<p>Is it freshman only? Or freshman guartenteed only?
So do upperclassmen get housing by lottery/chance? </p>
<p>How does it work?</p>
<p>Freshmen are required to live on campus - therefore it is guaranteed for them. UPark has about 14,500 on campus rooms for students, and about a ~7,500 person freshman class each year, so roughly half of the on campus housing goes to freshmen. After freshman year, you put your name in for a lottery thats random. You’ll get offered a contract in mid January if you were selected in the lottery. </p>
<p>Because of this, living off campus is what the majority of people do. Most of the apartment complexes in downtown state college start accepting contracts for leases in mid October. Most of these are binding agreements that if you’re selected for a apartment contract you’re legally obligated to pay rent, so you cant really wait until you see if you got an on campus dorm or not and decide between the two. Its rather risky to wait for the on campus lottery, because if you wait and you don’t get a contract, most downtown apartments are full by that point, and you’ll need to either look for apartments farther away (that you’d need the CATA bus system to transport you to and from campus) or someone who needs a roommate in a downtown apartment for whatever reason. </p>
<p>@Etuck24</p>
<p>I see! Thanks so much!</p>
<p>----Because of this, living off campus is what the majority of people do. Most of the apartment complexes in downtown state college start accepting contracts for leases in mid October. Most of these are binding agreements that if you’re selected for a apartment contract you’re legally obligated to pay rent, so you cant really wait until you see if you got an on campus dorm or not and decide between the two. ------</p>
<p>@Etuck24 - can you clarify this point. I think I’m just confusing myself.</p>
<p>Do freshmen apply in Oct. of their freshman yr. for off campus housing for following year (their soph) ? Or am I reading this incorrectly?</p>
<p>You are reading this correctly …Right now, for example, it is very difficult (but not impossible) to find an apartment for the fall. Incoming freshmen will get room assignments in late July/early August. Upperclassmen on campus know if they have a contract, but won’t choose their room for a few more weeks yet. </p>
<p>Yes it is a very quick turnaround from arriving on campus to dealing with housing for the next year - it can feel a bit overwhelming too so start looking early!</p>
<p>Thank you both.</p>
<p>This is crazy! Do a good portion of sophomores stay on campus?</p>
<p>That’s so different from when I went there. Mostly, sophmores stayed on campus. Which worked much better, because by fall of your sophmore year, you have time to plan who you want to live with off campus, and you’ve gotten to know the campus and town and have an idea of where you want to live.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine being at college for one month and having to plan where and with who you want to live with the following year. </p>
<p>^^^^exactly what I was thinking! I can’t imagine having to add this stress upon a new student on campus.</p>
<p>The “who” part is not terribly important – that’s simple to change on and off campus. The “where” is admittedly weird, but it’s not <em>quite</em> as dire as stated. Plenty of students do, in fact, wait to see if they have gotten a housing contract. If you are paying attention to the many emails from the University, and show initiative and are proactive, it works out. Your chances of housing decline as you go; it is divided by percentage that matches who has asked. So, if 10% of seniors ask for a housing contract, 10% of the allotment of non-freshmen contracts are awarded to seniors. Obviously, this means things change year to year. Or so we were told at a housing presntation…</p>
<p>Id disagree with that…the date for on campus dorms (not the on campus apartments) is in January…well after most of the downtown complexes fill up (mine for next year was one of the late ones in November). And the people from housing told us at the housing fair the lottery is completely random - if you have a roommate picked you statistically have a better chance because if one of you is selected the other automatically is as well. </p>
<p>That is largely true for downtown…but the new complexes on the CATA line will still have space well into February. In 23 years of life here, I’ve heard of people who’ve had to scramble, people who’ve had to adjust their expectarions, but rarely heard of people who couldn’t find a place to live. And in August, craigslist will be full of listings for apartments where someone isn’t coming back, or has moved, or swapped…</p>
<p>The lottery is random, within those guidelines. And if you live in North Halls, it isn’t random at all.</p>
<p>^^^^Good to know!</p>