As 2012 Suite Selection fast approaches, your housing questions are bound to multiply to the nth degree, like some sort of math thing we don’t learn about in our humanities seminars. Send ’em to us at housing@bwog.com, and we’ll do our darndest to get you some answers in time for the big day(s).

Q: I’m a senior in a group with five other seniors. We all want singles, but our lottery number is too terrible to get an EC townhouse. Will Senior Regroup help us at all, or will we have to drop down to General in order to avoid doubling up? I can’t seem to find any description of Senior Regroup on the housing website…

A: We’ll address this in a few parts: 1. The difference between Senior Regroup and dropping to General Selection, 2. What your options for singles would be if you chose to participate in Senior Regroup, and 3. What happens if you drop to General Selection.

1. To Regroup, Or Not To Regroup: At the end of Suite Selection for 30-point groups, groups that haven’t chosen a suite will be given the option to dissolve and form new groups with other 30-pointers. This option is only open to CC and SEAS students; Barnard students in suite groups are not eligible for regroup. (If you don’t choose to take that option, you’ll all drop immediately to General Selection with your original lottery numbers and priority numbers—note that priority number for mixed-point groups dropping to General Selection is determined by the option your group leader selected originally.) For those participating in regroup, the new groups are then randomly assigned new numbers that designate the order in which they’ll pick from the remaining suites. If your new groups still fails to select a suite, you’ll all fall to General Selection with your original lottery and priority number.

2. Where You Stand After Regrouping: Assuming you decide to regroup, it’s really a free-for-all. That means any, some, or all CC/SEAS members of your original suite group may choose to regroup with other seniors also participating in Regroup. So from here, you can form groups of any size, depending on which suites are left. If you take a look at last year’s cutoff history, you’ll see that your options of getting an all-singles suite are very slim. Really, all that will likely be open in the way of “singles” are medium or low-demand Woodbridge suites, and walk-through doubles in River and Schapiro. Which brings us to General Selection…

3. Dropping To General Instead: Should your group drop to General Selection, you will retain your original lottery and priority numbers. General Selection times are assigned after Suite Selection, and the process occurs online. Since you’ll have a 30-point priority number, lots of singles will be left for the taking. Last year’s cutoff history predicts that you could get a large Broadway single, a Symposium single, a Harmony single (if you can find it), a McBain/Schapiro/Wien single (but really…), a big River single with river views, or a 1-bedroom apartment in Watt. Since your whole group will have the same lottery and priority number, you can choose to pick singles in the hall, or dorm.

Our expert opinion? Glad you asked. If you’re a 30-point group with a bad lottery number, start thinking about arranging yourselves (or Regrouping) in such a way that allows for doubles. This will open up your Suite Selection options to 5-person EC Highrise suites (formerly known as Exclusion Suites), or in Regroup, suites in Ruggles and Claremont. It may not be ideal, but you can always switch out the double inhabitants over winter break, and/or play enough beer pong in your common room to forget about your misfortune.