Private nonprofit · Boston, MA
Suffolk University
5,761 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 1,580: about 27.4 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 4,181 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 6,356 students enrolled in fall 2024, 4,326 were undergraduates and 2,030 graduate students. 0% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount fell by 341 from fall 2023 (−5.1%).
Housing the college controls
IPEDS counts 1,580 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 140 beds from the year before (1,440 in 2023-24).
What students pay
The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $17,854 for the academic year, roughly $1,984 a month spread over nine months. Food added $4,342. For aid purposes the school budgets $21,326 for food and housing on campus and $26,992 for a student living off campus away from family, $5,666 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 6,356 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, Suffolk University ranks number 10 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
- 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
- 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 | 6,356 |
| Total enrollment, fall 2023 | 6,697 |
| Full-time students | 5,761 |
| Undergraduates (full-time) | 4,326 (4,178) |
| Graduate students | 2,030 |
| Exclusively online | 0% |
| College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-25 | 1,580 |
| Capacity, 2023-24 | 1,440 |
| Beds per 100 full-time students | 27.4 |
| Typical housing charge, academic year | $17,854 |
| Typical food charge, academic year | $4,342 |
| Aid budget, food and housing on campus | $21,326 |
| Aid budget, food and housing off campus | $26,992 |
| 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 168005. 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.