S24 has 13 schools on his list and at least half seem to have major housing issues, some even freshman year. It is really frustrating to think that after finally coming up with a list that he is excited about and makes sense, there is potential for him to end up making decisions based on housing when all is said and done. I feel like if schools have a housing shortage, don’t accept so many kids. Any other parents concerned about this? I remember a story back in September about ASU and students living in hotels. Crazy.
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This has been a problem since the pandemic. Lots of colleges had to move students into hotels for the next incoming classes due to overcrowding. Colleges had a hard time predicting yield and over enrolled. Things are a bit better now, but I think it’s going to be another year or two before normality is restored.
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There are the issues with over-enrollment due to covid etc. In addition, some colleges have been increasing their enrollment without building enough new housing. Even when there are new dorms planned, they take much longer. All of this has added up.
I saw something about a major problem at Purdue. I think it’s a combination of enrolling too many students/not building dorms fast enough and rent going up in the area around some schools causing upper classmen to want to stay on campus longer.
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Purdue definitely over enrolled two cycles ago and slightly last year, but they have built new dorms, bought a beautiful on campus apartment complex and have changed up their housing priority model to focus on freshmen. I don’t expect them to have an issue with this year’s incoming class but we’ll see!
There is ample off campus housing at a variety of price points for upperclassmen. We’ve saved a ton on R&B since our D moved off campus.
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Which schools are on your sons list that you have heard have shortages?
Tennessee Knoxville, ASU, Auburn (they have no freshman requirement and not enough for all freshman to live on campus)- these are the three that easily come to mind, but feel like I heard some others mentioned as well.
Many many large universities do not have enough on campus housing for all students. My son is at a university in Texas and they’ve told everyone this year that there is only room for freshmen on campus next year. Everyone else needs to find apartments. Parents on the university Facebook page who have students at the other big Texas U’s say the housing situation is far worse at A&M and UT.
Honestly, how big of a problem this will turn out to be probably depends on the university. My son moved off campus after freshman year. For two years we kept our room and board cost the same or less than it had been on campus in the dorm. This last year it is more because my son has a one bedroom apartment to himself. It’s a little more trouble to figure out the “lay of the land”, so to speak, and find an apartment, but not nearly as bad as we worried it would be when he was a freshman, in our experience. At a university in a high cost of living area, a lack of on campus housing might be more of a concern.
Exactly, a couple of my friends are about to face this situation, so I’m sort of familiar with this, I just didn’t know how bad it was until I saw it happens with so many universities.
It’s the same NIMBY that takes place anytime someone wants to build multi-unit housing anywhere in the country. Except that if it’s a college-owned dorm, the neighbors come out in force to object to loud music, drinking in the street, and all the other “horrors” that go with living in a college town or adjacent to a college in a city. Private developers have had better luck building high end apartment/suite style dorms… there is less to object to, but that prices many students out of those buildings.
We all want our kids living in decent places which are affordable… except we don’t want OTHER people’s kids living near us!
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My daughter is at UT Knoxville, and they have had some issues with housing shortages the last couple of years as they over enrolled the freshman classes. From what I understand, they took a lower number of students this year. Freshman are guaranteed housing however, unlike some of the other large schools that I’ve heard are also having issues. But housing is not guaranteed after freshman year, it is a lottery system to stay on campus. They are building new apartments walking distance to campus that I assume will be done by the time your student graduates high school. Like most college housing, the closer you are to campus, the higher the prices will be. Many students live across the river or a little farther out from campus and pay a lot less money, many of those complexes have shuttles to campus as well. My daughter moved off campus for her sophomore year and will be renting a house for her last two years. She loves UTK and and is thriving there.
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You gave me a lot to think about, I can’t believe I didn’t see things this way before. I agree with every word you wrote, that’s the harsh truth.
I grew up in a college town. Name it- parking, police/security issues, firefighters (every time there is a false alarm, the municipal firefighting teams show up with a truck, fully staffed, only to discover it was a frat prank), noise, and utter chaos on “game days” (regardless of what sport it was… the alums come back to party, park in your driveway, throw trash on your rosebushes).
Who wants MORE of that?
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