Daughter admitted to UMass-Amherst with Honors College. I have been seeing articles/commentary from the past few years regarding the housing “crisis” - thousands of students are forced off campus because there isn’t enough university housing, and the off-campus housing available is in short supply and very expensive. Is this still a problem? Have these issues been resolved or does it continue to be an issue?
There has been no housing crisis with the Honors College.
Honors College dorms are new buildings (they look like hotels or resorts) in a great central location, close to the Mullins Center, the gym building, and the library.
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To put this in context, I doubt any large public university and few large private universities guarantee on-campus housing all 4 years. UMass guarantees on campus housing freshman and (now) sophomore years. There is still a significant opportunity to live on campus junior and senior years, but it’s not guaranteed. This is not a change, and historically students have wanted to move off campus junior and senior year to save money over dorms and have more independence. However, like seemingly everywhere else in the northeast, demand for housing is outpacing supply, so rents in the Amherst area are much higher than they used to be and there are fewer vacancies. Amherst is not alone with this issue. My daughter was also looking at Temple and New Paltz, and they didn’t guarantee housing past the first year. Compared to Temple, the area surrounding UMass is very safe. Compared to New Paltz, there is actually a lot of student-oriented housing in the area, so the options are there if the student can be flexible in terms of choosing roommates and if they can afford it. Options seem to range between $800/month and $1500/month per student for shared bedroom or own bedroom in off-campus housing. Off-campus rents need to be paid over 12-month leases, so that adds to the cost, as does utilities, etc. we concluded that it would be more expensive off-campus.
My daughter is a rising junior at UMass Amherst and she just secured on-campus housing again for her junior year. She puts in long hours at the art studios, so she really wanted the convenience of staying on campus.
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My understanding is that the “crisis” is that they can’t necessarily guarantee as many years on campus as before. Freshman and sophs are still guaranteed.
I think there is actually more on campus housing student percentage wise than most large public universities.