The Portal Insanity Intensifies

Northeastern touts global experiential learning opportunities like semester-long co-ops, N.U.in — a semester-long program where freshmen spend their first semester abroad — and global scholars programs where freshmen divide their first Northeastern year between Oakland and London.

While these programs are a major part of Northeastern’s educational experience, some students say they complicate the transition to college life and strain a Boston campus without extra space.

“The sentiment of a lot of students is that Northeastern over-enrolls and it doesn’t have the capacity on the Boston campus,” said Emily Spatz, a sophomore at the university. “Those kids have to come back eventually. ... I don’t know if [Northeastern] is ready for that influx of students.”

Satyajit Dattagupta, the head of enrollment and admissions at Northeastern, said the university has seen a significant spike in interest over the past decade. Over 96,000 applications were submitted last year — about a 94 percent increase in the last decade, according to Dattagupta.

This fall, the university welcomed 2,750 first-year students to its Boston campus, admitted 1,200 students to its global scholars program, and 1,560 students to N.U.in, Dattagupta said. An additional 490 students will begin their time at Northeastern in Oakland and have the option to transition to Boston after the first year.

That’s where things get complicated. The selling point for many higher education institutions in Boston — an urban location at the heart of the action — can be a drawback for growing student bodies on campuses without space to sprawl.

In Boston, Northeastern has 10,000 on-campus beds and guarantees housing for first-year students, according to a spokesperson for the university. Last fall, the university’s undergraduate enrollment totaled 16,302 students, according to US News and World Report. Northeastern students told the Globe they feel the effects of overcrowding: Some said they are crammed in three-person dorms, while others complained of crowded gyms, dining halls, and study spaces.

Madeleine Estabrook, Northeastern’s senior vice chancellor for student life, said every room on campus is sized according to code. While old buildings mean very few rooms are identical, a room’s square footage determines its capacity, meaning there could be larger singles or smaller doubles, Estabrook said.

The challenge of space is not left unaddressed. Estabrook said Northeastern has added roughly 3,000 beds in the past 15 years and proposed a 1,300-bed residence hall on a campus-owned lot. Recently, Northeastern began transforming a 428-room space in the Sheraton into permanent dorms, a student lounge, a dining area, and other amenities.

Still, due to experiential learning programs like co-ops, it’s not uncommon for Northeastern students to graduate in four-and-a-half or five years, putting pressure on university housing and sometimes landing students in less-than-optimal housing situations.