Sort of like a House music concert, but actually not at all and really just a housing lottery.

In addition to our totally fresh, 2011, just-for-you ;) coverage, we’ll be bringing back some posts from last year that you might find helpful and also might not want to waste time searching for in the archives. Today, enjoy this retro Housing Lottery post from last spring.

No one ever really explained it to us, so we figured we’d explain it to you, our sweet, sweet readers. Read on for a step-by-step of how the lottery works. In the next few days, we’ll be posting what you should know about every dorm on campus, links to dorm reviews and tips, how to get Barnard housing as a Columbia student, and why the McBain shaft is okay in the end. Housing registration opened Tuesday and continues until March 10th. Happy lottery!

1. Everyone registers. You can either do Suite Selection with 1 to 7 other people or go straight to General Selection. If you opt for Suite Selection, you get to participate in General Selection with the same lottery number if you decide not to make a room choice during Suite Selection or if there is no suite available for your group size. Registration takes place on the Housing website starting March 1. Each group must have a person picked as the “coordinator” to act as a point person.
2. Lottery and priority numbers are assigned. Each group (Suite) or person (General) is assigned a priority number and a lottery number. Priority: 10 = rising sophomore, 20 = rising junior, 30 = rising senior (based on the semester you started at Columbia, not on your current standing). For a group, the group priority is the average of all the group members’ priorities. Lottery numbers are assigned to each group in Suite Selection and each individual in General Selection at random from 1-3000. They are independent of priority numbers. Your Suite Selection appointments times are assigned first by priority number then by lottery number. E.g., a senior with lottery number 3000 picks before a junior with lottery number 200. Exception: Groups picking into a 5-person EC Exclusion Suite (3 singles, one double in EC) will have a priority number that is the average of the highest three numbers in their group. (EDIT: The times, they are a’changin’)
3. Suite selection appointment times are assigned. Read Bwog every day during Suite Selection for our LiveBwog of the remaining suites available. At the end of the 30-point priority appointment times, groups of seniors may regroup with other seniors to form new configurations with new randomly-assigned lottery numbers valid only for Senior Regroup. If a group of seniors still fails to select a suite, they then fall to General Selection with their original priority number. At the end of the 10-point priority appointment times, 10-point groups may split into group of two to pick into corridor doubles. Otherwise, they also drop to General Selection.
4. After the hullabaloo of Suite Selection, General Selection appointment times are posted. General Selection is done online, not in person.
5. After selection is over: If you’re a sophomore and you did not get assigned a room, you go on a wait list and get whatever is left over after Housing makes final assignments. If you do not like your room selection, you may apply for summer transfer. The people who apply for summer transfer get to pick again in reverse-Lottery number order.

Remember: every participant has two numbers: a priority and a lottery number.
Priority: 10 = rising sophomore, 20 = rising junior, 30 = rising senior.

Photo via Wikimedia commons.