Stanford has a vibrant and eclectic stock of undergraduate housing, including traditional dormitory-style residences, theme houses, fraternities, sororities, co-ops where students cook and clean, self-op Row houses, and suite or apartment-style living. The freedom to choose among this wide range of housing options is a distinctive part of Stanford.

The 2025 Theme House application and review process (which encompasses allocation among the subset of housing that includes academic theme houses, fraternities and sororities, and co-ops) has now concluded, and the Undergraduate Residences Governance Council is releasing its house assignment decisions for next fall.

Key points about the process include:

• 30 applications were submitted for 24 currently available Theme House spaces on campus.
• Proposals went through two stages of review, with all proposals evaluated on a set of criteria informed by student input.
• The assigned houses continue to include a mix of academic theme houses, co-ops, and fraternities and sororities. Students clearly value all of these housing types, and the vibrancy of this range should be preserved even as the exact mix varies in response to student demand.
• The process showed that interest in student-run housing overall exceeds the current supply of available spaces. In the period ahead, the university will prioritize exploration of ways to increase supply of Row houses and other spaces suitable for student-run residences.

Listed below are the University Theme Houses that have been approved for the coming year. (Theme houses that are being renewed will maintain their current residential address except where noted below.)

Academic Theme Houses
Explore Energy
Humanities House
ITALIC + Arts
Outdoor House
Public Service & Civic Engagement
SLE
The Well House

Co-ops
576 Alvarado
Columbae
Hammarskjold
Synergy (sharing 550 San Juan)
Terra (sharing 550 San Juan)

Fraternities
Kappa Alpha
Kappa Sigma
Phi Kappa Psi
Sigma Chi (550 Lasuen)
Sigma Nu
Sigma Phi Epsilon

Sororities
alpha Kappa Delta Phi
Alpha Phi (702 Bowdoin)
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma (710 Bowdoin)
Pi Beta Phi

Due to their current suspended status, renewal applications for the Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Kairos co-ops will not be considered until after the end of the current academic year; 586 Mayfield and 1115 Campus Drive will function as self-op residences for the 2026-2027 academic year.

The residences at 539 Cowell Lane (currently held by Terra) and 675 Lomita (currently shared by Alpha Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma) will become upperclass self-op houses after this academic year, in order to maintain the supply of self-op houses given strong student demand.

Overview of the process

Last April, the Committee on Residential Learning (CoRL), which was created by the Faculty Senate several years ago, launched the 2025 University Theme House (UTH) application process with the announcement of renewal and new house applications to students, faculty, and staff. Following informational sessions, office hours, and opportunities for feedback provided by CoRL in the spring quarter and over the summer, 30 applications were submitted by the September deadline.

These proposals included 25 renewal applications from existing theme houses and five applications for new theme houses. The total applicant pool included seven academic theme houses, seven co-ops, and 16 fraternities and sororities.

CoRL’s review of applications began in early October. CoRL assessed the applications for their overall strengths in addition to how well the theme house met six key criteria:

• values and evolution;
• programs and traditions;
• use (or planned use) of residential space;
• leadership and governance;
• impact on residents and campus; and
• goals for the next four years.

CoRL prepared a summary report that it shared with the Undergraduate Residences Governance Council (URGC).

The URGC, which includes the Vice Provosts for Student Affairs and Undergraduate Education and the Senior Associate Vice Provost for Residential & Dining Enterprises, was charged with assigning the 24 residential spaces currently available for theme house use (including six houses within residence halls).

The URGC’s decisions were informed by CoRL’s report, recent housing data, and ongoing feedback from students, Resident Fellows, faculty, and staff involved with residential life.

Another critical source of input was a student workshop held in November, hosted by ASSU leadership and facilitated by the d.school, on the goals and values that should drive tradeoffs in allocating houses, ideas for potential changes to the housing process, and what makes a successful dorm.

Finally, in addition to the inputs detailed above, these principles guided the URGC’s deliberations and decisions on UTH assignments:

• Maintain a distinctive and eclectic mix of housing types that afford Stanford undergraduates choice and agency in determining their residential experience.
• Responsibly steward available residences and bedspaces to meet evolving student preferences while optimizing occupancy.
• Use information and insights gleaned from the University Theme House application process to explore future areas of opportunity and expansion for student-run residences. 

This year’s process both highlighted and revealed trends and preferences among students that will be important considerations in the university’s future planning.

Managing Stanford’s eclectic housing stock requires balancing several objectives, which sometimes may be in tension with each other. These include nurturing and preserving distinctively Stanford traditions while also allowing the housing program to evolve with changing student interests and preferences. This requires trying to make sure that supply and demand for particular types of housing are in balance, in an environment where student demand can and does change not only from decade to decade but also from year to year. It also requires ensuring enough stability with housing allocations that traditions and community can take root without being so fixed that change is impossible and today’s students are locked into the mix of preferences held by students of the past.

Measuring student preferences is complex because the mix of housing types intersects with other aspects of the housing draw system, including whether there is a pre-assignment round before the regular draw and what its rules are; the priority system for the main housing draw; policies around disability accommodations; and the difficulty of distinguishing preferences for room types (for example, singles), from housing types (for example, Greek houses or self-ops).

Recent pre-assignment data shows strong demand for Row self-ops and Greek housing overall, with somewhat less demand for co-ops, some of the academic themes, and some individual Greek houses. It is clear, however, that it is extremely important to students (and alumni) that we maintain all of these housing types, even as the precise mix might change as demand ebbs and flows.

Regardless of house type, the interest in student-run housing in total exceeds the current supply of available spaces. To address this current constraint, the university will prioritize exploration of ways to increase supply of Row houses and other spaces suitable for student-run residences over the next few years.

The university will also seek student input on further development of the housing lottery process (matching individual students to rooms), as well as the theme house assignment process (the currently quadrennial process for assigning residential spaces to groups of students). Continued refinement of the process can help ensure the balance of stability and flexibility necessary to meet current student interests while preserving valued Stanford traditions.