While some underclassmen may be nervous about the housing priority numbers they received last week, College administrators insist the numbers do not necessarily determine the type of room each student will be able to secure.
"Even the dead-last sophomore number could get a room because it depends who they're living with," said Martin Redman, the dean of residential life. "Past experience suggests that the worst number doesn't mean you're on the waitlist."
Some rising sophomores, however, will invariably wind up on the waitlist -- usually comprised of about 180 to 200 students and made up of about 80 percent first-year students, Redman said.
The remaining 20 percent on the list are generally upperclassmen who changed their Dartmouth Plans after the deadline or simply did not participate in room draw, according to Redman.
"Inevitably, the day after [room draw] ends, somebody comes into the Housing Office and says, 'I think I'm supposed to do something to get a room for the fall,'" Redman said.
Rising sophomores who have priority numbers in the bottom third of their class are more likely than other students to be on the waitlist, especially if their roommates' numbers are in the same range, according to Rachel Class-Giguere, the director of housing.
But Class-Giguere said many other factors can determine whether a rising sophomore will be able to obtain a room in College housing, such as applications to the East Wheelock cluster and affinity programs.
Even in light of these options, more than 13 current freshmen have already signed leases for apartments and will be living above Murphy's on the Green come Fall term.
Not all sophomores are disappointed with the rooms they end up in. Last year, a significant number of rising sophomores managed to get rooms in the coveted Massachusetts Row cluster. Over half of the students living in Mid Massachusetts Hall this fall were members of the Class of 2007, as were a full 25 percent of students in North and South Massachusetts Halls.
Adam Shpeen '07, who lives in a two-room triple in North Mass, is one of the lucky sophomores this year. But even with one roommate whose number was 60th from the top of his class last year, Shpeen and his roommates were still almost shut out of Mass Row.
"We probably got one of the last rooms for guys in all of Mass Row," Shpeen said.
Those who are not so fortunate can avoid the room-draw process altogether with options like the Treehouse roster, Class-Giguere said.
But students tend to shy away from the Treehouses, usually populated by sophomores, due to their undesirable location and tendency to shake with nearby construction.
The most attractive housing options are the Maxwell/Channing Cox apartments, aptly nicknamed the senior apartments.
"I have yet to see an apartment be left after the senior class. Typically the first bunch of numbers takes [them]," Redman said.
For many whose numbers are not good enough to guarantee that they will get their first housing choices, room draw can be a fairly unpleasant experience.
"It's just hectic. I don't like the way it's run, but I can't conceive of any other way that would be better," Shpeen said. "I guess you have to adapt to the system."
