when there are no ruggles suites left

Housing selection can be stressful for even the most level-headed among us. But even if your plans don’t work out, you can still find a great home in Columbia housing! Internal Editor Zoe Sottile shows you how it’s done. 

Sophomore Pair-Up (aka Sophomore Split)

Rising sophomores, you have a fun option that is officially called Sophomore Pair-Up, though I’ve personally only ever heard it called it Sophomore Split. Usually in Columbia housing, groups can only select into rooms of the same size – groups of two can only pick doubles, groups of six can only pick into six-person suites, et cetera. But rising sophomores can choose to register in even-numbered groups and then select adjacent doubles without breaking up their group. So, let’s say you’re a group of eight set on Carlton Arms, but there are no suites left when your room selection time comes along. You can choose to instead select into four adjacent doubles in McBain or Nuss. Easy-peasy! Crisis averted.

Senior Regroup

Upperclassmen, you do not have the safety of sophomore split – you have an option that’s a little bit messier but still allows you to change your housing options based on what’s available. Seniors, let’s imagine the worst scenario: the lottery time for your five-person group has come and there are no five-person suites left. You can reconfigure with other seniors in the same situation, creating a new group to select from the remaining suites – maybe recombining to snag a 7-person suite in Claremont, for instance. This is senior regroup! Your new group is assigned a new lottery number.

You can only reconfigure your group once, so choose carefully. At the end of Senior Regroup, if you still haven’t selected a suite, you’ll default to Online Selection with your original In-Person Group Selection lottery number.

Seniors in mixed-point groups and Barnard students, unfortunately you’re not eligible for regroup. Seniors in mixed-point groups that can’t select a suite can still drop to online selection; Barnard students in a group that decides to regroup will default to Barnard room selection.

Junior Regroup

Junior regroup is basically the same as senior regroup, except it only applies to groups that consist of only 20-point rising juniors. Junior regroup takes place after all the 20- and 30-point groups have already selected, but before the 10-point groups, i.e. rising sophomores. Same dealio: you want, let’s say, a 6-person Ruggles suite; there’s none left; you can reconfigure and try to get an 8-person suite instead.

Dropping To Online Selection

At Columbia, housing is divided into In-Person Selection – mostly for doubles and suites – and Online Selection – mostly for singles. If you’re registered for In-Person Selection, you can later switch to Online, but you can’t go from Online to In-Person. People mostly “drop to online” for a few reasons. Maybe your group gets a really good lottery number and you decide you’d rather go for singles; maybe there aren’t desirable rooms available for their group size and regroup either doesn’t apply or doesn’t work out. So, let’s say you’re a group of four rising seniors who wanted an EC suite. But you get a really good group lottery number, so you decide to go for studio singles in Watt instead. You keep the same lottery number but get a new selection time. This is all or nothing – if one person in the group decides to drop to online, everyone else has to either drop to online or do regroup if they’re eligible.

Sophomore Waitlist

Mhmmm sweet limbo. Every year, some sophomores are unable to select rooms during their selection time. This is mostly because housing reserves lots of rooms for freshmen, some of whom end up canceling through the summer. Students also choose to go abroad, move off campus, or take time off, leaving their rooms vacant. If there are no rooms left, complete the Sophomore Waitlist application on the Housing Portal. You have to do this or else you will lose your guaranteed housing!! Over the summer, as people cancel, you’ll be assigned a room. It’s stressful, but you’re guaranteed a room – don’t worry.
Summer Transfer

Unhappy with your selection? Still waiting out on the room of your dreams? If you’re still unhappy after selecting a room, you can apply for summer transfer. You complete an application on the Housing Portal in which you select your preferences. You can be as specific or as vague as you like – they’ll only transfer you to rooms within your parameters. So if you say you want a single, they’ll transfer you to whatever single becomes available. If you say you only want a studio single in Watt with a nice view, they’ll only transfer you to one of those. You cannot decline the transfer you’re given – there are no take-backs.

Summer transfer applications are processed first by class year and then by reverse lottery number. So this time having a bad lottery number actually helps you.

Image via Pixabay.