As the dust settled from the first round of housing selection, some students found themselves in an unexpected situation: they didn’t yet have housing for next year.

“By the time I had gotten on the portal, all of the rooms were completely full,” said Twisha Hegde ’29. Hegde described it as “really unexpected” to find out that no rooms were available.

“Everyone I had talked to for advice, they had no idea about this…everyone was completely shocked,” she said. “I hadn’t even heard of the word ‘unhoused’…[housing] was supposed to be guaranteed.”  

Hegde’s experience reflects that unassigned students, who voiced varying levels of confusion and frustration about their housing assignment experience and a perceived lack of clarity surrounding it. Students without housing will need to apply for a second round of assignment processes, which will occur between July 13 and July 17. 

Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) communications officer Jocelyn Breeland said that R&DE expects to receive “a significant number of housing cancellations” over the summer, which currently-unassigned students will be placed into. She said that the university had enough housing units to accommodate all students with remaining housing guarantees. 

“We want to reassure [students] that, as in previous years, all students with housing guarantee quarters will receive a housing assignment prior to the start of autumn quarter,” she wrote in an email to The Daily. Breeland said that the larger class sizes of the Class of 2028 and Class of 2029 were balanced out by a decrease in housing applications from fifth-year students. 

According to the University’s 2025-2026 Common Data Set, 7,346 undergraduates and 10,775 graduates are currently enrolled at Stanford, for a total student population of 18,121. The University provides 14,500 on campus housing units for students. Under current University policies, undergraduates are guaranteed 12 quarters of housing. Graduate students, with the exception of coterms, are guaranteed housing only during their first year. 

When asked about the current number of unassigned students, Breeland said that the University “[does] not have a specific number to share.” Twisha said she estimated “around 12 or 15 students” were unhoused in her dorm alone. 

Yanna Hauck ’29 said that when she went to check out available rooms before her housing selection time, “there was nothing left.”

“[R&DE] didn’t give us any specific guidance or any of that kind of stuff,” said Hauck, who had a 1:45 p.m. gate time (the last sophomore gate time was 2:00 p.m). ”I’m assuming I’m going to have to fill out one more thing probably before [second round of] housing, but it wasn’t super clear what the instructions were for us.” 

Hauck hopes to stick with her planned roommate, but acknowledges that the prevalence of single-person vacancies might make it difficult. She also hopes to benefit from changes in summer housing. In an email sent to all regular housing applicants, R&DE wrote that “some students assigned later in the summer end up in highly desirable housing locations that become available due to cancellations.” 

“If I were in charge, I think it would be important to communicate more clearly and directly with students who were left unhoused,” said Crystal Liu ’29, a fellow student in Hegde’s housing group also left without housing. Liu believes sophomores should receive housing priority, citing it as a “very stressful” experience and important for community-building. 

In previous years, sophomores received first pick for housing out of a pool of “sophomore priority spaces.” In the 2026-27 academic year, the University moved sophomores to last in housing priority in order to prioritize juniors and seniors who have spent more time at Stanford. 

Students said that they wished R&DE had been clearer in the communications process, noting that information was packed into dense emails or hard to find at all. 

“I had to go to the housing office in person a couple times and ask clarification questions, which is a little bit frustrating for me, but also I’m sure for the people working there because I’m sure there are a lot of people,” Hedge said. She echoed Liu’s opinion that sophomores should receive priority housing, describing the process as “something where there’s a really substantial need for reform.” 

Hegde said, “The only communication we really got was that we would be housed eventually.”