Stanford students are guaranteed to have the option to live on campus, and most choose to do so, particularly among undergrads. A small minority instead favor off campus apartments or renting houses (in groups). Freshman are required to live on campus. After Freshman year, housing selection is done by “the draw,” which is a lottery type system. The housing that requires the best draw numbers are often Row houses, which are on campus, but in many cases look and function more like off campus housing than a traditional dorm. Many are self-ops (students hire cook or other services) or co-ops (students cook and clean themselves). Many have unique themes (cultural, vegetarian, etc.). Also note that a good portion of students take more than 4 years. Nearly half of engineering school students choose to do a co-terminal masters, which on average takes 5 years to complete.