Each spring, students from Colorado State University must compete for housing on and off of campus, and assignments can limit the options of students.

With over 800 applications to Aggie Village last year and 30-40% of residents returning to their apartments, the University encourages students to consider all housing options available, said John Malsam, assistant director of operation for Housing and Dining Services.

The campus apartment assignments are made on a rolling basis, so there is no specific assignment date, Malsam said.

“There is no one particular time that applications are reviewed … they are reviewed on an ongoing basis,” Malsam said.

This rolling application means that there is no set schedule that assignments adhere to and students may not receive an offer for the University Apartments until the summer, Malsam said. This lack of a deadline can be frustrating for students that would like to solidify their housing as soon as possible.

“It’s not always easy to give a definitive answer, at least not in the ways that folks might prefer,” Malsam said.

There are many factors that go into the decision process for University apartments, Malsam said, including the date of application, the housing preferences of the applicant and when they would like to move in.

“There (are) a lot of variables. There is still a bit of a rhythm to it,” Malsam said, “We see more people wanting to arrive in the fall than we do see people wanting to arrive in the middle of the semester.”

Last spring semester, the office of Off-Campus Life received 9,943 visitors, said Lindsay Mason, assistant director of Off-Campus Life. These visitors all contacted this office to find out more about options for off-campus housing.

The Off-Campus Life office often partners with Housing and Dining Services in order to give students information about all of the questions they have, Malsam said.

One common question that students have is when they should sign a lease for the upcoming school year, Mason said.

Off-Campus Life kicks off the lease signing season with a housing fair held in February, according to the office’s website.

“We recommend that most students sign leases somewhere between February and April,” Mason said.

This recommendation does not always coincide with when the assignments are given to those who applied for on-campus housing, given that applicants may receive an offer at any point during the semester, Malsam said. 

However, this recommendation is not the end-all rule of housing. Mason said that while the optimal time to sign a lease is between February and April, there is lease availability into summer.

“It is definitely not too late (to sign a lease), there are definitely places available and there will be places during the whole summer,” Mason said.

While housing assignments may not follow a set schedule, the staff of CSU does its best to allow each student to find housing as quickly and easily as possible, Malsam said.

“There are people applying and canceling at all different times. We have people applying for the residence halls after classes start, we have people canceling the weekend that we open,” Malsam said. “These things are always happening. So long as there is a demand for housing, and we have space, we are going to do our best to meet that demand and use that space.”

Corbin Reiter can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter at @CorbinReiter.