While the fall semester began this week, more than 100 Chico State students were still waiting for a place to stay on campus.

As of Tuesday, less than 100 students were wait-listed for rooms under the University Housing and Food Service, which includes dorm room facilities like Whitney and Lassen halls and off-campus housing at University Village on Nord Avenue.

There were more than 3,100 applications submitted for student housing, wrote David Stephen, director of University Housing and Food Services, in an email to The Orion.

Last fall, student housing received 2,500 applications.

“Last year we opened with two vacancies,” said David Stephen, director of University Housing and Food Services in an email to the Orion. “Virtually no wait-list last year.”

Incoming freshman and psychology major Shadae Muhammad was number 141 on the wait-list last week and spots weren’t opening quickly enough.

“My parents and I talked it over,” she said. “After that, I cancelled the housing application and they gave me a refund because I hadn’t been assigned a room and now I have a double at Craig Hall.”

Muhammad said she received a refund of $300, the deposit she paid to secure a room.

Refunds differ from student to student, Stephen said. For low-income families, depending on the amount of financial aid received, the refund of deposits can range from $50 to $300.

Craig Hall is an optional dorm students are directed to find housing in if they place higher on the waiting list.

The remaining students will have to look elsewhere, according to University Housing. Pomona West Apartments, Westpark Plaza and Pine Tree Apartments are alternative housing advertised on the University Housing and Food Service’s website.

Stephen said it would be difficult to predict how the University Housing wait-list will be impacted in the future because it is driven by the number of students enrolled each semester.

Daisy Dardon can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.