Public · Dover, DE

Delaware State University

4,587 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 3,262: about 71.1 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 1,325 live somewhere the college doesn't control. That is the outer edge of the private market, before you take out commuters and students living with family.

3,262 college-controlled beds (71.1 per 100 full-time) 1,325 full-time students beyond them
5,327total students, fall 2024
4,587full-time
$10,100typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$14,290aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 5,327 students enrolled in fall 2024, 4,581 were undergraduates and 746 graduate students. 12% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount fell by 501 from fall 2023 (−8.6%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 3,262 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 32 beds from the year before (3,230 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $10,100 for the academic year, roughly $1,122 a month spread over nine months. Food added $6,564. For aid purposes the school budgets $16,664 for food and housing on campus and $14,290 for a student living off campus away from family, $2,374 less.

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 5,327 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 3 Delaware campuses on this site, Delaware State University ranks number 3 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Delaware table.

Other campuses in Dover

Source: Fall 2024 enrollment, IPEDS DRVEF2024 (provisional release, December 2025); 2024-25 housing capacity and charges, IPEDS COST1_2024 (December 2025); IPEDS HD2025 directory (July 2026). Beds per 100 and the gap are arithmetic on those figures.
MeasureValue
Total enrollment, fall 20245,327
Total enrollment, fall 20235,828
Full-time students4,587
Undergraduates (full-time)4,581 (3,920)
Graduate students746
Exclusively online12%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-253,262
Capacity, 2023-243,230
Beds per 100 full-time students71.1
Typical housing charge, academic year$10,100
Typical food charge, academic year$6,564
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$16,664
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$14,290
All first-time, full-time students required to live in college housingNo
Combined food and housing charge (if not split)not reported

IPEDS unit ID 130934. Kent County. School website. Figures are as the institution reported them to the National Center for Education Statistics. The live-on question asks whether every first-time, full-time student must live in college housing; a school with exemptions or a later-year requirement can answer no. How this data is built.