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American Morning

The College Housing Crunch

Aired August 10, 2001 - 09:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In the coming days, students across the country will be returning to the nation's colleges and universities. Most of those students will come face-to-face with a problem that schools face each year: severe housing shortages. In fact, some colleges and universities are experiencing their worst crunch in decades, we hear, and they're appealing to local communities for help. So what can be done about all of this?

Well, joining us now to talk about this issue is Joyce Smith. She is executive director of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. She joins us in our Washington studios this morning.

Glad to have you with us. How are you?

JOYCE SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR COLLEGE ADMISSION COUNSELING: Good morning. Glad to be here.

HARRIS: Well, what do you make of this -- this crunch right now? Is this real or is this something that's just one of those urban myths we're hearing about?

SMITH: I think a lot of what's going on is in pockets around the country, where there are several institutions whose yields were greater than they anticipated, and so we're asking parents and students to be flexible in looking at their college choices.

HARRIS: All right. So what's at the root of this then? Is it just a matter of the colleges admitting too many people or what?

SMITH: Well, I think what's been happening in the country is an overabundance of applications being filed both in print and electronically, so colleges end up admitting more students. It's difficult to predict their yields. And as such, they may end up in September with more students than they anticipated or they may end up being able to meet all their students' needs.

HARRIS: So you mean that the heads of the universities are bad at math and they can't figure out how many slots they've got available and how many kids they're admitting?

SMITH: The interesting thing that's going on now in this is parents and students are pretty savvy consumers. They're applying to a range of colleges. They're leaving their options open earlier, meaning they'll go through orientation programs in the summer, and they'll wait until the fall to decide where they're going to go, which is something that we discourage them doing. But until then, colleges are having a pretty tough time predicting their yields.

HARRIS: Is it worse in state-run schools or in public schools versus private schools?

SMITH: No, it's actually across the board. Again, they're just pockets where institutions are experiencing more students than they can serve in their housing options. You hear the stories that make the newspaper, but the majority of the institutions find viable options for housing and classrooms for their students.

HARRIS: All right, so the universities can't do it for all of them. What about the students? What advice do you give them and their parents right now?

SMITH: I think because this is a period of such high anxiety -- you're leaving home, you want everything to be perfect -- and if students and parents apply for housing and admission early -- and this is a good message for a lot of the juniors and seniors who are going to be the pipeline pretty soon -- they should get that information in early and not wait until the last minute for their housing options.

But I think that the rule of thumb is to be flexible. You might have to share a room with an extra roommate. You might be in a facility that you hadn't planned to be in. But overall, some of these are short-term, first-semester kinds of experience.

HARRIS: No matter what you do, got to remember mom and dad are saying, I don't care where you go but you've got to get out of here.

Joyce Smith, thanks much. We appreciate it. Take care. Good luck.

SMITH: Thanks again.

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