Private nonprofit · Lakeland, FL

Southeastern University

5,061 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 1,818: about 35.9 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 3,243 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.

1,818 college-controlled beds (35.9 per 100 full-time) 3,243 full-time students beyond them
11,510total students, fall 2024
5,061full-time
$5,600typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$8,920aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 11,510 students enrolled in fall 2024, 10,172 were undergraduates and 1,338 graduate students. 37% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 1,110 from fall 2023 (+10.7%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 1,818 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 12 beds from the year before (1,806 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $5,600 for the academic year, roughly $622 a month spread over nine months. Food added $5,530. For aid purposes the school budgets $11,130 for food and housing on campus and $8,920 for a student living off campus away from family, $2,210 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

Most students here aren't full-time, so the campus misses the "majority full-time" test that comes with 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 42 Florida campuses on this site, Southeastern University ranks number 35 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Florida table.

Other campuses in Lakeland

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 202411,510
Total enrollment, fall 202310,400
Full-time students5,061
Undergraduates (full-time)10,172 (4,481)
Graduate students1,338
Exclusively online37%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-251,818
Capacity, 2023-241,806
Beds per 100 full-time students35.9
Typical housing charge, academic year$5,600
Typical food charge, academic year$5,530
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$11,130
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$8,920
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 137564. Polk 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.