Students at NYU’s Brooklyn-based Polytechnic School of Engineering can now live on NYU’s Manhattan campus, an option that was not available prior to this year.

NYU spokesperson Matt Nagel said merging the housing options was a result of looking for ways integrate the school of engineering more fully into the NYU community. Students from the two schools can choose to live on either campus.

Nagel also said some students lived off their home campus because they did not meet the requirements for NYU’s guarantee of four years of housing. He added that the university has done its best to accommodate students who did not complete the requirements, such as meeting deadlines, but are still in need of university-provided housing.

“Because we had a large demand for housing this year, some students who are no longer guaranteed housing, but were still seeking housing, were housed in Brooklyn,” Nagel said.

Poly sophomore Nick Read said living on the Manhattan campus has allowed him to experience more of the NYU community by living closer to many of the students he will be graduating with.

“I’ve met a lot of cool kids recently who go to the main campus which is cool, and I connect with them as well as I connect to Poly kids,” Read said.

Read had initially planned to live in Brooklyn on Poly’s campus, but the university had no record of him signing up to live there. Read was then assigned to dorm in Green House on the Manhattan campus, with only a 15 minute commute to his classes at Poly.

“I would definitely prefer to live over here, and I kind of found that out as I started adapting to Manhattan,” Read said.

Although living in Manhattan has its perks, Read noted a downside to living away from campus as well. He said certain programs required for his major are only available on the computers in the labs at Poly, making it more difficult to complete his assignments.

Poly sophomore Tim Welman said he prefers the Manhattan campus to that of Brooklyn because Poly only has one dining hall, and the variety of options at main campus has been refreshing. Welman also said he enjoyed the friendly nature of the Manhattan public.

“Food wise, it’s more convenient,” Welman said. “The random strangers you meet here are a lot more interesting. We’ll be walking and people will just come up to us and tell us their life stories.”

Nagel stated that many other students had the same desire as Read and Welman, and that there was more of a demand to live in Manhattan than there was to live in Brooklyn.

A version of this story appeared in the Monday, Sept. 28 print issue. Email Bridget Brown at [email protected]