<p>I have known several upperclassmen who lived in the dorms, but PSU prioritizes underclassmen - the idea is that if someone is going to be forced to look for an apartment, it is probably best if it is someone who at least knows the area a little. I think the number of turned-away upperclassmen can vary dramatically from year to year, so this may just be a bad year.</p>
<p>FWIW, supplemental housing is indeed the “jam a bunch of students into a dorm lunge” scenario, but it is often temporary. My last year in the dorms started in supplemental, but I was into a regular double within a couple of weeks and I think almost all of them were out well before the end of the fall semester. The try to tie the number of people taken into supplemental housing to the expected number of students to (for one reason or another) quit PSU and leave the dorms during the academic year, so the fact that your son was offered supplemental means they expect to have a room for him… they just don’t know how soon.</p>