Texas Tech University has offered scholarships to students that decide to live off-campus rather than in the dormitories due to the dorms being overcapacity.

TTU Student Housing claims that the dorms are over capacity due to a spike in enrollment, and they need to relocate returning students to off-campus housing in order to make room for new students.

Earlier this month, around 150 students received emails offering a $2,000 scholarship and a full refund on their housing deposit if they choose to live off-campus. These were returning students that chose to live on campus again after their first year. The university says they are wanting to prioritize the freshman living on campus during their first year, so they are offering this scholarship to returning students as an incentive.

Along with the students being offered scholarships to live off-campus, there are students that are having to accommodate for extra roommates being moved into their dorms.

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One instance shows that a student who expected to only have one roommate will be having an additional two roommates. In an attempt to accommodate the excess students that need board, Tech is rooming four students in a room that was originally going to only have two residents.

The mother of this student shared her frustration about the situation. She stated, "This has been a devastating blow to our excitement of freshman year dorm life." This statement was taken two weeks before the students began moving into the dorms on August 14th. I, unfortunately, do not have an update on how the move-in process went for this student.

Texas Tech is offering these students a $50 credit to their student accounts each week until they are able to relocate the additional roommates.

Tech has also added a notice on the student housing website stating that they are no longer accepting returning students that have lived on campus the year prior or students over the age of 21.

I understand the university is trying to accommodate the students and provide the best freshman year experience for them, but I feel terrible for these new students. Moving away from home to live in a dorm for the first time in your life can be a stressful experience as is. I can't even imagine the additional stress of having more roommates than you expected or being temporarily placed in someone else's room until they can provide you with your own dorm.

Based on how Tech runs their process of securing a bed in a dorm, I'm not sure how you would manage to assign too many students to the dormitories in the first place. When I came to Tech you would secure your room and bed online prior to moving onto campus, so you already knew exactly where you would be living.

My assumption would be that they had a list of students that needed a dorm and they were hoping for some students that signed up for a dorm to drop out or decide to move elsewhere and create space. More students probably planned to stay than Tech estimated and they had a waitlist of students needing a dorm that they were then unable to place.

That is simply my theory, so please don't take it as fact. I have not seen any official statements about the current issue or how Tech is handling the situation now that students have moved in and classes have started.

I hope everything gets sorted out so these students can have a positive experience for the rest of their first year at Tech.

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