Assignment Priorities

Topics on this page:

• Academic Year Assignment Priorities for Graduate Students
• Academic Year Residence Priorities for Law Students
• Summer Assignment Priorities

Academic Year Assignment Priorities - Graduate Students

For every year that you submit a housing application, Housing Assignments calculates your assignment priority level, which is based on:

1. Your student status. Priority is given in this order:

   1. New students
   2. Coterminal students
   3. Continuing students with remaining priority years
   4. Continuing students without remaining priority years

2. The number of years you have lived in graduate housing.

Students who have not yet lived in University housing for six years have a higher priority over students who have used their six years of housing priority.

What You Should Know About Assignment Priority Levels:

• New students are guaranteed housing in their first year of graduate study at Stanford as long as they apply by the Lottery deadline in May and indicate that they are willing to live anywhere.
• Coterminal students who have used their four guaranteed years of undergraduate housing will have a high priority in their fifth year to graduate housing. They will be assigned after the new graduate students, but before the continuing graduate students.
• Students in their second year have the same housing assignment priority as students in their third, fourth, fifth, and sixth years.
• Students whose studies extend beyond allocated priority years are still eligible for housing, and should apply. These students are offered housing after all students with assignment priority; however, they are not assured assignment.
• If you are beginning a new graduate degree program after receiving a Stanford graduate degree, you are considered a continuing graduate student.

What You Should Know About Housing Years:

• Housing years are based on the academic calendar (autumn through the following summer).
• Your housing years include those spent as a single graduate student, couple, and/or student with children.
• Housing years include those lived in on-campus housing, University-assigned off-campus housing, and Housing Stipend Awards.
• Only housing contracts kept during Autumn and Winter Quarters are counted toward the total number of years in housing. Cancelled assignments and occupancy beginning in spring or summer don’t count.
• Graduate students are eligible for six assignment priority years.
• The number of assignment priority years does not automatically increase cumulatively per degree.
• It is your responsibility to verify that your priority level is correct on your application and to contact Housing Assignments before the Lottery if there is a problem.

Academic Year Residence Priorities - Law Students

Law student priority for Munger Graduate Residences

Law students have priority to half of each type of the apartments in Munger Graduate Residence in this order:

1. New first-year JD law students
2. New transfer JD law students
3. All other new law students (LLM, JSM, JSD, PhD, etc.)
4. Continuing law students currently living in Munger (for their specific apartment type)
5. Continuing law students not living in Munger

What you should know about the Law student priority to Munger:

1. The Munger Graduate Residence priority is only activated for each type of Munger housing option when you specifically list it as a choice on your application.
2. Since the law students receive priority to 50% of each type of housing, you should list all the different types of housing choices to maximize your chance of being assigned to Munger.
3. There are a very limited number of couples housing options in Munger. We are rarely able to assign all the law student couples who want to live only in Munger. If you want to live on campus in couples without children housing, consider listing apartments in Escondido Village as well.
4. There are also a very limited number of two-bedroom apartments for single students in Munger. Single students interested in Munger should also list the four-bedroom or studio options.
5. If you apply for housing as a group, and if you have a law student priority but others in your group do not, you may be split from your group as your priority does not transfer to group members. You can use the group retention feature to void your Munger priority. If you would like to maximize your chances of getting assigned to Munger, do NOT use the group retention feature.
6. The law student priority is active all year through all rounds of housing assignments.

Summer Assignment Priorities

• Enrolled students have priority over non-enrolled students for summer housing in the event that there is not enough space to house all applicants in a given category of housing.
• Students living in Single Graduate and Couples without Children Housing who reside in buildings with academic year contracts receive an automatic priority to move into a similar apartment for the summer.
• Students assigned to Single Graduate, Couples without Children, or Students with Children Housing for the following Autumn Quarter may be assigned to a summer residence that they did not list as a choice on their application in order to match their summer assignment to their autumn assignment.