Housing priority numbers for next year are now available on the "ADM-HOUS" database of the College's DarTerminal program, and the Office of Residential Life will mail the numbers to students on Thursday.
The new priority numbers take effect Summer term and are valid through next Spring term.
According to Director of Housing Services Lynn Rosenblum, only one change has been made to this year's housing procedures. Last year, "super seniors" -- seniors that did not graduate with their classes -- received a priority number between one and 300 and were allowed to room with any regular seniors who they chose.
This year, to prohibit seniors from purchasing high-priority numbers from "super seniors," "super seniors" rooming with students in any other class must sign a contract stating they will forfeit the first term's room rent and lose their room if they renounce their housing contract.
This provision -- created by an ad-hoc ORL committee on housing -- was put into effect last year for all other students, but did not take "super seniors" into account. The rule prevents underclassmen from buying a priority number from an older student only to have the older student cancel the housing contract, leaving the underclassmen with a desirable room.
As in past years, housing year will be determined by a student-wide lottery divided by class. Juniors will receive a number between 1,101 and 2,300, sophomores between 2,301 and 3,500 and freshman between 3,501 and 4,700. Numbers between 301 and 1,100 are assigned to Tuck students and are independent of the undergraduates.
"A bad priority number does not necessarily mean you will not get housing," Rosenblum said. She said one way to get around having a bad housing number is to room with a friend who has a good number.
"Last year, the people that had some of the highest numbers were in a triple with upperclassmen," she said.
Another way is to use the block-housing option, in which groups of up to eight friends can be housed in the same building or cluster, and often on the same floor, she said.
This year, there will be about 2,800 beds available for the fall term.
According to Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels, some campus beds will be lost when a second stairwell is added to Richardson residence hall this summer, but about 20 beds were added due to the leasing of the former Beta Theta Pi fraternity house by the Alpha Xi Delta sorority.
Associate Registrar Nancy Broadhead said it is impossible to estimate the number of students who will be enrolled for Fall term because the incoming class size is unknown and freshman have not submitted their Dartmouth Plans. Last year, 3,776 students were enrolled for Fall term.
Rosenblum said since she does not know how many students will be in residence in the fall, she is unsure of the number of people who will be put on the housing wait list.
"We had great success last year, and I am certainly hoping it will be the same or similar [this year]," she said. She said students will find out whether they are on the wait list in the beginning of May when all the room applications and assignments are completed.
Rosenblum said students should not worry about receiving housing. Last year, all 76 students on the wait list received housing by the middle of June and students with a provisional D-Plan status -- meaning they had changed their original Fall term plans from an off term to a term in residence -- had housing by July 8.
She stressed the importance of applying by the housing deadline to ensure the best possible chance of getting a desired room. The application deadline for Fall term housing is April 16.
Jen Renz '01, whose priority number is 4626, said although she has a low priority number, she thinks the housing system "is fair because it is random and nobody has any preference over anybody else."
Matt Walker '01 said about his low 4652 priority, "It has not bothered me so much, but I doubt how random it was." He said his roommates have very low priority numbers as well.
During the first week of March, Rosenblum will be available in residence clusters in the evenings for informational sessions about housing issues.
