The Office of Residential Life mailed out housing priority numbers to students at the beginning of this week, but Assistant Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty said he is unsure whether the College will experience a housing crisis similar to last year's.
Beatty said 3,776 students are enrolled for Fall term. There are 2,809 on-campus beds available.
The application deadline for Fall term housing is April 18.
This year housing numbers are determined by lottery, generated within the extent of a student's class. Members of the Class of 1997 received a number between 1,101 and 2,300. Sophomores' numbers ranged from 2,301 to 3,500 and freshmen's between 3,501 and 4,700.
Beatty said the residential fate of the members of the Class of 1998 is largely dependent on the behavior of upperclassmen.
Beatty said a low housing priority number will not necessarily drive a student off campus.
"You don't know what other people are doing," he said.
The Fall term housing crunch has afflicted Dartmouth for sometime, climaxing in 1993 when 13 students began Fall term living in study lunges converted into temporary dormitory rooms.
"In years past, we were dying for beds in the first two weeks of September," Beatty said.
Although Beatty said waitlist numbers will not be down from last year, they should be considerably lower than the 470 students who were on the waitlist in the fall of 1994.
Beatty said last fall the College began the term with 60 open beds, although 132 students were on the waitlist in the spring.
Last year, Beatty said, many '98s panicked and signed off-campus leases when they received high numbers.
Beatty said students with low priority numbers can obtain on-campus housing by finding a roommate with a better number or applying to live in an academic affinity or special interest houses.
"There are a lot of ways to look at it," he said.
Garry Stern '99, whose priority number is in the 4,400s, is one of many freshmen uncertain about his Fall term living arrangements. "I guess I'll have to start building a house," he said.
Some sophomores seem to have grown accustomed to life outside the residence halls.
Abbey Doolittle '98, who said she was pushed off-campus last year by a high number, might not leave her Hanover apartment. "I kind of like living off [campus] now," she said.
William Curran '98 spent last year in the New Dorms but chose to move into a apartment on West Wheelock Street last Fall term.
"I like it better than living on campus," Curran said. "I have a single, cable ... it's the same price."
According to Beatty, the earlier system was a "terrible, two-faced process."
Beatty said the current housing process, drawn up last winter, is relatively efficient and fair. "We want to get you settled, settled once -- so you don't have to waste your time," he said.
Beatty said ORL will know how large the waitlist is by mid-May.
Come that time, "if you are 189 or higher on the wait list," Beatty advised, look for a friend with a lower number.
In order to answer questions concerning the admittedly "complicated" housing process, ORL will conduct a series of information sessions in residential clusters.
