EAST LANSING, Mich. — It's only November and Michigan State University has announced that its residence halls are already full for the next school year, which means upperclassmen will have to live off campus.
"I feel like it would be like beneficial if we were able to also stay on campus because as current sophomores, this is like our freshman year staying on campus," said Angel Johnson, a sophomore.
Johnson is studying arts and humanities, and, instead of worrying about school, she's worrying about where she's going to live.
"It's most definitely stressful. And I've already started an apartment search for myself and my roommate for the next year. And just looking on the websites, like apartments have very limited availability," she said.
Sophomores have to look elsewhere because MSU is reinstating the requirement that undergraduates live on campus for their first two years, which is part of the university's strategic plan.
"Research showed that students who live on campus for their sophomore year are more likely to graduate. And that's something that's really important to us as we look to improve our six-year graduation rates significantly," said Kat Cooper, the chief communications officer for Student Life and Engagement.
The university's housing system has to hold space for the large freshman class that moved in this August and next year's incoming freshmen.
"Michigan State has over 35,000 undergraduate students and our on campus system holds at a maximum of a little over 18,000 students," Cooper said.
Freshman will select their rooms for their sophomore years in March, while incoming freshman will be selecting their spaces in early spring.
"We may have some rooms that are available after that, that we can offer back to our upperclassmen on campus, it'll probably be most likely apartment spaces, and sometime in the spring, we'll start a wait list for that," she said.
MSU plans to put together a list of resources to help students find housing off campus.
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