Oregon State University’s Corvallis campus expects to welcome a record number of students this fall, causing cramped on-campus housing.

“We are definitely expecting a record number of new incoming students this fall, and that is really growing on a trend that started last year,” said Noah Buckley, the director of undergraduate admissions. 

While the university does not expect to have solid numbers for those enrolled until roughly four weeks into the fall term, admitted numbers this year show an increase in students on campus nonetheless. 

“We know based on students who confirmed by putting down a deposit, those who signed up for START, for orientation and signed up for housing — for freshman at least — that all signs are looking real good and we are positive about that,” Buckley said. 

As OSU has a first-year live on policy, this influx undoubtedly impacts the way campus residence hall accommodations are offered. 

According to Emily Padrow, a third year OSU student and resident assistant in McNary Hall, the number of triple room accommodations — rather than a more standard double room — has grown. 

“For McNary Hall, 67% of our rooms are triples, so over half of our population will be in triples,” Padrow said. “We are expecting more conflicts in room requests, which will obviously be hard to accommodate because everywhere is full basically.”

According to Buckley, in past years, the university would continue to accept students’ deposits and therefore commitment to come to campus beyond the May 1 deadline. This year however, the deadline was strict. 

“This was the first year that we actually, on May 2, decided that we need to stop taking applications, stop taking deposits, because we are going to be full,” Buckley said. “We actually stopped much earlier than we would normally do. Normally, we would allow applications well into the summer for freshmen, but this year we just didn’t have that opportunity.”

According to Padrow, the resident assistants, who live in halls to act as a resource for residents, have received mock situation and conversation training to prepare for this expected 10 to 20 student increase per resident assistant. 

“My biggest goal is to definitely create a big, welcoming community within my floors,” Padrow said.

Padrow thinks that this increase in residents may make it easier for students to build their own communities amongst themselves. 

According to Buckley, there are a few reasons for this larger number of applicants and admits to the university. One being a continued momentum from the 2021-22 school year where students came to campus following COVID-19 closures. The other reason was changes to scholarship offerings. 

“A lot of (our) growth on the Corvallis campus are non-residents, some of that has to do with our offering of the Western Undergraduate Exchange Scholarship,” Buckley said.  “That has allowed students who otherwise may not have considered going out of their own state to be able to afford to come here.”

OSU is also following a national trend where large, well known public universities have seen an increase in number of applicants.

University admissions has planned to accommodate this trend — if it continues in the coming years — by adding a waitlist portion to the admission process which would allow the university to not make promises to students without ensuring they can accommodate.