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Bulletin Archive

This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Graduate Residences

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Housing

Assignment to Graduate Residences—Over 53 percent of matriculated graduate students live in Stanford student housing. Residence assignments are made on the basis of an annual lottery and quarterly waiting lists. New matriculated students are guaranteed housing if they apply by the first round application deadline for the Autumn term and are willing to live in any residence for which they are eligible. At Stanford University, new matriculated students are students who are in a graduate program for the first time. Students starting a second graduate degree are not considered new students and therefore are not guaranteed housing.

After the first year, continuing matriculated graduate students are given priority for housing for a specified number of years based on their academic degree program. Master's students are given one additional year of limited priority for housing. Doctoral students are given five additional years of limited priority for housing. Limited priority years are not automatically cumulative, so students do not receive additional years of limited priority for subsequent degrees. If a student completes a master's program and then moves to a doctoral program, they receive four additional limited priority years, which is the difference between the allocation for a master's and a doctoral program. Students who live in residences that are open year-round and who remain in continuous occupancy in their rooms or apartments may renew their contracts annually if they meet certain eligibility requirements. Students who live in residences that are open only during the academic year or who want to change residences, re-enter the lottery each year. Approximately 80% of continuing student applicants are assigned housing each year. Additional housing is under construction to better meet demand.

Single graduate students may request assignment to graduate apartments and residence halls, or to spaces in six undergraduate cooperative houses.

Couples without children may request assignment to either furnished or unfurnished one-bedroom apartments. Couple housing is available to students who are married and to students who have a same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partner. At Stanford University, a domestic partnership is defined as an established, long-term partnership with an exclusive mutual commitment in which the partners share the necessities of life and ongoing responsibility for their common welfare.

One-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments (furnished and unfurnished) are provided for students with children, based on the number of dependents. Housing for students with children is available to married couples, domestic partners, and single parents who have dependent children living with them. Housing is not provided for extended families, including the parents and siblings of students, or live-in day care staff.

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