Vaibhav Sharma

As the housing process begins for the 2024-25 school year, Yale College students are taking part in an expedited process to get housing assignments sooner, ending over two weeks earlier than the process last year.

The faster process will give students more time to decide whether they want to move off-campus after receiving their housing assignments. The change comes a year after Yale’s housing system underwent major reforms last year, as it became a centralized process run through a housing office, rather than through individual residential colleges.

The housing process has been a source of student ire in recent years, as residential colleges have faced housing shortages stemming from the historically large size of the class of 2025. 

With these shortages, off-campus housing numbers have spiked, leading to displacement and a strain on the New Haven housing market. According to Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis, many students chose to live off-campus during the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend later exacerbated by the size of the class of 2025, but he said that he hopes it will return to pre-COVID-19 levels soon.

“I’m not too upset when a senior moves off campus, but I’m not in favor of juniors living off campus and wish and believe we should do everything in our power to make it possible for every junior to live on campus,” University President Peter Salovey told the News. 

While students are not guaranteed housing after their first four semesters, seniors get priority in picking their rooms. Sophomores and first years are both required to live on campus, so juniors face the greatest uncertainty in the process. 

With the expedited timeline, the deadline for students to declare intent to live on or off campus this year was Feb. 12, while last year’s deadline was Feb. 27. Group formation for all rising sophomores, juniors and seniors opens Feb. 20 and the lottery will occur on March 25. The room selection process is open from March 27 to 28 for rising sophomores, March 27 to April 1 for rising seniors, and from April 1 to April 2 for rising juniors. Last year’s group formation was March 8 to 28 for rising sophomores and seniors and March 8 through April 13 for rising juniors. Room selection took place from April 10 to 12 for sophomores and seniors and April 20 to 21 for juniors. 

Justin Thornton, the associate director of undergraduate housing, wrote to the News about the adjusted room draw timeline, saying that the change occurred “based on feedback from Yale College students and staff from the 2023-2024 cycle.”

Lewis told the News that the timeline was moved in order to provide students who entered the housing lottery with housing information by the end of March. In order to do this, the deadline to apply for first-year counselors was also moved forward from Jan. 31 to Jan. 22. Seniors who become FroCos do not enter the housing lottery for their residential college. 

With the updated timeline, students will have more time to decide if they want to live off campus once they have received their housing assignments. In past years, due to housing shortages, many students have been annexed to on-campus housing outside of their residential colleges. Lewis attributed annexation housing as a reason why students may choose to live off campus. 

Despite the rise in off-campus housing, which Lewis said has been a long-term trend for the last 10 to 15 years, he said that he wants to ensure that students living off-campus stay involved in campus life. 

But he does not expect any students to be kicked off campus this year. 

While the class of 2027 had an unprecedented 72 percent of students accept Yale’s offer of admission, Lewis said that the rising sophomore class size would not have a “big impact” on the housing draw. He added that while there is a possibility of Yale running out of beds, the University is far from reaching that threshold. 

In February of last year, Lewis told the News that no students had ever been kicked off campus due to housing shortages. Thornton wrote that housing is not guaranteed for junior and senior students per undergraduate housing policies but that housing is usually available for students who request it.

“I think any sophomore who wants housing next year will be able to get it if that’s what they go for,” Lewis said. “It’s not a 100 percent guarantee, but I think it’s almost certain that they would be able to find a room.”

The centralized housing process is in its second year of operation after years of each of Yale’s 14 residential colleges handling their own housing draws. With the change, students now choose their future rooms online in an effort to reduce problems that arose with annexation housing.

A new inclusion to the online housing intent form this year was an option for students to indicate whether they want to live on a single-gender floor.

Last year, when Yale College switched its housing system, there was not an option for students to request single-gender floors and bathrooms for religious reasons. After a petition and rallies, Yale allowed students to submit requests for single-gender housing. 

Other than the room draw timeline, no other changes have occurred to the undergraduate process to accommodate the large class size of 2027. 

The Yale Housing Office is located in Helen Hadley Hall at 420 Temple St.