Many Boston area colleges, including Harvard, are facing housing shortages as students appear to be returning to on-campus living in unexpectedly large numbers.

Officials at Harvard, Boston College, Boston University and Tufts yesterday attributed the students' return to a tightening of the off-campus housing market, higher rents and the reluctance of many landlords to lease apartments to students.

Waiting for Godot

Currently, Harvard has about 150 students on a waiting list for on-campus housing, Susan A. Neer, housing officer, said yesterday. More than 90 per cent of Harvard's 6500 students live on campus, Neer said.

Boston College has 370 students waiting for on-campus housing, Boston University 700 and Tufts 300, officials said. Of the four colleges, Harvard has the highest proportion of off-campus students who wish to live on campus but are unable to find space.

Almost all the students on on-campus waiting lists at the four schools are commuters, transfer students and students who filed their housing applications late, housing officials said.

"Basically, it's a supply and demand problem," Richard E. Collins, director of housing at B.C., said yesterday.

Body Politics

"There are simply more bodies than beds," Neer said.

Condominium conversion is one reason behind the shortage in available off-campus accommodations, housing officers at the schools said.

In addition, they said, landlords are refusing to rent to students because of allegedly poor treatment of the apartments and noisy lifestyles.

Conversely, some students are returning to living on campus because they are dissatisfied with the quality of off-campus housing, Collins said.

Neer cited another factor: she said fewer students were taking leaves of absence and an unusual amount were returning from them sooner than expected, apparently in an effort to complete their Harvard educations before rising tuition rates increase ever further.

Julie A. Glavin, director of housing at Tufts, said the university faces a housing shortage even though it was able this fall to end its housing arrangement with the Sheraton-Commander on Garden Street, where 120 Tufts students have stayed for each of the last two years. A new dormitory has improved the situation, she said.