I'm interested in buying some college student rental properties in Morgantown WV (WVU). 

The majority of investors were repeat participants and involved people in multiple states.

Does the partnership just need to meet the "material participation" rule for us to take the losses against W2?

A friend of mine turned a student housing unit into a high end rental (lots of interior remodel) for executives spending one month at the university for the in residence month of the online executive MBA program.  

Certainly a big part of making money is learning how it works...I'm reminded of a student asking Roberto Guizuetta what he should study when he spoke at our school and his answer was "at the end of the day, you have to learn all of it". 

I've seen 4 students split a room. 

I found a Problem, lots of Students who are not from the city have,( Which I personally also Had), It is very very hard to find a place to live near campus under budget ( under 1k here in San Francisco), at least not a safe place.

This is also one of the key reasons I don't and never have participated in government housing programs. 

When I hear commercials for REI students, I hear the same buzzwords - wealth, other people's money, easy, perfect market, etc. 

I have an interesting History.I started a Real Estate Education Business where I taught my own Real Estate Course based upon a solid foundation of Financial Calculations such as PV, FV, DCR, Amortization Tables, ROR, ROI, Cashflows, IRR, etc.The Year I started the Course was around 2005 or 2006 and I tried recruiting students from an REIA that was called "NYCCashflow".What I offered was to teach all the Math that was necessary to become a sophisticated Real Estate Investor.There were also 3 Levels to the Class and each level needed to have a Final Exam to move up.I only charged $20 per week, but you had to spend 3 hours for that single class per week for approximately 6 months because most Students, including most Investors, are really Financially Math Illiterate.