As summer ends and sophomores look forward to returning to campus with a comforting sense of familiarity, the worry of finding next year’s housing is always an inevitable companion.
While Tufts guarantees housing for first- and second-year students, junior year comes with much more independence. Most of the student body chooses to live off-campus with their friends in the neighboring Medford-Somerville area. On-campus housing options include Sophia Gordon Hall, Community Housing and the new Pachyderm Place, set to open up for the 2027–28 school year.
For some, the house hunting process began during the summer, or even at the end of their first year. Mostly, though, sophomores make use of the beginning of the fall semester to form their housing groups, get their priorities and preferences in order and start looking at listings.
Sophomore Aadi Aggarwal began his journey of house hunting towards the end of his first year.
“We knew that we had to get onto the housing game pretty early,” he said. “We understood that the market around here was pretty competitive, so we didn’t want to overpay, and we didn’t want to bid.”
Aggarwal heard about the process from his upperclassmen friends and signed his lease in mid-August after completing a thorough house-hunting search during the summer, along with his three housemates.
“We probably looked at 40 to 50 listings online. The tours were much less — we identified a listing we really liked and toured it,” he said. “We just knew that if we liked a place, we were just gonna sign because it was no more stress for us.”
Going from dorm living to being in charge of your own house is a significant shift. It creates a whole new set of responsibilities and considerations to manage — not just on your own, but also with your housemates.
“We wanted a great location that was generally near campus,” Aggarwal said. “We also wanted a great kitchen so we could cook and utilize that — so we wouldn’t have to pay for the meal plan. We wanted not too big of a place where [we’d] have to clean up and maintain such a large area, but we wanted a nice common area.”
Aggarwal mentioned he was lucky that he and his friends were aligned regarding their priorities, which made the process easy to work through and communicate about.
“But there’s the inevitable gut check moment where it’s like, are we sure this is the place? Are we sure we want to do this? But no major disagreements, thankfully. We were pretty [much] on the same page.”
Charlie Goldfarb, another sophomore, is currently going through the process of browsing listings and touring houses.
“We’re starting to put in offers at places. But there are a lot of houses that are already being snatched up right now, so right now we’re kind of just trying to get whatever we can,” Goldfarb said.
While many may have had a head start over the summer, most people solidify their groups and housing at the start of sophomore year. However, the ordeal eventually becomes more stressful and competitive.
Goldfarb reflected that a challenge right now is finding time for everyone’s schedules to align for house tours. However, discussing preferences prior to tours helps to streamline the process.
“It is really hard because obviously people have class, so it’s hard for everybody to go on a tour,” he said. “We have a group chat, all of us, and we send photos, and then we tell them if there’s anything that is drastic. … It is nice that we are all open to changing our preferences and stuff.”
Junior Reese Jeffery is currently living off campus and went through a similar process during her sophomore year. Jeffery was initially planning on living on Tufts campus and applied through the lottery system. However, she heard back late and had to finalize her housing within an unexpected time crunch.
“I was like, ‘Oh no, shoot! I haven’t figured it out yet,’” she said. “There’s definitely some anxiety around it, especially since we're expected to be students and involved on campus and do all of these other things, and while there are housing fairs and whatever, I just feel like the overall process is a little more difficult and stressful than I would have expected.”
Upon reflection, Jeffery would not change anything about how her housing situation turned out. However, she does recommend starting early.
“I absolutely love my house. I love my housemates, and I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I know for some people it doesn’t work out that well,” she said. “I think the best way to go about it is to just start looking early and be extremely mindful of who you’re planning on living with.”
Though he signed his lease early, Aggarwal does not necessarily think that it is imperative to hop on the housing train super early, especially to the point where it is stressful.
“I just think that for freshmen, get your group and just put yourself out on the market,” he said. “For sophomores, it’s funny, I’m gonna say the opposite thing: Be patient. You don’t have to do it in the first couple months. I mean, it sounds great if you get it out of the way, but the way we did it is not the only way to do it.”
