Are you getting no calls at all, or are you getting calls doing showings and no one applies, or are you getting applications but no one passes your screening?

As for smoking we don't allow it even so we had someone set a couch on fire.Your application will be a little different, include majors and do a web search on them for your screening. 

It sounds like you have a very complex situation, where a bank may not feel like venturing unless everything else about your application is iron-clad.  

Also, once you get the multifamily, it would seem the VA guarantee would make you a stronger applicant for your primary....because the investment property is risky....ask a mortgage broker or loan officer.

Banks often take 30 days or more to deny an application.

If your rental is smack dab in the middle of UMD campus than you might be limiting your applicants to much and need to stick with the college students (maybe consider a cosigner though for financially weak applicants).  

Looks like your standard skip-trowel plaster application.

It has been few weeks, and I haven't been able to approve a single application!

There is a quote of Winston Churchill's that is both applicable, and the best freaking quote ever if you make t-shirts for community outreach. 

It's the guys with the big bucks that are able to try out the newest technology and innovative designs, then pieces of that creativity sometimes are adaptable on a smaller scale to more commercial applications and mass markets.