Public · Portland, ME

University of Southern Maine

4,115 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 1,789: about 43.5 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 2,326 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.

1,789 college-controlled beds (43.5 per 100 full-time) 2,326 full-time students beyond them
7,604total students, fall 2024
4,115full-time
$6,380typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$13,832aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 7,604 students enrolled in fall 2024, 5,525 were undergraduates and 2,079 graduate students. 25% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 76 from fall 2023 (+1.0%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 1,789 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 29 beds from the year before (1,760 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $6,380 for the academic year, roughly $709 a month spread over nine months. Food added $5,740. For aid purposes the school budgets $12,280 for food and housing on campus and $13,832 for a student living off campus away from family, $1,552 more.

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 7,604 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 Maine campuses on this site, University of Southern Maine ranks number 3 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Maine table.

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 20247,604
Total enrollment, fall 20237,528
Full-time students4,115
Undergraduates (full-time)5,525 (3,425)
Graduate students2,079
Exclusively online25%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-251,789
Capacity, 2023-241,760
Beds per 100 full-time students43.5
Typical housing charge, academic year$6,380
Typical food charge, academic year$5,740
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$12,280
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$13,832
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 161554. Cumberland 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.