When classes end, most students leave town to pursue jobs and internships and when they do, their apartments, dorm rooms and houses are left behind.
In their place, about 12,000 students per year remain in Chapel Hill for summer school — and every one of them needs a place to stay.
Students looking for on-campus housing can be placed in one of seven dormitories on a first come, first served basis, and do not have to be taking class to sign up.
This year’s available dorms will be Everett, Graham, Aycock, Mangum, Manley, Grimes and Ruffin. Once one building fills up, another is opened, but rarely do more than 500 students live in dorms per session.
“Summer school housing is typically pretty tight, especially for First Session,” said Rick Bradley, assistant director of housing. “But generally there’s an adequate supply because a lot of students don’t know if they’ll need to take summer school until late in the semester.”
Besides dorms, there are on-campus apartments at Ram Village and Odum Village, but these are only open to students who live there now or plan to live there in fall, Bradley said.
First Session dorm rooms cost $763, while Second Session rooms cost $785 because of lower enrollment numbers.
The nearly 11,000 students who don’t live in on-campus housing during the summer are forced to find housing options by scouring Facebook, classifieds and listservs for living options.
Marcus Lindroos, a sophomore business administration major who’s planning on leaving Chapel Hill for the summer, said he’s tried all of the above in hopes of finding someone to sublease his off campus apartment.
“It’s a waste of money to pay for somewhere I won’t be living,” Lindroos said. “I don’t really know how many people are looking for a place to live, but I think there’s a good chance someone will take me up on my offer.”
Other apartments all across Chapel Hill also open up — usually five apartment subleasing options appear in the DTH classifieds each day, and listings for more than 50 different Chapel Hill area housing options that can be found on heelshousing.com, the DTH’s online housing classifieds.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.