Incoming freshman Oneli Christofelsz said she was worried about starting college and thought she would have to miss out on living on campus because there were no vacancies when she applied for housing.
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"I was definitely nervous because I don't drive so my dad would have to drive me here 30 minutes and then since classes are like so spaced out he would have to wait here with me and that just sound like so much chaos," Christofelsz said.
UC Irvine's Student Housing Executive Director Tim Trevan said this fall they had more than 16,000 beds to offer students but they had more demand than space available.
"The wait list for campus housing started 3 weeks ago as about 611 and today it's down to 297," Trevan said.
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He said schools have seen the number of students interested in living on campus go up.
"We do occasionally hear of students who are having to sleep on friend's couches or stay in less desirable accommodations," Trevan said. "We have a lot of resources on campus to help those students."
At UC Riverside, some students said some are renting off campus or commuting because of the on-campus housing shortage.
Merry Proto said, the university plans to build more student housing but it doesn't fix the immediate problem.
"It's not really feasible, plausible to do on campus housing, add more, within the next year. It's just too much to build," Proto said.
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Trevan said UC Irvine plans to open up more than 1,000 bed spaces next fall.
In the meantime they are able to guarantee all transfer students and freshmen like Christofelsz on-campus housing for the next two years.
"I'm in a hall with that's full of girls and it's really fun. We all just bond together. We watch TV at night and whatnot," Christofelsz said.
Trevan said students who remain on the wait list this fall quarter are encouraged to check back in the winter when they have more vacancies.
However, they're confident most, if not all, of their students will be taken care of.
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