ur future home

Put down your Marx-Engels reader and buckle up, kids. Housing season is here. Internal Editor Zoe Sottile tells you what’s up.

CC and SEAS students, gather your friends and pray for a low lottery number: it’s time to register for next year’s housing. Registration began on Friday, March 1 and closes on Thursday, March 7 at 11:59 pm. If you don’t register, you run the risk of losing guaranteed housing – yes, even if you’re planning on studying abroad, moving off campus, living in an SIC or Greek life house, or have a job as an RA.

Some important notes:

  • To be clear, you’re not choosing where you’re actually going to live yet – you’re just registering to make sure there IS a place for you to live.
  • You can register for housing at the Housing Portal website here.
  • The Columbia housing calendar is available here.
  • If you want a single in a corridor style building – i.e. Shapiro, River, Harmony, or Wien – you should register for online selection. During online selection, individuals can select either singles in those buildings or pick into one half of empty doubles.
  • On the other hand, if you know with whom you want to live, you should register for in-person selection. This allows for selecting doubles or larger suites. In-person selection requires that you make a group of at least 2. For rising sophomores, it’s best to register in even-numbered groups for maximum options; upperclassmen, your mileage may vary. For rising sophomores, an option called sophomore pair-up allows you to make a group of say, 6, and select into adjacent doubles on the same floor. Alternately, for upperclassmen, you can only pick into suites that are the same size as your housing group. If there aren’t any suites left by your selection time, junior regroup allows you to change your housing group to fit what’s available.
  • Here are some past posts that explain the housing process.
  • Barnard students, your time is coming soon. Barnard housing registration opens on 1 pm this Wednesday, March 6th. We’ll have more posts for you soon.

In the coming weeks, Bwog will have a lot of housing coverage, including reviews of every dorm on campus and strategies to game the system. Send your questions / thoughts / tasteful nudes to tips@bwog.com!

Photo of McBain via Flickr.