Private nonprofit · Boston, MA
Boston University
29,259 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 11,808: about 40.4 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 17,451 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.
Enrollment
Of 37,737 students enrolled in fall 2024, 18,805 were undergraduates and 18,932 graduate students. 14% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 1,113 from fall 2023 (+3.0%).
Housing the college controls
IPEDS counts 11,808 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 41 beds from the year before (11,767 in 2023-24).
What students pay
The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $12,180 for the academic year, roughly $1,353 a month spread over nine months. Food added $6,840. For aid purposes the school budgets $19,020 for food and housing on campus and $19,020 for a student living off campus away from family, the same amount.
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
With 37,737 students, most of them full-time, the campus clears the 10,000-student minimum in Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide for Dedicated Student Housing (Part III, Chapter 1, section 103.01, effective September 28, 2026). Under sections 103.01 and 103.03 a property still has to sit within 2 miles of the campus boundary or near a college-run transit line, have operated a full school year, and lease at least 80% of units for 12 months.
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 28 Massachusetts campuses on this site, Boston University ranks number 2 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Massachusetts table.
Other campuses in Boston
- Berklee College of Music: 6,611 full-time, 1,519 beds
- Emerson College: 4,779 full-time, 2,578 beds
- Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences: 5,113 full-time, 1,313 beds
- Northeastern University: 30,955 full-time, 11,281 beds
- Suffolk University: 5,761 full-time, 1,580 beds
- University of Massachusetts-Boston: 11,522 full-time, 1,102 beds
- Wentworth Institute of Technology: 3,799 full-time, 2,109 beds
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Total enrollment, fall 2024 | 37,737 |
| Total enrollment, fall 2023 | 36,624 |
| Full-time students | 29,259 |
| Undergraduates (full-time) | 18,805 (18,285) |
| Graduate students | 18,932 |
| Exclusively online | 14% |
| College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-25 | 11,808 |
| Capacity, 2023-24 | 11,767 |
| Beds per 100 full-time students | 40.4 |
| Typical housing charge, academic year | $12,180 |
| Typical food charge, academic year | $6,840 |
| Aid budget, food and housing on campus | $19,020 |
| Aid budget, food and housing off campus | $19,020 |
| All first-time, full-time students required to live in college housing | No |
| Combined food and housing charge (if not split) | not reported |
IPEDS unit ID 164988. Suffolk 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.