Last January, The Heights found that 2000 Commonwealth Ave., also known as the Reservoir Apartments, had about 100 open spaces for the spring semester due to more students studying abroad in the spring than in the fall. This year, however, The Heights found that far fewer spaces are open in the 540-bed dorm, down to approximately 32 vacancies.
To count the vacancies, Heights reporters looked for doors with fewer door decals on them than the floor plan dictated each room should have.
Boston College purchased the building in 2008 and opened it to students in 2016 in an attempt to meet 100 percent of undergraduate housing demands. Each winter, study abroad-bound juniors vacate their dorms and returning students come to replace them.
“The number of vacancies has significantly decreased in Reservoir compared to last spring, as we’ve seen this building become more popular with juniors,” Greg Jones, the director of housing operations for the Office of Residential Life, said in an email. “The number of students who left University housing to study abroad for the spring semester, however, is still greater than the number of students returning to campus.”
While it is not clear what exactly caused more students to live in 2000 Commonwealth Ave. this year, there are a variety of factors playing into the decreased number of vacancies.
Last year, far more students had gone abroad in the spring than in the fall. But in previous years, a greater number of students were going abroad in the fall, according to Nick Gozik, the director of the Office of International Programs, in an email last year.
Gozik speculated that the abroad trend flipped because more students had been advised to be on campus in the fall, when they could participate in recruiting for industries like banking and consulting. For many, the opportunity to network and distinguish themselves in face-to-face encounters are necessary to stand out from the steep competition.
Although more students are still going abroad in the spring than in the fall, there are fewer vacancies this year than in the year prior, suggesting that 2000 Commonwealth Ave. could be becoming a more popular choice. While many students see the commute to campus as daunting, others appreciate the distance, which keeps their academic and private lives physically separated.
“It’s easy to be dissuaded from living here because of the distance and separation from campus, but in my opinion the benefits outweigh the small costs,” said Justin Panzariono, CSOM ’20. “For me, 2000 has almost been a retreat from campus—a way to get away from the stress that college can bring. Overall, 2000 has been a great place to live and made my time at BC even better.”
Featured Image via Heights Archives
