As students return from spring break, an email from residence life about the new housing lottery system for the next academic year has caused distress on campus.
“Continuing student housing will be through a lottery-based system. Once you have completed your housing application you will be entered into the housing lottery. There is no guaranteed housing for the 2026-27 academic year,” stated Residence Life in the email sent Monday, April 6.
Mary Williams (18) is a freshman at MMC, residing at the 55th Street dorms. Originally from North Carolina, she moved across the country to study in New York City. She is apprehensive about her housing for the next academic year after receiving the housing lottery email.
“The lottery housing system sounds terrifying because I was planning to stay at the dorms for my sophomore year as well, but now it feels like I’m forced to get an apartment off-campus, if I don’t get housing on-campus.” Williams is also applying to be a Resident Advisor, hoping to secure guaranteed housing. If she doesn’t get the job, she will consider entering the lottery system or start looking for an apartment. Williams also has grandparents on Long Island, so in the worst-case scenario, she’d consider living there as well.
“Why can’t they buy another building instead of trying to fit everyone at 55th?” expressed Williams.
Although Marymount Manhattan College’s housing policy follows a first-come, first-served basis for students, it currently offers on-campus accommodations at both the 55th Street and FOUND Study-Turtle Bay Residence Halls. However, from Fall 2026 onwards, FOUND Study-Turtle Bay Residence Hall will be reserved for only Northeastern-NYC Scholars, leaving the continuing MMC students in a newly introduced lottery system to secure housing at 55th. Housing applications must be submitted by May 4th, 2026, to enroll in the lottery system and once selected, students will be notified within three days. The non-refundable deposit is reduced from $500 to $200 and must be paid by May 14, 2026, to secure the lottery selection.
In response to the uncertainty students are voicing about housing, the Director of Residence Life, Kyleen Ammerman, stated, “If the continuing student numbers stay on trend with previous years, we are expecting to house everyone who applies by the May 4 deadline.”
Furthermore, Ammerman also highlighted that students will be able to self-select their rooms an entire month earlier than last year. “It is important to understand that the total number of living spaces being offered for continuing students for the 2026-2027 academic year is more than was offered for the current 2025-2026 academic year,” explains Ammerman.
Driven by sharp enrollments and limited infrastructure to shelter the students, the housing crisis is a recurring concern for Northeastern, even in their main campus in Boston. At Northeastern alone, students are not guaranteed housing following sophomore year, reported Huntington News in March 2026. Northeastern’s housing policy states that “Undergraduates who enter as first-year students to Boston through fall admission and NU-In will live in university housing during their first and second years, unless a global experience or co-op experience takes them outside of the city of Boston”. The NYC Scholars program is part of NU’s First Year Experience program. For the 2025-26 academic year, all NU-NYC Scholars were housed at FOUND, along with many MMC students.
Savannah McBride (18) is an incoming freshman majoring in music theatre at MMC this fall 2026. Originally from Iowa, she will be moving to New York City to pursue her undergraduate studies at MMC. McBride was told at Accepted Students Day that Freshmen will be residing at the 55th Street dorms.
While NU-NYC Scholars are guaranteed housing at FOUND and incoming MMC students are informed about their residence at the 55th, the housing situation for continuing students remains uncertain post-merger.
MMC’s Residence Life sent another email last Wednesday, April 8, responding to a few of the questions from students. “Because the incoming class is smaller, there are more spaces for continuing students. More spaces will be offered to continuing students for 2026-27 than for 2025-26 academic year,” justifies Residence Life in the email.
Residence Life emails explain they are aligning their process with Northeastern and that once the merger is complete, all students will be considered Northeastern students. Furthermore, they clarify that they are not turning away MMC students to make room for Northeastern students.
Anders Haglund (21) is a junior at MMC and resident at 55th. Hanglund is planning to enter the lottery as well as look for off-campus apartments. He explains that he is in a position where he has some savings from working past summers. Regardless of receiving a housing contract or not, he will have the financial security to stick it out one more year and graduate.
“What is disappointing is that I will have less financial security for the years after as post-grad is a notoriously difficult time and something I was preparing for. So assuming I don’t receive a housing contract, it actually puts more pressure on me for the next 3-5 years, past my time at this college”, Hanguld said.
According to the Corcoran Group’s NYC Residential Rental Market Report, the median rent in Manhattan and Brooklyn — two of the closest boroughs near the 71st street campus was reportedly $5,000 and $4,150 per month in March 2026.
Hanguld continued by reiterating a statement that many students on campus are expressing: that the worst part of the lottery system is its surprise notice.
“I think the most insulting part of the housing lottery system is their lack of warning. Had we been prepped and primed I think students wouldn’t feel they are being blindsided into potentially being homeless. Had Northeastern stated at the beginning of the year that this was a possibility, students would have been able to plan around it. Now we’re in a situation of sink or swim.”
