Public · River Falls, WI

University of Wisconsin-River Falls

4,140 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 2,490: about 60.1 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 1,650 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.

2,490 college-controlled beds (60.1 per 100 full-time) 1,650 full-time students beyond them
5,243total students, fall 2024
4,140full-time
$4,952typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$10,400aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 5,243 students enrolled in fall 2024, 4,880 were undergraduates and 363 graduate students. 7% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 179 from fall 2023 (+3.5%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 2,490 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 73 beds from the year before (2,417 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $4,952 for the academic year, roughly $550 a month spread over nine months. Food added $2,990. For aid purposes the school budgets $7,982 for food and housing on campus and $10,400 for a student living off campus away from family, $2,418 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 5,243 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 12 Wisconsin campuses on this site, University of Wisconsin-River Falls ranks number 12 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Wisconsin 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 20245,243
Total enrollment, fall 20235,064
Full-time students4,140
Undergraduates (full-time)4,880 (3,965)
Graduate students363
Exclusively online7%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-252,490
Capacity, 2023-242,417
Beds per 100 full-time students60.1
Typical housing charge, academic year$4,952
Typical food charge, academic year$2,990
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$7,982
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$10,400
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 240471. Pierce 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.