several countries but has spent 6 years in the USA over two separate expat assignments so she won’t have the normal culture shock that other international students fresh off the boat may have to deal with 
Having her in a different state to us in the USA seems like a much better deal at the moment than having her at university on the other side of the world 
@Melbakangaroo - So far he seems to love Miami. We live in Arizona, so we were concerned about how he would adjust to cold weather - so far, so good. He’s majoring in engineering but his favorite class this semester is in Anthropology. He really likes the professor, who’s extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable.
@Melbakangaroo - My freshman son and his roommate went to an off-campus housing fair today. They signed up for off-campus housing for junior year - that’s 2017-18!
OK, at least it sounds like there’s some organization to off campus housing allocation if there is an actual housing fair for sign ups Thanks for the update @Beaudreau
There is plenty off campus housing but there are definitely “premier” housing - houses and apartments that are close to campus and “uptown”. It really stinks that freshman have to sign leases for junior year.
Thanks @ahsmuoh!
@ahsmuoh What do you mean freshmen have to sign leases for junior year?
If you want to have a house or apartment close to the uptown area, they start signing leases in the spring of their freshman year for their junior year!!! It becomes a bit troubling because some kids change friends. Now if you are ok with being outside of the core area, you can wait until sophomore year. Sometimes they know where they are going to love their junior year before they know where they will be sophomore year.
*live
My S is a freshman 2016 from these posts we’ll keep the off campus “hunt” in mind when we visit. Thanks!
Untrue. There is no need to sign a lease freshman year unless they want to be in a specific house.
Thanks @Walker1194
My son graduated in 2015 and he lived on campus for 3 years, we never had a problem getting housing. I got him an efficiency his senior year, literally 2 blocks from campus. I didnt have to look too early, pretty much the spring of his junior year we found the apt. It really was as a large as a 1 bedroom apt, it was the largest efficiency Ive ever seen. It was very reasonable too at 445/mo.