The New Student Room Selection program’s user rate shot up by 31 percentage points in the program’s second year, according to Residence Education and Housing Services, or REHS, statistics. The program allows incoming students to select their own on-campus housing online.
Participation among incoming students rose from 43 percent last year to 74 percent this year, REHS interim senior associate director Karen Corley said via email.
“We thought having the 31 (percentage point) increase in students that participate was excellent,” Corley said. “That means we’re giving our students the opportunity to pick which neighborhood they’d like to live in, and that will go along with helping them to be successful academically.”
Extending the housing decision deadline for incoming students from March 31 to May 1 increased participation, she said. May 1 is the national deadline for prospective students to select their college.
Working in tandem with the Office for International Students and Scholars helped more than double the proportion of incoming international students participating in the program, she said. The proportion of incoming international students selecting their own first-year housing rose from 22 percent last year to more than 50 percent this year.
Outreach efforts were undertaken across a variety of social media outlets, including WeChat, a digital messaging service popular with international students, OISS Director James Dorsett said.
“We just helped reinforce REHS’ message that this was an option for them and something that they can take advantage of,” he said.
The most commonly selected neighborhoods among program participants were South Neighborhood with 2,451 selections and East Neighborhood with 2,081, Corley said.
These numbers are likely because these neighborhoods have the most leftover space after returning students and living-learning communities, such as James Madison College and the Lyman Briggs College, have had their pick of on-campus living space, she said.
A wide range of factors influence the residence halls incoming students select.
Water quality was a big factor in choosing Brody Neighborhood’s Emmons Hall, media and information freshman Louis Coombs said.
“I heard that, even though (Brody Neighborhood) is far from everything, it has the best living conditions on campus,” he said.
Amenities didn’t play a factor in choosing to live in Wilson Hall, chemical engineering freshman Talha Muhammadimamuddin said.
“All the engineers are living there, and I’m an engineer,” Muhammadimamuddin said.
Wilson Hall is home to the College of Engineering’s CoRe Experience program, which helps freshmen engineering students engage with and acclimate to their rigorous field of study.
