Construction and new facility decisions regarding student housing remain difficult for many colleges and universities. Challenges associated with these decisions include rising building costs, waning government funding, daunting facility safety codes, and compliance with evolving accessibility legislation, among many factors. One solution, partnering with public-private developers, has been an ever-growing practice on college campuses over the last 15 to 20 years. With increased reliance on public-private partnerships (P3), their impact on the sense of community (SOC) outcomes for residential students is important to understand in a comprehensive way. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in SOC outcomes of college students based on their lived experience in campus residences versus P3 housing. We employed a mixed methodological approach, and quantitative findings showed very little difference in SOC calculations for students in campus residences and P3-developed student housing. Qualitative findings supplemented the understanding of quantitative results; focus group participants highlighted consumer-mindedness, the impact of the first-year experiences, and facility design as factors most influential to a sense of community. [Discussion questions were developed by Aubree Lund, Eric Spencer, and Loren Berner.]