Housing Guarantee and Eligibility for Undergraduate Housing
Eligibility for Undergraduate Housing
Stanford Student Housing offers undergraduate housing to undergraduate students who are enrolled in a degree program (matriculated students). Students must be considered enrolled by the Registrar's Office to be eligible for housing. Students with housing assignments who determine that they will not be enrolled or will not be eligible for housing must file a housing termination and move out of university housing.
Guaranteed Housing Plan for Undergraduate Students
How many academic quarters of housing am I guaranteed?
Stanford students who matriculate as frosh are guaranteed twelve complete or partial quarters of academic year housing, including their freshman year. The twelve complete or partial quarters are commonly referred to as “guarantee quarters.” Transfer students receive nine guarantee quarters (nine complete or partial quarters of academic year housing).
Students use a guarantee quarter when living in housing for an entire academic quarter (autumn, winter, or spring quarters) or if they live in housing for any part of an academic quarter. This means that a student who lives in housing for only part of a (autumn, winter or spring) quarter has used one guarantee quarter.
Guarantee quarters are used when living in any on campus undergraduate residence, graduate residence, or off-campus subsidized residence. This includes Greek houses, even when living as a boarder. The following students use guarantee quarters in the same fashion as all other students: residence staff, house officers, students with disability accommodations, “pulled in" roommates of staff or students with disability assignments, and pre-assigned students.
If I have a guarantee quarter remaining, am I guaranteed housing for any quarter I choose?
Even though a student has one or more guarantee quarters remaining, that student is not necessarily guaranteed housing for any particular quarter unless the student does the following:
- Has at least one guarantee quarter remaining.
- Applies for housing by the first application deadline for the quarter for which they are applying.
- If not assigned in the first round of assignments, participates in all subsequent assignment rounds by the specified deadlines.
Students who meet the above conditions are always housed by the end of the first week of the quarter in which they have applied for housing. If there is not enough space in undergraduate residences to accommodate all guaranteed students, some undergraduate students may be assigned temporarily to guest rooms or to vacancies in graduate residences.
How many guarantee quarters do I need in order to be student staff or to pre-assign?
To be eligible to be hired as a residential student leader or to pre-assign to a theme house, students need at least three guarantee quarters. Residential Education oversees staff selection as well as the pre-assignment program. Please check the Residential Education web site for additional requirements.
I am a co-term student. Am I guaranteed housing if I still have guarantee quarters remaining?
Co-term students who are currently seniors or beyond (i.e. students who matriculated in 2022 or earlier) may apply for either graduate or undergraduate housing if they have guarantee quarters remaining. They may not apply for both processes. In making the decision as to which category of housing to pursue, students should review the prices and if on financial aid, make sure they understand which residences would be covered by financial aid. All undergraduate residences except Mirrielees require a meal plan.
Co-term students who will have conferred their undergraduate degrees before autumn or who have used all of their guarantee quarters are only eligible to apply for graduate housing.
Co-term students who are currently juniors or sophomores and will have guarantee quarters remaining are only eligible for undergraduate housing.
Non-traditional Path Undergraduate Students
Each year, Stanford welcomes students who have taken an extended gap from the time they completed high school to their arrival as frosh or who are returning to Stanford after a number of years away. Like all other undergraduates, these students are eligible for 12 quarters of guaranteed housing upon matriculation (9 if entering as transfer students). The type of housing undergraduate students can apply for is dependent upon how far removed they are from their high school education.
Undergraduate student housing is designed to provide a supportive residential environment for students who are relatively new to independent living. To that end, undergraduate housing includes a robust number of live-in student and professional staff members who are specifically trained to assist students with the needs and experiences of recent high school graduates.
Therefore, in any given year, new and returning students are eligible to apply for undergraduate housing only if they attended high school within the previous seven years. Students who are more than seven years removed from their high school attendance can apply for graduate housing. For the purposes of this policy, "high school" refers to a traditional secondary school serving students in grade levels 9-12 or equivalent and does not include a GED or other equivalency credential.
All undergraduate students, regardless of when they attended high school, are eligible to apply for Graduate Couples housing if they are married or in a domestic partnership or Students with Children housing if they care for minor, dependent children.