My child applied to Howard. While we are waiting on admissions, she is trying to learn more about Howard. Are there any updates on the current housing situation? Have some of the dorms been renovated? What are the conditions of the dorms like?
Also, how are upper classmen fairing who have to move off campus after the first two years? Is that more expensive than being on campus?
Paging @ChangeTheGame for help with this.
I can’t add much but when we went on tour a couple months ago there were recently renovated dorms. In fact, the entire campus looked like major renovation was underway.
Parent of a HU22 graduate and HU24 student going into his last semester. The current housing situation is 2 years of guaranteed housing for most students with 2 upperclassmen dorms not physically in DC (Mazza Grandmarc and WISH-Woodley Park are both in Maryland). The main freshman women’s complex (Harriet Tubman Quad) was renovated in 2018-2019 and most of the upperclassmen dorms are pretty nice (My kids have stayed in College Hall North (CHN), College Hall South (CHS), and Towers West over the years). The biggest struggles of on-campus students that I have heard about dealt with hot water during the winter (Howard boilers sometimes struggle during peak usage), issues with critters (luckily hasn’t been an issue for my kids), and fire alarms (not fun to have to leave your room at 2am when it is 25 degrees for a fire alarm). Almost all of the dorms have been renovated over last 10 years or are relatively new and they are always doing more construction/renovations on that campus.
The campus population has grown significantly since my oldest was a freshman in 2018 (From ~6300 undergraduates to 10,196 undergraduates in Fall 2023) and that has put some strain on housing overall despite a growth in overall beds on campus. My kids were part of the lucky few (athletes, full academic scholarships kids and a few international students) who have had 4 years of on-campus housing. There are some very nice apartments with lots of Howard students in Maryland like Vie Towers and some very close to campus (Trellis House Apartments are across the street from Howard Towers West for example) and the costs tend to go up the closer you get to Howard. I don’t know a lot about all of the off-campus options, but I have seen some that can get quite pricey ($2,000+ a month) and some of the lease options cause students to have to sublet during the summer months if they are not staying in DC.
I would suggest that you join one of the social media groups (Facebook) of Howard parents, because they have a wealth of information, knowledge, and experience with all parts of the Howard experience. Good luck to your child during the admissions process.
10,000!!! It was 6,000 back in the '90s when I went. Wow!