On Friday, Tufts’ Office of Residential Life & Learning sent an email to all remaining students in the random housing pool informing them that they had not yet been placed for the 2026–27 school year. Students will now have to wait until May 8 for updates on their fall housing situation.
Sara Swamy, a rising sophomore who originally planned to aim for a triple but was forced to enter the random pool after triples filled up, expressed concern about the delay.
“It’s a little frustrating that I still don’t know where I’m going to be living, and most people do,” Swamy said.
Due to the limited number of triples available, Swamy and her friends were unable to form a group of three. Rather than being given a chance to re-form different groups for doubles, they were each instead automatically entered into the random pool.
“We tried [forming a triple] and then, because it happens at the same time as doubles, because we didn’t get the triple, we automatically got put into random housing,” Swamy said.
In the email, students were given the option to request to live with specific students by emailing the associate director of residential operations, Perry Doherty, by April 17.
“It was clear that we could try to room with people that we want to room with, but it’s not set in stone,” Swamy said.
Another rising sophomore, Rosalie Tavernese, had planned to enter random selection. She said ResLife provided comparatively less information and guidance to students who were choosing random placement and that she wasn’t aware that lottery numbers no longer matter within the random housing pool.
“I wasn’t really sure what I had to do as I was going random, because the email, it kind of only focused on the group formation,” Tavernese said. “Unless I missed info, [which] I could have, but [I would’ve liked] maybe just a little more information regarding people who are going random, because I didn’t know that my lottery number doesn’t really do anything anymore.”
More generally, for all students, the number of each dorm type available — apartments, doubles, singles, triples — was not given for most of the duration of the housing process, with specific figures being absent on both Tufts’ websites and communications. It was only on March 23, the day that the first group formation session began, that ResLife officially released the numbers of each dorm type.
“I think that was definitely not the best method to give that information. I think it would have been helpful to have it a lot earlier,” Swamy said.
In a statement to the Daily, Doherty explained that ResLife withholds this information because the housing situation is not fixed throughout the housing process, until it comes time for students to form their groups.
“There are many moving parts throughout the housing selection process which means the number of each type of space available for group formation cannot be confirmed until very close to the start of group formation,” Doherty wrote.
Notably absent from the sophomore housing options outlined in the email were the four-person apartments in Latin Way. These apartments were made available to rising sophomores last year but will return to housing juniors and seniors next fall.
“One of Residential Life’s goals is to house as many students as possible,” Doherty wrote. “Offering four-person Latin Way apartments to rising juniors and seniors helps Tufts do that. This academic year, 2025–2026, is atypical given that rising juniors and seniors have typically lived in four-person apartments in Latin Way in the past.”
Doherty went on to acknowledge the stress housing selection places on students and encouraged students to seek guidance from ResLife if they are unsure about aspects of the housing process.
“It’s important for students to understand that we know this process can be a stressful one, especially at the end of room selection when students are also wrapping up their classes and focused on their finals,” Doherty wrote. “Residential Life and Learning will always work individually with any student to help walk them through the process.”
Ultimately, Doherty advised students to keep their options open and stay informed during the housing selection process.
“The vast majority of cases when students are in distress during room selection [are] when they haven’t read through, or followed through, with our processes and protocols, so it is extremely important that students fully engage with room selection,” Doherty wrote.
