Private nonprofit · Boston, MA
Emerson College
4,779 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 2,578: about 53.9 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 2,201 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 5,263 students enrolled in fall 2024, 3,908 were undergraduates and 1,355 graduate students. 11% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount fell by 407 from fall 2023 (−7.2%).
Housing the college controls
IPEDS counts 2,578 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 5 beds from the year before (2,583 in 2023-24).
What students pay
The school can't split food from housing, so it reports one combined 2024-25 charge: $20,920 for the academic year. Its aid office budgets $17,866 for food and housing for a student living off campus away from family.
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 5,263 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, Emerson College ranks number 17 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
- Boston University: 29,259 full-time, 11,808 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 | 5,263 |
| Total enrollment, fall 2023 | 5,670 |
| Full-time students | 4,779 |
| Undergraduates (full-time) | 3,908 (3,839) |
| Graduate students | 1,355 |
| Exclusively online | 11% |
| College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-25 | 2,578 |
| Capacity, 2023-24 | 2,583 |
| Beds per 100 full-time students | 53.9 |
| Typical housing charge, academic year | not reported |
| Typical food charge, academic year | not reported |
| Aid budget, food and housing on campus | $20,920 |
| Aid budget, food and housing off campus | $17,866 |
| All first-time, full-time students required to live in college housing | No |
| Combined food and housing charge (if not split) | $20,920 |
IPEDS unit ID 165662. 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.