Housing lottery
The housing lottery is the heart of the Room Selection process.
Point values
Once Room Selection registration is over, each group or individual is assigned a point value ranging from 10 to 30 according to senior/junior/sophomore status as follows:
- rising seniors get 30 points
- rising juniors get 20 points
- rising sophomores get 10 points
Senior/junior/sophomore status is determined based on the year a student entered Columbia, not on the year he expects to graduate. If students form a group for a double or suite, the group point value is the average of its Columbia College and SEAS members (but not Barnard College members).
Lottery numbers
Next, each group or individual is assigned a random, computer-generated lottery number ranging from 1 to 3000. (Groups share a single lottery number.)
Implications for room selection
The order in which students select their room is determined by a combination of point value and lottery number. A student with 30 points and lottery number 1 gets to choose his room first, all the way up to a student with 30 points and lottery number 3000, who in turn gets to choose his room before a student with 20 points and lottery number 1, and so on down the ranks. Appointment dates and times are assigned accordingly.
Students then try to determine exactly what they'll be able to get, especially by referring to the cutoff history, though keep in mind that the cutoff history varies greatly from year to year, and cannot accurately predict what will happen.
