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NEW BRUNSWICK — Beginning in 2014, Rutgers University freshmen who want to get their own off-campus apartment or live in a house with friends may be out of luck.

The state university is preparing to enact a rule requiring incoming freshmen on the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus to live in Rutgers dorms or apartments for at least two years, school officials said Wednesday. Transfer students will also be required to live on campus for one year.

Exceptions will be made for freshmen who want to live with their parents and commute, students with religious reasons for living off campus, married students and older students.

But undergraduates who want to move off campus into an apartment with friends during their freshmen or sophomore year will likely be told "no" by a campus housing board, said Gregory Blimling, Rutgers’ vice president for student affairs.

Rutgers officials have wanted to make the rule change for years. Studies show students who live on campus tend to do better in college, Blimling said, citing a compilation of 30 years of research of undergraduate graduation rates and student behavior.

"We have a much better chance of engaging them," Blimling said.

Many other schools, including Ohio State and Rowan University, have rules requiring new students to live on campus, Rutgers officials said. Once the new requirement is enacted, university officials expect their New Brunswick campus will surpass Michigan State and have the largest number of students living on a single campus in the nation.

About 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students live on Rutgers’ New Brunswick-Piscataway campus and 85 percent of incoming freshmen choose to live in dorms their first year, school officials said. Though the university has no exact estimates, the rule change will probably only affect a few hundred or less students who would have chosen to live in off-campus apartments or houses their first or second year.

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The new requirements will only be possible if Rutgers is able to build $295 million in new classrooms, dorms, apartments and other projects approved Wednesday by the university’s board of governors. That project is contingent on Rutgers getting $52 million in tax credits from the state.

The new buildings include a new 500-bed honors dorm and a 800-bed apartment complex.

"With this, we’ll have the housing stock to accommodate that policy," Rutgers President Richard McCormick said.

Students on the Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden campuses, which have far less dorm space, will be exempt from the new policy.

The cost of living on the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus varies depending on the type of room and meal plan a student chooses. The average New Jersey resident pays about $24,017 a year in tuition, fees, room and board, according to the university’s office of admission. Out-of-state students pay about $36,679. Those figure include $11,262 in annual room and board fees.

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