48 CommentsWe’re on your side, Columbians. We give you the news, engage in relevant and intellectual debates, and we always answer your questions, even when they’re kinda awkward. And we know that aside from PrezBo’s hair, not much is more mystifying to the student body than the housing lottery. We have always strived to give you a hand when it comes to housing, but we know that many of you have questions that may get left unanswered. Once we realized that no one knows what questions you have better than yourselves, we decided to introduce a new housing feature: Ask Bwog HousingMaster!
Here’s how it works: send your housing questions to housing@bwog.com (or leave them in the comments), and we will make bad puns post your questions, along with the best answer we can come up with. All of these posts will appear in a new dedicated tab at the top of the page called “Housing Q&A.” There, you’re welcome to leave your own feedback, comments, and questions, and we will respond to the best of our ability in order to soothe your worried souls. Ready, set, inquire!
Loading …
48 Comments
@Rising Sophomore So ultimately junior regroup will kill any chances of a decent suite?
@Sophomore How likely is it for a Sophomore to get a double in the 600′s?
@Anonymous also– what’s the most likely option for (non-suite) doubles for rising juniors?
@Anonymous As a rising junior, what are my best options for a single? And should I do suite selection and then just drop into general? How does this work?
@Conor You can get a single in Broadway, Harmony, McBain, Nussbaum, Schapiro, or Wien. If you really, really, want a single, and not a suite, go for one of these, and get a single on a hallway. You could get these in General, or if you want to live on a hallway with a friend, go in together in Suite Selection and drop.
If you want a single in a suite, that’s a little trickier. Claremont, EC, and Ruggles are within your reach, but both include doubles, which are hard foist upon people. Everybody thinks they deserve the single.
@Anonymous Can you explain the number system for the lottery?
@Conor You get two numbers: priority and registration.
Your priority number is determined by your year (10 for rising sophomores, 20 for juniors, 30 for seniors). If you are entering Suite Selection, your group takes the average of all your priority numbers.
The second number is your lottery number, which will be between 1 and 3000. This is randomly assigned right after Spring Break.
Suite Selection then begins, starting with the 30 groups picking in order of lottery number best to worst, then the 28.75 groups top to bottom, like so all the way down to the 10 groups.
General Selection is for people who either shunned Suite Selection or dropped into it from Suite Selection. The order works the same way.
@Anonymous My group of friends all want singles on the same floor in Broadway next year but we’re scared of general selection. Is it safer to go in as a group for suite selection and then drop down to general or should we go straight for general?
@Conor I’m guessing you’re rising juniors? In any case, that’s a risky strategy, to say the least. If you really cannot compromise on who takes the double in a suite and you are dead-set on a hallway of Broadway singles together, go into Suite Selection and then drop to General.
Then, when your General Selection time comes up (and it will be the same for all of you), make sure you are next to one other on computers, so you can confer, picking whichever floor has room for all of you.
@Anonymous Yeah, we’re rising juniors. No one wants the double :/. Thanks.
@Anonymous Which dorms do current freshman (will be sophomore) get to choose from? Which ones are the nicest?
@anon As a rising sophomore (which is the term you’re looking for), one does not simply pick into housing; you get assigned whatever’s leftover. Sad but true.
@Conor Well, the LLC and SIC deadlines have passed. That leaves you with doubles in Nussbaum, Shapiro, McBain, and Wien. A couple mixed groups of rising juniors and rising sophomores will get Claremont. A lucky few rising sophomores will get doubles in Furnald; a very lucky, very few will get singles in Furnald.
Find a group of either two, four, six, or eight people for Suite Selection and try to pick into doubles on the same hallway.
@Anonymous You forgot to mention Wien doubles
@Anonymous You forgot Wien. There are many sophomores there.
@Conor That’s disappointing. Thanks.
@Anonymous You can pick right then and there. You don’t have to wait.
@Anonymous If you have a sophomore group of 4 for suite selection, can you pick two doubles right next to each other during your appointment time? Or does sophomore pair-up happen after all the sophomore groups have picked (like in senior and junior regroup)?
@Brian Yep! Pair-up happens during your suite selection appointment time. If you arrive and there are no suites available for your group size (quite likely as a sophomore), you get to break up into doubles, and you all pick together right then.
@rising junior What is the likelihood of a 5-person group composed of only juniors getting into an EC suite?
@Conor Well, last year a group of five sophomores scored an EC suite, but that just showcases the caprice and cruelty of the Housing gods.
The last (former) EC Exclusion suite before that went to 20/2956. So yes, it’s possible. Be wary though, of the possibility that by your Suite Selection appointment time all EC 5-persons might be gone. This could leave you with a hard choice to make for Junior regroup, should four of you want to pair off into Watt studio doubles.
@Anonymous Is Watt suites only? Or do are the 1 BR up for General Selection? If so, what are the chances of getting one as a rising senior?
@Anonymous Err. I meant suite selection only.
@Conor Those rooms are going to go during Suite Selection. You could get a Watt 1BR (which is a double) as a senior. Watt also has studio singles, the last of which went last spring to a rising junior, 20/164. That has to be some kind of fluke though; every year before it on record only seniors scored those.
@Anonymous I’m guessing the studio singles are General Selection?
@Brian They are.
@Dreams of NYC apartments... What are the odds for rising juniors for a 1 bedroom in Watt? (I don’t mean studio double)
@Conor Not good. Last year the final Watt 1BR went to 25/2535. Nothing is consistent from year to year, but the general trend over these few has been for Housing to get more competitive each year. Bottom line, don’t count on a Watt 1BR if you aren’t going in with a senior.
@Anonymous I’m a rising junior and am planning on going in as a group of 6 or 8 for Ruggles. If we end up getting a bad lottery number and find there aren’t any decent suites left, and want to break up into pairs to try for Watt or something else, would we have to wait until junior regoup (i.e. until everyone else has finished picking)? What do you think the chances that anything in Watt/a good double somewhere else would even be at that point?
Thanks!
@Alex See the above response: Junior Regroup will take place after all other junior suites are picked.
If you’re trying for a Ruggles suite, then you should probably have at least one senior in your group to bump up your priority number. Unfortunately, if you have a senior in your group, then you aren’t eligible for Junior Regroup. Catch-22.
As far as getting a decent double in regroup goes, it’ll be hard to predict this year if Watt will still be available. In the past, Watt doubles ran out near the end of junior suite selection, and so it would have been unwise to count on snagging Watt in what will now be regroup selection. But, with the addition of the ex-frat brownstones to the housing pool this year, there will be significantly more spacious doubles from which to choose. Watt’s availability will depend on the popularity of those new doubles. We’ll be able to get a better idea of where those rooms go in the lottery after we get a better look inside those new rooms.
Still, make sure you read the Junior Regroup rules at the above link, so that you don’t unintentionally force yourself into general selection.
@Truth What’s the word on junior regroup this year?
@Anonymous Pretty sure it works just like Senior Regroup, but with Juniors. If your suite comes up and there”s no longer any good options for a group your size, you drop to regroup and form a group of a different size.
@Ella It’s happening this year! A quick rundown of how it works:
Before this year, junior groups that either didn’t get to pick into a suite or didn’t want to pick into one of the remaining suites that fit their group size had to enter the General Selection process. But this year, junior groups will have the option to change their group size to fit the size of a remaining suite after the rest of the juniors have picked. So, for example, if you’re a junior in an 8-person group and you get to Housing to find that there are no 8-person suites left (or your group doesn’t want one of the remaining 8-person suites), you guys can break up into groups of whatever sizes to match the remaining suites you’d like to pick into.
For more information:
http://housingservices.columbia.edu/content/rules-exceptions#Junior%20Regroup%20Rule
@Anonymous I personally like the 600’s, but then you might have to double up. Worth it to have your own kitchen IMO.
@Swampy could you rank the top 5 cleanest dorms in terms of foul odors and presence of critters?
@Harmony Hunter They say Harmony is squeaky clean. Now if I could only find it…
@Conor We had to confer on this one: cleanest dorms are Broadway, Furnald, Hogan, River, and Wien (the newly renovated bathrooms are stunning).
Avoid McBain, Schapiro, and Ruggles.
@Help What is the best Barnard housing options for Sophomores?
@Anonymous in my opinion, 600s are the best, but i know sophomores in 110 and plimpton who are equally happy. it largely depends on how far you’re willing to walk to class in the morning/to the subway (that’s the one downside of plimpton). however, if you don’t necessarily want a suite, elliot is awesome– has a/c and a really nice common area/kitchen thing.
@Conor Sophomores hardly ever get Plimpton, and Elliott sucks (according to a Barnard staffer: “smallest rooms ever, it smells like the 4th floor of Butler”).
If you want a suite, try for the 600s. If you want a double, try Sulz Tower for it’s big rooms, awesome view, and convenient location.
Also courtesy that Barnard staffer, “You’re not going to get a single as a sophomore in Barnard Housing.”
@Anonymous You can definitely get a single as a sophomore in Hewitt.
@Hypothetically, If a sophomore gets a really good lottery number during suite selection, could he/she drop down to general selection to try for a Furnald single?
@Yes, but it’s not gonna happen. Sorry.
@Anonymous yesss. this is rare, but it happens. going in with a suite is a good safety
@RA with inside info Furnald will not have sophomores next year. They are transitioning to having it be all freshman for various reasons (one of them being unity of all southfield dorms being strictly freshman).
@CC '13 This rumor pops up every year and has yet to be true. My RA two years ago told me the same thing.
@Conor Hypothetically, yes, but it’s unlikely.
The cutoff for Furnald singles in General Selection last year was 10/170. This is misleading; a lot of those singles went to sophomores from mixed Claremont groups who dropped into General, taking with them priority numbers of 11.4.