Private nonprofit · Worcester, MA

Clark University

3,559 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 1,692: about 47.5 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 1,867 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.

1,692 college-controlled beds (47.5 per 100 full-time) 1,867 full-time students beyond them
3,925total students, fall 2024
3,559full-time
$7,450typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$12,500aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 3,925 students enrolled in fall 2024, 2,266 were undergraduates and 1,659 graduate students. 1% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount fell by 199 from fall 2023 (−4.8%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 1,692 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 shrank by 81 beds from the year before (1,773 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $7,450 for the academic year, roughly $828 a month spread over nine months. Food added $5,050. For aid purposes the school budgets $12,500 for food and housing on campus and $12,500 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

At 3,925 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 28 Massachusetts campuses on this site, Clark University ranks number 20 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Massachusetts table.

Other campuses in Worcester

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 20243,925
Total enrollment, fall 20234,124
Full-time students3,559
Undergraduates (full-time)2,266 (2,203)
Graduate students1,659
Exclusively online1%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-251,692
Capacity, 2023-241,773
Beds per 100 full-time students47.5
Typical housing charge, academic year$7,450
Typical food charge, academic year$5,050
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$12,500
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$12,500
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 165334. Worcester 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.