Housing for Juniors & Seniors
The Fall 2025 housing application for rising juniors and seniors will go live on 10/1/2024.
Rising juniors and seniors and their families can expect some exciting new updates and programs! Details, including room and board rates, will be released soon.
Rising juniors and seniors are encouraged to be thoughtful and thorough when signing up for housing. Often times, students tell us that they feel rushed by off-campus landlords who create a false sense of urgency so that students think that "all the best houses" will be reserved soon. Many rising juniors and seniors come to us in the spring seeking help because they signed a binding lease in the fall semester of their sophomore year with people who they may not even know all that well. When it comes to on-campus housing at UP, rising juniors and seniors can sign up and assemble their friend groups anytime between October and August.
For Fall 2025, all rising juniors and seniors can get their choice of a single/private room, an apartment, or a suite if they desire it. Furthermore, rising juniors and seniors will get to choose their housing first, before anyone else.
We have suites and apartments for friend groups ranging in size from 3 to 12 students! We look forward to announcing some early-October dates for special open-house nights so that students can visit our suite and apartment offerings.
If you are considering living off campus for junior or senior year, please also review the details below. Students often think that off-campus living will cost less. The cost analysis below was informed by data provided by real UP off-campus students.
Off Campus vs. On Campus Living Costs
*The on campus costs shown below will be updated with 2025-2026 as soon as they are finalized!
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FinancesThe costs of living off campus (shown above) are paid monthly out of pocket, whereas on campus housing and dining is billed by the semester and can be paid for with financial aid. |
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AcademicsResearch has linked living off campus with lower grades. In many academic majors at UP, students’ junior and senior years are the most academically rigorous. Moving off campus can make it harder to access resources like professors’ office hours, student study groups, and the library. |
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ConnectionMoving off campus can leave students more disconnected from campus life including friends, events like Pilots After Dark, and resources like the campus dining venues. |
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Safety & SecurityWhen off campus, Campus Safety personnel are further away and their scope is limited. There is value in having Campus Safety officers monitoring our residence halls and being able to respond quickly to student concerns and other emergencies! |
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SupportCollege can be hard, and off campus students lose the support of UP's residence hall staff. We frequently see off campus students navigating complex situations involving maintenance issues, tensions with non-student neighbors, and, often-times, tensions with housemates. Frustrations about who paid the cable bill, and whose long showers keep spiking the heating bill can fracture friend groups without the support to have those conversations in fair and safe ways. Residence Life staff can’t help much in these situations if students are renting from private landlords who are not affiliated with UP. |
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AccessUnless off campus housing is right across the street, then students must put in extra effort to get to the library, classroom buildings, and other campus resources. This makes it easier to miss class and important interactions with professors and advisors. It makes it harder to get to those night and weekend study sessions and meals with friends, especially during Portland's rainy winters. |
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DiningStudents living off campus often underestimate the time it takes to cook meals and clean up. After a long day of classes, on-campus residents can have their meals any time in the Commons or the Pilot House. |
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FlexibilityMany local landlords pressure UP students to sign 12-month leases in September or October that won’t even start until the summer. A feeling of panic ensues…students are told that off-campus apartments are scarce and they fear that if they wait, then all the good options will be gone, and they sign a less than perfect lease agreement with a housemate group that is scrambled together. A lot can change in a student’s life during this waiting period (friend groups, jobs/internships, or even study abroad plans). Students often call us in May looking for support in these cases, but they are “locked-in” by a hasty decision made months prior. |
