The start of each school year at the University of Iowa means a legion of fresh faces tromping around campus — first-year students who are kicking off a new phase.
Many of these students chose to live in one of the UI’s 11 residence halls. But with increasing enrollment numbers comes an issue: living space.
This year, a number of lounges in Mayflower and Catlett residence halls have been converted into six-person rooms to accommodate the large number of students who want to live on campus.
The last time this happened was in 2019, Steve Schmadeke, UI public relations manager, said on behalf of the UI. The university also decided to reopen Parklawn Residence Hall to free up more rooms, Schmadeke wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan.
“We are excited to welcome another large incoming class,” he wrote. “The number of prospective students who expressed interest in living in residence halls prompted us to look at a variety of options to increase capacity.”
Back in 2019, these converted residence hall rooms were a temporary fix until more space was freed up. This year, though, the rooms are permanent.
First-year students Rylee Roney, Ella Rinken, Anna McKernan, and Lauren Hunt are among the groups of new students who are living in the converted rooms.
The four girls all hail from Iowa but did not know each other prior to coming to the UI. Before room selection in June, the four of them were split into two roommate groups — Rinken with McKernan and Hunt with Roney.
Hunt said she and Roney originally found a double in Rienow Residence Hall but wanted to keep checking the housing page to try their luck at getting into a dorm of their choice. That’s when Hunt found open space in Catlett, the newest residence hall.
“I saw Catlett, and I was like, ‘No way, something in Catlett is open,’ and I look, and it’s like a six-person room,” Hunt said. “Me and Riley just wanted to be in Catlett, so we were like, ‘I’ll take it.’”
Catlett Residence Hall first opened on the east side of campus in 2017. The dorm is home to over 1,000 residents and boasts its own dining hall, lounge and study spaces, a fitness center, and a central location to the rest of the main campus.
McKernan and Rinken originally ended up in Mayflower Residence Hall.
“We were like, ‘There’s no way. We really do not want to live at Mayflower,’” McKernan said.
Mayflower Residence Hall is located on the far end of the east side of campus on North Dubuque Street. This distance to campus can often be a deterrent to first-year students who are learning the UI bus routes for the first time.
The dorm was opened in 1968 and can hold over 800 residents. The building features study and lounge rooms, a convenience store, and suite-style rooms, complete with in-suite kitchens and bathrooms. Not satisfied with their original result, McKernan and Rinken also decided to try to get a new living assignment.
“So we refreshed it, and we saw the six-person in Catlett, and we were like, ‘Should we just go for it?’ Because Catlett is the nicest dorm,” McKernan said. “I’m like, ‘Six people? We can deal with that.’”
The now united group of four roommates stumbled upon more good fortune when their third roommate pair ended up going to a different residence hall, giving the four students more space in their converted room meant for six people.
Move-in went smoothly for the roommates as they all arrived on different days and had plenty of space for their belongings to their new home for the next school year. The only hiccup was the UI could not provide them dimensions for the room, but the girls were able to make it work.
Although their living situation looks a bit different from that of their peers, the group has made the most of their circumstances, even becoming a popular room to visit on their floor of Catlett.
“They call it the ‘Penthouse,’” Hunt said, speaking of the people on their floor.
The roommates have become unofficial campus celebrities after Hunt posted a TikTok of their room, showing off their wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, fairy lights, a full-size fridge, and other decorations. The video has amassed over 130,000 views.
The roommates all said they love their room and the fun conversation starter it has been for them as they get to know people on campus.
“Every single person I’ve talked to about this dorm has been like, ‘Oh my god, I saw your TikTok,’” Rinken said.
The six-person rooms are also cheaper than the other regular residence hall rooms. According to the UI’s housing rates for the 2025-2026 academic year, the rate for a six-person room in Catlett Residence Hall is around $7,000, about $1,000 or more less than other rooms.
UI first-year enrollment numbers see increase
Over the past four years, the number of first-year students choosing to come to the UI has grown steadily.
In Fall 2020, there were 4,510 first-time students enrolled, according to UI enrollment data. By Fall 2024, the number grew to 5,208. Enrollment data for this year is set to be released by the second week of September, Schmadeke wrote.
To determine the number of new students admitted each year, the UI uses a system called the Strategic Enrollment Management model, Schmadeke wrote. This model helps manage campus numbers by considering factors such as classroom and housing space, revenue targets, and college and department capacity.
The UI’s admission requirements for incoming first-year students follow the state Board of Regents’ protocols, as do other public schools in the state, such as Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.
To qualify for automatic admission into these schools, students must achieve a score of at least 245 on the Regent Admission Index, along with taking the minimum number of required high school classes, according to the Board of Regents’ website.
The index number is calculated using ACT or SAT scores, cumulative GPA, and the number of years of completed high school courses in required core areas, such as English, math, and a foreign language.
This automatic admission system applies to those entering the UI’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but other colleges, such as the College of Nursing or the Tippie College of Business, have their own admission requirements, according to the UI. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the UI’s largest college, containing 70 undergraduate majors and nearly 15,000 undergraduate students, according to the UI.
How other schools stack up
In terms of total undergraduate enrollment, the UI and other public universities in the state and across the nation have seen an increase in recent years.
The UI and ISU have seen steady increases in total undergraduate student enrollment from Fall 2022 to Fall 2024. The UNI, however, has remained relatively stable throughout the same time period, hovering around just above 7,700.
These numbers seem to be bucking a trend of declining enrollment in the state throughout the last 15 years. According to the Education Data Initiative — which is based out of New York — the number of students pursuing a college degree after high school in Iowa decreased by 47 percent from 2010 to 2020.
Nationally, though, enrollment number trends mirror those of Iowa’s three public universities. The Education Data Initiative reported that college enrollment throughout the U.S. has increased from 18.6 million in 2022 to 19.2 million in 2024 — a rise of 600,000.
Other schools throughout the Big Ten Conference have also seen an increase in undergraduate enrollment. From Fall 2022 to Fall 2024, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, experienced a nearly 2,000-student increase in undergraduate enrollment. The University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also saw similar increases.
While Iowa’s public universities see increases, some private institutions in the state have reported the opposite. According to enrollment data from Drake University in Des Moines, total undergraduate enrollment fell from 3,338 in 2015 to 2,585 in 2024.
Data from Central College tells the same story, with total enrollment from Fall 2015 to Fall 2023 decreasing from 1,274 to 1,095 — a decrease of almost 180 students. Central College does not have publicly available data for 2024 and does not split up its data by undergraduate or graduate status.
This decline also follows national trends. Of the 19.5 million students who were enrolled in a university in 2024, over 73 percent attended a public institution. This percentage has been on the rise over the last 15 years — of the 21 million students who went on to attend a post-secondary institution in 2010, 72 percent opted to go to a public institutions over a private college.
The future of on-campus living
The UI’s residence hall landscape has seen some shakeups in recent years. In early 2023, the UI put Mayflower Residence Hall up for sale with plans to construct a new east-side residence hall.
After being on the market for some time, the UI reversed this decision, citing record numbers of incoming first-year students as a significant factor in the change. The UI will continue to operate the residence hall until at least 2029.
One thing has remained true for the UI, though: incoming first- year classes continue to be large. From Fall 2023 to Fall 2024, there was an increase of 144 first-time, first-year students, bringing the total to 5,208 new faces. This class was the third-largest first-year cohort in the university’s history, according to the UI.
Schmadeke wrote the UI’s goal with enrollment each year is not necessarily to grow numbers as much as possible but to utilize campus resources effectively to support student experience and success.
“In recent years, the University of Iowa has had record levels of applications and interest, and we hope we can build upon the high level of demand to create consistency in our enrollment of incoming students and continue to increase retention and student success efforts,” he wrote.