Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share an update on where we are with Spring housing assignments.

Roommate Pairs:

We are happy (and honestly, a bit surprised!) to say that the graduate student release opened up a lot of opportunities for undergraduate roommate pairs to be placed together.  Right now, we think the majority of pairs who applied will be placed together.

Pretty much every opportunity for a pair to be placed together is on Central Campus - all apartment sizes are possibilities (studio, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 2-bedroom suite, and 3-bedroom).

About half of the available opportunities are in 3-bedroom (4-person) apartments.  These apartments have two small single rooms that share a bathroom and one larger double room that has its own bathroom.  Floor plans are available on our website.

Instead of just randomly placing pairs together in these apartments, we are looking for sets of roommate pairs who want to live together (think of it as a block of four in one apartment).   If you are interested, please have one person from each roommate pair email Housing Accommodations with the names of the four students who want to be placed together.  We will hold off on assigning these apartments for a week so that you have a chance to get in touch with your friends and pair up. If you have friends who originally wanted a single or weren’t in a pair, they can also join you in these apartments - they should email us with the names of the four people who are trying to live together.  You need four people to fill these apartments.

We will use these requests to make assignments in conjunction with the applications you previously submitted.

Singles:

Demand for singles is, as is usually the case, higher than supply.  Right now, fewer than half of the students requesting singles will likely get them.  We recommend that students seeking singles consider using the roommate finder to see if there is someone who has a vacancy in their room with whom you’d wish to live.  If there isn’t a single available for you when we are doing placement, we will use your listed preferences to place you as best we can with a roommate.  You may also want to try to get together with three other students in a 3-bedroom (4-person) apartment – details above.

Assignment Timeline:

We will be sending out the results of reassignments around Thanksgiving.  This information comes out early so students who are moving may be prepared to do so in December.

Assignments for students returning from abroad or leave of absence will go out in early-to-mid December.  Experience has shown that the longer we wait, the greater the chance we will be able to meet your preferences as more students cancel their housing.  We appreciate your patience!

Please let us know if you have any questions!
Jen

Off-Campus Lottery Results:

The results of the off-campus lottery were emailed to students yesterday (10/13) at 5pm.  At that time, 258 students were released (exactly half male, half female).  Just under 10% of the released students currently live on-campus; the remainder are abroad for Fall 2009.  The only students not released were those who were ineligible for the lottery.

If you were released and later decide you want to be on-campus, you will be placed at the end of the assignment process.  We will still guarantee you a space on-campus, but it is very unlikely that your preferences will be met.

We will continue to review late requests from eligible students on a case-by-case basis. If you are still interested in release, submit your application on the lottery form. (You can ignore the dates on the form.)  We will respond to applications on a rolling basis.

Projected Availability for Spring:

Reviewing the current projected demand for housing for Spring and the projected cancellations, we anticipate having enough space for students seeking housing.  Please keep in mind that the available beds may not allow for roommate pairs to be placed together or for students to receive their preferred room size or location.

Four-Person Apartments: As you may be aware, we offered graduate students the opportunity to cancel their Spring licenses in order to make more space available for undergraduate roommate pairs.  As a result, we have a few three-bedroom (four-person) apartments available.  We originally did not anticipate having any of these available.

Roommate pairs: The options for roommate pairs are somewhat improved, but still scarce.  To give you some perspective, we currently project approximately two-dozen roommate pairs being placed together in empty apartments or rooms (which is about double what we expected before we did the graduate student release).  We expect approximately 260 housing applications.  We can’t really predict how many of those applications will be from roommate pairs, since that varies widely from year to year, but it is likely that only 1/4 to 1/3 of preferred roommate pairs will be placed together.

If you are filling a confirmed vacancy in a room with a preferred roommate, we guarantee placement together.  The above projections are specifically for roommate pairs looking to move together or be placed together in an empty room or apartment.

Singles: We are getting a lot of questions about singles.  Every year, singles open up as seniors graduate early or juniors go abroad.  Yes, there will be singles available, but no, we really can’t predict your chances of getting one.

Indicating Preferences on the Application: Another common question is “What should I indicate as my preferences if I want to live with my friend but I would prefer a single if we can’t live together?” (or vice versa).  The application has ten spaces to list your preferences, in order, as well as an “other information” box.  Believe it or not, we read through all of the applications before we begin placement, so make use of the “other information” box.  Be true to your preferences and list them in order. Use the box to make it clear if your priority is to get a single or if your priority is to live with a friend.  Just keep in mind that we can’t guarantee your preferences will be met, but it is much more likely they will be if you explain them clearly than if you assume we know what you want!

Hopefully some of you found that helpful - please contact us if you have questions about the process, and remember that applications are due October 31.

Good Luck!

Jen