Wake Forest has long emphasized three years of on-campus housing as a central part of its undergraduate experience, but campus culture is shifting as the university enrolls record-breaking numbers of freshmen each year. As Wake Forest stretches past full capacity, the registration process will undergo significant changes in the 2026-2027 school year. 

Due to limited housing availability, seniors will now register last for housing and juniors returning from abroad will be entered into an off-campus lottery. These changes have sparked concern among students, both those currently in difficult housing situations as well as those anticipating future registration issues. 

With at least five housing credits, rising seniors who wish to live on campus will now enter a binding lottery. According to the Residence Life & Housing website, this is mainly “due to increased enrollment and demand for University housing, along with building renovations.”

“It feels like there is no way to manage expectations as to what you are going to get for any year going forward,” Capuano said. “I wish it could be less stressful for everyone.” 

Many students believe that the new registration structure does not adequately prioritize seniority, especially for financial aid recipients who are required to live in University housing their entire time at Wake Forest.

“It feels as though seniority has been put on the back burner in terms of on-campus housing, which is very hard for people on scholarship or who just want to stay on campus,” junior Hailey Auster said. 

Current juniors who participated in fall study abroad are facing additional hurdles. Since on-campus registration begins in December, before these students return from abroad, Residence Life and Housing encourages groups to register together to secure placements. However, due to over-enrollment and capacity issues, many returning students find themselves with less-than-ideal housing situations. 

“Once I found out my housing time was in the later slots, my housing group and I got worried, but it turned out even worse than I imagined and was a very frustrating experience coming back from abroad,” Auster said. 

To address this problem, current sophomores going abroad in the fall will have the option to enter into a binding off-campus lottery for their junior spring. If selected, students will be required to live outside campus gates. Last semester, without this option, many juniors were unable to register for on-campus housing with their friends. With juniors lacking class-specific dorms, many were placed with students in different years. 

“Students returning from study away programs in the fall have limited housing options for the spring and are often placed into rooms with open beds, meaning they will be living with existing roommates,” Residence Life & Housing said in a Dec. 15 broadcast email. 

Many current juniors have been placed with sophomores or freshmen in dorms on South Campus or on the Quad. 

“All my close friends and I, who aimed to live with each other, were placed in sophomore dorms on the Quad with random roommates,” Capuano explained. “While I was able to have one of my best friends move in after my previous roommate had a family emergency, Residence Life & Housing was not helpful in giving an explanation or putting in extra effort to communicate with me.” 

The housing changes coincide with broader campus shifts, including the renovation of freshman dorm Babcock Residence Hall. Sitting in the middle of ‘freshman-land,’ Babcock Hall is projected to reopen in spring 2027 and will “provide just over 200 beds for students returning from abroad,” according to the Dec. 15 email from Residence Life and Housing. They also noted that they expect other housing availability to be severely limited and unpredictable.” 

While the housing office said they aim to support students and maximize available space, the system will likely result in many juniors placed in freshman residence halls alongside first-year students in spring 2027. 

These issues have also caught the attention of freshman and sophomore students, who wonder if they will be separated from their friends or placed in “less desirable” dorms when they return from abroad or for their senior year. For many students, housing challenges extend beyond logistics and touch on the social connections and sense of belonging that can define their college experience. Across all class years, students are watching closely as their anxiety grows about where they will live and with whom. 

“I would be very upset to have the same thing that is happening in older grades with housing happen to me,” freshman Julia Wood said. “Housing feels like such a big part of your college experience, and it’s scary to think the community you’ve built could be lost through something out of your control.” 

Editor’s note: The Old Gold & Black requested a comment from the Office of Residence Life and Housing, which said it was unable to provide a statement prior to publication.