University of California-Merced

Enrollment

Of 9,110 students enrolled in fall 2024, 8,372 were undergraduates and 738 graduate students. 0% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount fell by 37 from fall 2023 (−0.4%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 4,400 beds of institutionally controlled housing for 2024-25. That figure is the school's own capacity, on or off campus, so it includes halls the college leases or manages but not private buildings that simply market to students. Capacity grew by 59 beds from the year before (4,341 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The school can't split food from housing, so it reports one combined 2024-25 charge: $21,445 for the academic year. Its aid office budgets $12,999 for food and housing for a student living off campus away from family.

Those are the college's own figures. Private by-the-bed rents near campus can sit well above or below them, so check current asking rents before you underwrite a project.

How lenders read a campus like this

At 9,110 students the campus is below the 10,000-student minimum in Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide for Dedicated Student Housing (Part III, Chapter 1, section 103.01). Freddie Mac has no stated enrollment floor, but its own product summary says most of its student housing loans are at schools with 15,000 or more students. Banks, debt funds and conventional multifamily programs are the likelier lenders here.

To size a specific property, use the student housing loan sizer. It works by the bed and shows which constraint sets the loan.

Among the 71 California campuses on this site, University of California-Merced ranks number 42 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the California table.