Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) is piloting a neighborhood reassignment program for the 2023-2024 school year, according to an email sent to students earlier today. The decision comes two years after the initial neighborhood system was introduced. The pilot program aims to “balance between community cohesion and student choice,” according to the email sent to students on Wednesday afternoon by Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Residential & Dining Enterprises Shirley J. Everett.

Before the introduction of the pilot program, under the current neighborhood system, students who chose to reassign to a different neighborhood did not have a choice in which neighborhood they preferred to join and received last priority in house and room selection. Students could also apply to reassign with groups of up to four students. 

Under the pilot program, students will be able to rank all eight neighborhoods on the application. Although students can choose to rank as many or few neighborhoods as they would like, ranking fewer will decrease chances of being assigned to a new neighborhood. Students will not be considered for any neighborhoods that they do not rank. 

Zadie Schaffer ’25, who currently lives in Neighborhood A, said that she initially applied to preassign in the Ng Humanities House to room with her close friend who lives in a different neighborhood. However, with the new option of ranking neighborhoods, she is now planning to withdraw her application to reassign elsewhere.

“All I really had was preassignment. If I didn’t get into Ng, which is pretty likely because I’m not a humanities major and there wasn’t space in the Row houses, I would have to relegate back to Stern or go to EVGR, which I desperately don’t want to do,” she said.

In addition to the ranking option, students who apply for reassignment will not receive any penalty for housing and room selections. Students can also apply with groups of up to eight students, instead of four. Applications will be considered in class year order and groups with mixed year students will be considered with the lowest year student in the group. 

However, not all students who apply will be guaranteed a neighborhood reassignment. Student groups will only be reassigned if the entire group can be moved to the neighborhood. 

The email also announced changes to the housing timeline. Neighborhood reassignment applications will open on April 14 and close on April 21. The University Theme housing application deadline has subsequently been extended to May 2, with results being announced on June 19. 

“I was initially upset at the timeline being shifted to later dates. I finished the preassignment application so I could get it in on time and then I got an email a few hours later saying that it was due on May 2nd,” said Diego Calderon ‘26.

Although Calderon plans to keep his preassignment application, he is now considering reassigning to a neighborhood with better upperclassmen dorms. He currently lives in Neighborhood F where the upperclassmen residence options are Kimball, EVGR-A, Mirrilees or Row houses. 

“Upon reading the changes, I was really surprised in a good way. Now with the possibility of being reassigned to a new neighborhood, I’m more excited to think about housing for the next year,” he said. 

Housing and room selection applications will open on May 2 and gate times will be sent on June 23. The housing and room selection process will be from July 10 to July 14. The email advised students to monitor their Stanford email throughout the summer. 

For additional questions, R&DE Student Housing Assignments will be hosting a Q&A webinar on April 18.