Frequently Asked Questions About Housing Selection & Lottery
Registering and Lottery Numbers:
Q. Where can I find my Lottery Number?
A. Once all forms are submitted, Lottery Numbers are generated and loaded into
My Lottery on the Wednesday
before Lottery. You can find them under Step 5.
Q. Do I even need to sign up for Lottery? My friend has a good
Lottery Number so I'm just going to use their number.
A. You CAN NOT participate in any Lottery process unless you have
signed up through My Lottery and have a Lottery number. We must have a
signed housing application on file for any student
participating in Housing Lottery.
Q. What is my "Lottery Class", and how is it calculated?
A. On your My Lottery Forms you will see a Lottery Class listed. Lottery
Class refers to the rising class year that you are considered for Lottery
purposes; Sophomore, Junior, or Senior. Students who will be graduating or participating in the 5th year program are identified as Graduate Lottery Class, but will get a random number within the Senior Lottery Class pool. Your lottery class is determined by adding 5 credits to the number of credits
completed at the end of the Fall semester. To be a Junior you must have 16
credits, to be a senior, you must have 24 credits, and to be a graduate you must have
32 credits. All students with less than 16 anticipated credits are considered rising Sophomores.
Q. I have extra credits, will I get a better Lottery number than my
classmates?
A. Lottery numbers are completely random by class year, so unless you have
enough credits to be considered the next class year, your extra credits will not be factored in.
Q. My friend and I want to exchange our Lottery Numbers, can we do that
if we both agree?
A. No, Lottery numbers are not transferrable under any conditions.
Lottery Night
Q. Where do I go for Lottery?
A. Lottery is held in the Dining Hall, and starts at 8:00PM. The
exception is that Special Interest Housing selection takes place in the RLH
Office at 5:00PM.
Q. What time should I show up for Lottery?
A. You should show up based upon the best Lottery number in your group.
If you are selecting with a Junior number, you should show up no earlier than
the starting Junior number
time.
You can also
monitor
upcoming Lottery Numbers and come when your number is getting closer.
Q. My Roommate or I can not make it to Lottery Night. What do we
do?
A. Any student who can not be present at Lottery must assign a "proxy" to act in
their place on their behalf. Proxy forms can be printed through
My Lottery Step 3 and anyone can
act as a proxy, including roommates. It is important that you understand
that your proxy has the power to select any space for you, and you can't change
that until 2 weeks after the semester starts, so be sure to pick a trustworthy
proxy.
Room Selection
Q. How do I know what rooms are available?
A. You can find an up to date list of all rooms available during
Lottery on our
Rooms
Available For Lottery page. These rooms disappear when students are
assigned to them, so check it often for the most up to date info. The
Lottery Size is the number of students (or students +
buyouts) required to sign up for a space.
Q. I don't have a roommate/suitemates lined up, can I just select a
space and allow other students to sign up into it?
A. Yes and No. If you are looking for a double room and do not have a roommate in mind, you are not able to select a room alone and will want to sign up for the Automatic Assignment process. If you have a roommate or are looking for single but you want to live in a suite, you may want to pursue Flex-Fill housing which allows you to select certain rooms within a suite or apartment without filling a full apartment. Otherwise, in order to select any space at Lottery, you need to fill that space
either completely with students, or with a combination of students and vacancy
buy-outs. To help you find roommates you can use roommate finder - part of
My Lottery.
Q. I have a group of X number of students... all the X person suites are
gone... what do I do?
A. Groups in this situation can choose to disband and seek smaller rooms, or
they can look for additional students to form a larger group. They may
also choose to buy-out spaces in a larger suite if that is something they are
interested in. In the end, you must fill the space to select it.
Q. Where do I indicate on my forms who I will be living with?
A. There is nowhere on your forms to indicate a roommate because we do not need
to know until you come to Lottery and pick a room together.
Q. Can I switch my room after I pick it?
A. Not unless it is within your lottery group. Once a room is selected, you are committed to that room until the room
freeze period ends two weeks into the Fall Semester. This is because you
must have a complete group to select a space, and if you were to switch rooms
after, that group would no longer be eligible to have selected the space they
did. Your group (even if it is only one person in a single), prevents
other students from selecting a room after you went, and so they likely select
another room... and that prevents someone else from selecting a room. This
cycle continues until you have students who do not get a space at Lottery at all
because you selected yours. This is why we do not permit room changes
post-lottery, unless they are within a group.
Q. What if I select a room that is too expensive?
A. We go to great lengths to provide students with housing costs upfront, so
that there are no surprises at Lottery. Room rates are available on our
website
here, and are linked directly from Rooms
Available For Lottery, etc. Students should not be surprised by the
cost of the room they choose, and we encourage you to discuss your financial
options with your families before Lottery so that they are not surprised either.
If your financial standing changes, and you are no longer able to afford the
room you chose, you have two options. The first is to wait until the Room
Freeze ends in the fall, and switch rooms with someone else. The second is
to provide documentation of financial hardship, and if Financial Aid deems that need sufficient, we will remove you from your assignment and put
you on the waitlist to be assigned to a different room over the summer.
Your original space will be filled by the Automatic Assigment process, by waitlisted students, or by transfer
students. You will be reassigned last after other students who
did not get a space at Lottery should space allow..
Cancellation Fees
Q. If I go abroad in the Spring Semester will I be charged a fee?
A. No, students who go abroad in the spring do not pay a cancellation fee.
Students who select a room and then go abroad in the FALL pay a $300
cancellation fee.
Q. What happens if I register for Lottery, but do not select a room?
A. If you don't select a room at Lottery, we will verify if you are required to
live on campus. If so, you will be placed on the waitlist and assigned a
room. If you are a Junior or Senior who has met their housing requirement
and does not select a room after applying, you will be charged a $100
cancellation fee. (This fee is waived if you cancel your application
BEFORE lottery numbers come out).
Q. What happens if I transfer to another school or take a leave of
absence after selecting a room?
A. If you transfer schools, or take a leave of absence, you will be charged a
$100 cancellation fee. In addition, if you come back in the Spring, you
remain bound to the contract and must live on campus.
Q. What if I get a room and then decide to live off-campus?
A. Students who select a room and then choose to move off campus will pay a
$1,000 cancellation fee.
Same Room Sign-Up
Q. What is Same Room Sign-Up, and can I do it?
A. Same Room Sign-Up (SRSU) is a process that allows students to stay in the
same room/suite/apartment for the next year. Your My Lottery Account will
indicate if you are eligible for SRSU. Students in First Year only areas (WH,
BH, and SH), or areas where utilization is being changed switched for the
following year (spaces being converted to staff housing, etc.) cannot do SRSU.
Q. How many current residents must stay to do Same Room Sign-Up?
A. The rules for Same Room Sign-Up are that you must have at least 50% of your
current room size remain, and be able to fill the rest of the space to be able
to stay. This means you need one person to stay in a double (plus a
roommate or a buy-out), you would need 3 current residents to stay in a 6 person
suite (plus fill the rest), etc. The exception is that you may stay in
a triple with only one returning student.
Buy-Outs
Q. What is a buy-out? Why would I want one?
A. A
buy-out is an opportunity to reduce the capacity of a room by paying
additional money for the space. A buy-out costs $1200 per semester on top
of the base rate of the room, and can be split among 2 people in a triple.
The most common use of a buy-out is to make a double room a single. Why
this makes a lot of sense is that the cost of a single is $1100 more per
semester than a double, so therefore a buy-out is just $100 more per semester
than a single. For that extra $100 you get a room that is twice as big,
with two beds, two desks, etc. You can push the beds together, or have a
guest bed. You can make a big desk, etc. The flexibility is endless,
and worth the extra money for many students.
Q. How many buy-outs are available?
A. We determine the number of buy-outs based upon interest in Lottery and the
anticipated size of the first year class. You can view the number of
remaining buy-outs on our Rooms
Available For Lottery page.