Guaranteed housing all 4 years

[Anonymous]

Almost all SLACs we looked at had 4-year housing with the exception of Macalester, which has slightly more limited space due to being in an established St. Paul neighborhood. Most students there live off-campus as juniors & seniors.

[Anonymous]

George Washington University guarantees housing for the first 3 years. They do have nice dorms/dining halls, with a higher than usual proportion of single rooms and kitchen apartments. DC is an expensive city to rent in, although no one needs a car, which is probably why they invested in campus life that way.

Please bear in mind that a lot of campuses are actually not that comfortable, and the food isn't great, so students aren't clamoring to stay on campus all 4 years! We visited a lot of colleges that looked like dumps.

[Anonymous]

Every SLAC and most - if not all - schools with 6k or fewer undergrads offer housing for 4 years. On-campus housing is frequently overlooked by students, but it makes a HUGE difference in quality of life and campus community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every SLAC and most - if not all - schools with 6k or fewer undergrads offer housing for 4 years. On-campus housing is frequently overlooked by students, but it makes a HUGE difference in quality of life and campus community.

Dartmouth doesn’t have guaranteed housing for juniors and seniors, which surprised me as an alum. I know they overenrolled a couple years ago and were offering $5k to students to live off campus. Fall has always been overcrowded there with the D Plan and juniors were strongly encouraged in my day to be gone that term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived off-campus except for sophomore year. Let the kid grow up. Teach them how to sign a lease.

So this was your experience but not everyone wants it. I went to a college with guaranteed 4 year housing, almost everyone lived on campus and that community was a large part of the experience. Many want this and value it.

I grew up just fine and signed a lease the year after I graduated. Kids don't have to do this during college to grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC is looking at colleges in the T40 range and some SLACS. If you have a kid who attends/attended or are informed about housing and whether or not 4 years of on campus housing is guaranteed please share. For example, I can’t find information regarding this for WUSTL on their website. They mentioned freshman and sophomores living on south 40 but nothing about how many years of guaranteed on campus housing. I’ve heard that because of increased undergraduate class sizes, upperclassmen are having to move off campus earlier and not able to get on campus housing. This is a consideration for my DC who will not have access to a car while at college.

Yale does

[Anonymous]

I’m annoyed that my DD’s school does not have housing after Sophomore year. We just signed a lease for her next year, Junior year, and she and all three roommates plan to go abroad. Because so many other kids also go abroad spring semester of their Junior year, it’s next to impossible to find subletters. So, she will only be living in that apartment for 4 months while we will be paying rent for 12 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived off-campus except for sophomore year. Let the kid grow up. Teach them how to sign a lease.

So this was your experience but not everyone wants it. I went to a college with guaranteed 4 year housing, almost everyone lived on campus and that community was a large part of the experience. Many want this and value it.

I grew up just fine and signed a lease the year after I graduated. Kids don't have to do this during college to grow up.

Agree with this. DD went to a SLAC with housing for all 4 years. The type of housing got better each year, apartment or townhomes the last year. She very much wanted that kind of campus experience where she didn’t have to drive or bus back and forth to class. She also had no trouble learning how to sign a lease and live in the adult world after graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rice does not guarantee for 4 years. Maybe 3

In 2022 Rice announced that housing was only guaranteed for first-year students.

[Anonymous]

Duke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt guarantees housing for all four years, I think.

Also to consider, many campus buses do the rounds at the off-campus apartment complexes, so not having a car might be fine.

Students are required to live on campus all 4 years at Vanderbilt. They can request a waiver to live off campus senior year.

[Anonymous]

Duke requires freshmen-juniors to stay on campus. Housing is guaranteed for all four years. Freshmen have their own East campus with library, dining hall, auditorium, music building,gym and athletic fields! All upperclassmen campus housing is now a Quadx residential college system like Yale and Rice. Each house also has a resident faculty for freshmen! Lots of RAs living on each floor of every dorm to help freshmen adjust. Duke is very intentional about building a strong sense of community through its housing requirements. As a parent I love not having to worry about housing all four years!

[Anonymous]

Swarthmore guarantees 4 years of housing, UMD honors students are guaranteed 4 years of housing.

[Anonymous]

Harvard guarantees four years

[Anonymous]

Anyone know about MIT or UPenn?