Every spring, friendships are made yet simultaneously stretched thin. The reason for this? The Housing Lottery.
During the weeks leading up to spring break and immediately following it, students’ residential college deans and housing representatives begin sending out emails about housing for the next academic year.
Prefrosh don’t have to worry about the housing lottery since their dean places them into suites based on responses to their housing and advising form. Although not all housing situations will be perfect, the survey is students’ best chance of having a favorable rooming arrangement. First years in most residential colleges will live in Old Campus, where they will be able to experience a slice of Rory Gilmore’s life (she lived in Durfee Hall). Meanwhile, first years placed in Timothy Dwight, Silliman, Pauli Murray, and Benjamin Franklin will get to live in their residential college, which has its perks as well.
The housing lottery tends to be stressful since students must decide whether they want to stay with their current suitemates, form new suites, or live in a single. While the housing lottery differs amongst the residential colleges, rising sophomores typically get to choose their rooms first since they, like the first years, have guaranteed housing. After the sophomore housing draw, the rising seniors then get to choose their rooms. Ultimately, the housing process concludes with rising juniors.
Before the official housing draw, students fill out their preferred rooming situations on an online platform (currently, we use StarRez). Although many groups are formed during this process, these configurations are not definite as there may not be enough suites to accommodate all the groups formed.
Finally, the dreaded yet highly anticipated day occurs when the housing draw takes place. Typically, the housing draw occurs in either the dining hall or common room of students’ residential college. Students receive a number for their slot in the housing draw, with smaller numbers signifying an earlier suite selection to determine the order students choose their rooms. While the method for drawing a number varies, a common one is simply grabbing a number from a hat. In some colleges, the largest groups choose their rooms first. That way, as the largest available suites are occupied, the groups without a suite are broken up, and the overflow trickle down to the housing draw for smaller groups.
Ideally, at the end of the housing draw, students will know their rooms for the following year. While not all situations may be ideal, the housing draw is a fair method for determining housing for the many students living on campus. The exact housing process varies with each residential college, but the overall structure of the housing draw remains the same.
