WILMINGTON – UNCW is expecting to surpass its available bed capacity — both on-campus and at its leased properties. The campus has relied on overflow housing four years in a row.
UNCW spokesperson Sydney Bouchelle told Port City Daily 5,255 beds, owned or managed by the college, are available to students during the upcoming 2026-2027 academic year. However, approximately 5,385 are needed. That leaves 130 students without a bed.
The total bed count breaks down to 5,385 on-campus, with 376 beds at properties leased by UNCW — Plato’s Loft at Randall Parkway and Cottages at College Acres.
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“Housing assignments are still being finalized as students continue to request assignment changes, adjust their enrollment plans, and other routine factors are addressed,” Bouchelle said.
More information on housing accommodations will be available closer to student move-in dates in mid-August, according to the spokesperson.
The 130 students will be directed to overflow housing options, which include setting up quasi-dorm rooms in study and common rooms in residence halls, as well as turning some larger double rooms into triples.
Rising UNCW Sophomore Ella Bellamy was moved into overflow in Cornerstone Hall her freshman year. Bellamy told Port City Daily she knew she’d have two roommates but was informed the group would be placed into a three-person dorm with additional square footage. It was not until move-in day she and her roommates discovered they were in overflow housing — a two-person room converted to fit three students.
“Housing costs are extremely high and the lack of communication left us extremely disappointed,” Bellamy said.
Students typically discover if they will live in overflow accommodations when housing assignments are released. Normally first-year housing assignments are made public in mid-to-late June.
Bellamy explained, because three people had been put in a room not meant to accommodate that number, it was overly crowded, with minimal space for furniture or rearranging.
“We barely had enough room to climb into our beds,” she said. “Because the furniture could not be rearranged, the head of my bed did not leave a wall behind it, which made sleeping uncomfortable. It was disheartening that we weren’t able to arrange or decorate the room the way we had hoped for our freshman year because there was only one possible layout or three beds, desks and dressers.”
For the approximately 130 students who will be in a similar situation as Bellamy in the upcoming school year, she urges them to remain positive, communicate openly with their roommates and only bring the essentials.
Because the university requires first- and second-year students to live on campus, Bellamy will return to campus in the fall to live in an on-campus apartment, which costs $5,301 a semester.
For the 2026-2027 academic year, students living in a double room in Belk, Graham, Hewlett and Schwartz Halls will pay $3,845 per semester, according to UNCW’s housing website.
Students in overflow housing do pay slightly less than typical prices, but they also experience less accommodations, usually living in a space with more people than it is designed to hold.
Port City Daily asked UNCW for the 2026-2027 overflow housing costs compared to typical student housing but Bouchelle did not answer. However, Port City Daily previously reported students living in on-campus overflow accommodations pay a starting rate of $3,097 a semester, totalling $6,194 a year in housing costs. This would be the cheapest housing option, with the closest traditional housing cost being $7,690 a year to live in Bell, Graham, Hewlett and Schwartz Halls.
However, the university’s most expensive housing options come in at $5,820 a semester for off-campus housing. Since 2025, UNCW has leased two off-campus apartment complexes — Plato’s Loft at Randall Parkway and Cottages at College Acres.
The off-campus housing was needed to accommodate a growing student population. The campus population has grown by 1,865 between fall 2021 and fall 2025. Out-of-state students have increased by 493.
UNCW continues to enroll more students, though fall 2026 data is not yet known. As of 2025, there were 6,789 freshman and sophomores, a 1,209 increase from 2021.
In 2025, 275 additional beds were needed with overflow housing being provided; Port City Daily previously reported overflow housing accounted for 10% of admitted freshman.
The university has also consistently overadmitted out-of-state students, adding to the lack of available housing options as student enrollment sees an influx. In 2023 the university was penalized by the UNC System, comprising 17 colleges, for admitting too many out-of-state students.
UNC system schools are permitted to have 18% of enrolled students be from out-of-state. For two years UNCW exceeded this cap by nearly 27%, admitting 204 more out-of-state students than the ratio permitted. The 18% cut-off is one of the most extreme with only five UNC system schools adhering to the limit — Appalachian State University, North Carolina State University at Raleigh, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, and UNCW. Other universities within the system have caps ranging from 25% to 50%.
To make up for the excess of out-of-state tuition, UNCW was penalized $4.1 million by the UNC board of governors. The fine was meant to mirror the excess money received from overadmitting 204 out-of-state students. The $4.1 million fine is meant to equate the extra tuition received, which is approximately $20,000 for students who are not North Carolina residents.
For the 2026-27 academic year out-of-state tuition will be $18,699 more than in-state tuition, according to UNCW’s website.
The school was able to get admission rates back to ratio, with only 13% of fall 2024 admissions from out-of-state.
The university is expanding its housing options currently; there is ongoing construction in the freshman quad as crews work to build Hammerhead, a new 120,000 square-foot residence hall slated to accommodate 557 students. Hammerhead is planned to conclude construction in August 2027.
The dorm is replacing Galloway Hall, UNCW’s first residence hall which opened in 1971. Galloway closed to students in spring of 2020 as it began to deteriorate with age. The dorm was demolished in the summer of 2024.
It housed 400 students but had not been in use for three years prior to demolition. The last time the dorm housed students was during the COVID-19 pandemic when it acted as a quarantine dorm.
Hammerhead is the only residence hall construction planned for the next decade as outlined in the 2024 campus master plan for construction and expansion. New student housing is listed as a project to be completed as a part of a full campus buildout in 11-plus years.
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