What we cover / TL;DR
- Why more choice for students isn’t always better
- Why understanding student preferences matters
- Why roommate preferences need more nuance
- What a better student housing application actually looks like
I started my career in higher education because I wanted to help students adjust to college.
It is an exciting transition, but it can also be a scary one. For many students, it might be the first time they are living away from home, living with people they don’t know, managing their own schedules and figuring out systems or processes their families may have always helped with.
My own transition to college was hard. I was away from home, learning how to make new friends and trying to find my place in a completely new world. What got me through it was the people. The friends I made, advisors, professors and administrators helped me find my place in Student Government and ultimately kept me glued to campus.
That experience is part of what led me into residence life and eventually housing operations, where I moved from working directly with students as a Residence Hall Director, to overseeing assignments, facilities and the systems supporting those experiences. I even lived through two housing system implementations!
Somewhere along the way, I realized something important.
The people matter tremendously. But so do the systems.
Every student is going to interact with university systems in some way, shape or form. They will use the registration system to enroll in classes, the financial aid and billing systems to manage the financial side of their education, and, if they live on campus, the housing system to manage where they live.
These aren’t optional touchpoints. They are an integral part of the student experience. And when those systems are designed well, they can make complicated processes feel much simpler, allowing most students to navigate them independently while staff spend their time helping the students who genuinely need individualized support.
Making sure the system works for both students and the staff supporting them is something I think about a lot now from the other side of the table, working with colleges and universities on their housing technology implementations.
And as another housing application season approaches, there is one question I think is worth asking:
How do we give students meaningful choices while still giving housing administrators the ability to create the parameters necessary to run a housing operation?
More Choice Isn't Always Better
We talk a lot about giving students choice.
And I agree with that. Students should have agency in deciding where they are going to live.
But giving students choice doesn’t necessarily mean showing every student every possible option.
Housing is complicated.
Certain buildings, room types or communities may only be available to particular populations. There may be eligibility requirements, housing accommodation needs, classifications, roommate considerations, occupancy needs, application periods and institutional policies determining what a student can select.
The student doesn’t necessarily need to understand all of that complexity.
They need to understand their choices.
That’s an important distinction.
A well-designed housing application can take all of those administrative parameters happening behind the scenes and turn them into a much simpler student experience:
Here are the options available to you. Here is what they look like. Here is what they cost. Now tell us what you prefer.
The administrator creates the guardrails. The student has agency within them.
Complexity doesn’t have to be passed on to the student.
Why This Matters:
Housing applications shape a student’s first campus experience, so simplifying complexity builds confidence while helping staff manage housing effectively.
Understanding the “Why” Behind Student Preferences
Giving students the ability to preference their housing options is important. But there is also an opportunity to learn from the choices they make.
Imagine a student tells us their first preference is Building A.
Okay. Why?
Is it because they want a particular room type? Is it the location? The amenities? The price? The community? Is their friend hoping to live there?
The preference tells us what the student selected. Asking the right questions can help us understand why.
“
The administrator creates the guardrails. The student has agency within them.”
Within the housing application, administrators can give students the opportunity to preference buildings, or buildings and room types, while also asking questions about what influenced those selections.
Maybe affordability was the deciding factor. Maybe having a single room mattered most. Maybe location was important. Or maybe there was something about a particular building that students consistently preferred.
Those answers don’t mean every student will get exactly what they want. Anyone who has worked in housing knows that there are only so many singles, apartments, suites or spaces in the most popular buildings to go around.
But they can give housing teams valuable information about what students are looking for and why they are making the choices they make.
And that information can help us continue to improve the experience. If students consistently tell us that price is driving their decisions, are we making pricing easy enough to compare? If room type matters most, are we giving them enough information to understand the differences? If one building is consistently preferred over another, do we understand why?
Student preferences tell us what they want. Asking why can help us understand what matters to them.
Help Students Understand What They're Choosing
Of course, students can’t make meaningful preferences if they don’t have meaningful information.
Most campuses have a mix of residence halls. Some are brand new. Some are older. Some have suites and apartments while others offer a more traditional residence hall experience.
And the newest building isn’t automatically the best building for every student.
An older residence hall might be less expensive but have an amazing learning community. Another might have larger rooms. One might be closer to classes. Another might have the social environment a particular student is looking for.
The goal shouldn’t necessarily be to convince every student that every building is equally desirable.
It should be to help students understand the value and tradeoffs of each option so they can decide what “best” means for them.
That starts with showing students the things they actually want to know.
“
Student preferences tell us what they want. Asking why tells us what matters.”
During my time working in housing, students weren’t just asking what the outside of the residence hall looked like. They wanted to know:
What does my actual room look like?
Is it a single, double or triple?
What furniture will I have?
What’s included?
What are the amenities?
What is the culture like in the building?
And increasingly, one of the biggest questions is simply:
How much does it cost?
Students and families are looking closely at dollars and cents. Is living on campus worth it? Is paying more for one building worth the difference? Would choosing a lower-priced option make more sense for their budget?
Yet housing pricing can sometimes live somewhere completely separate from the application experience.
Students shouldn’t have to open another website, hunt down a rate sheet and then come back to the application to compare their choices.
The more information we can put in front of them at the moment they’re making the decision, the more informed that decision can be.
Preferences Extend Beyond the Room
This same philosophy doesn’t stop at the building or room type.
Think about roommates.
For years, housing applications have asked questions intended to help staff match students. Are you an early riser? Are you a night owl? How clean do you keep your room?
Those questions aren’t bad. The problem is that they don’t necessarily tell us how much the answer matters.
Maybe I’m an early riser and you’re a night owl, but neither of us really cares.
But maybe we’re both very particular about keeping our space clean. For both of us, that could be completely non-negotiable.
Those preferences shouldn’t necessarily carry the same weight.
That’s why I like approaches that give students more ownership over roommate matching. Tools like RoomSync allow students to create profiles, identify what is negotiable and non-negotiable, and look for people they believe they’ll actually becompatible with.
Again, it comes back to the same idea.
We’re not removing structure from the process. We’re creating structure that allows students to tell us what matters.
Why This Matters:
Better roommate matching happens when students can show not just their preferences, but which ones matter most to them.
Listen to What Students Tell You
There is one more part of this that I think housing teams sometimes overlook.
You cannot change what you do not know.
When I worked in housing operations, I liked building small feedback loops into our processes.
After students received an assignment and went to sign their contract, or as they completed a pre-arrival process, I might add three or four quick questions.
What worked?
What didn’t?
Was anything confusing?
Did you have the information you needed?
It didn’t need to be a giant annual survey. Sometimes a few questions at the exact moment someone has completed a process will tell you more than a survey sent six months later.
And yes, I’m also a fan of an incentive. Students love an incentive. Tie completing a quick survey to a raffle or something they actually care about and suddenly you’ve got feedback.
Then use it.
If students repeatedly leave the application to find pricing, put pricing in the application.
If everyone calls asking what furniture is in the room, make that information easier to find.
If students don’t understand what “preference” means, rethink how you’re explaining it.
The application shouldn’t remain static simply because that’s how we’ve always done it.
What Does a
Better Housing Application
Look Like?
Today, I get to have these conversations from a different seat.
As part of Kinetic North America, I work with colleges and universities to think through how their housing processes translate into KxWelcome.
And one of the things I appreciate about the platform is the ability to bring these pieces together.
Administrators can configure the parameters that determine the options presented to students, while students can see relevant room and building information, images, floor plans and pricing as they make their preferences.
For institutions using RoomSync, that same idea of student agency can extend to roommate selection. And once students arrive on campus, KxEngage can continue that journey by helping residents connect with roommates, other students and residence life staff.
But regardless of the technology you’re using, I think the philosophy is the same.
The best housing application isn’t necessarily the one that gives students the most choices. It’s the one that gives them the best choices for their needs, enough information to understand those choices, and an easy way to communicate what matters most to them.
Housing administrators still need parameters.
Students still want agency.
A well-designed process should allow for both.
Rethinking the Housing Application
Give Students Better Choices
The best housing applications do more than offer options. They help students understand what’s available, communicate what matters most, and make confident choices while giving housing teams the structure they need to manage a complex process.
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