109 students on room draw wait list

According to the Housing and Real Estate Services website, students on the wait list can rank dormitory and roommate preferences, as well as include a detailed description of what characteristics they would like in their room.

“Sometimes they tell you that you’ll end up with a better room somehow, but mostly that doesn’t happen,” Abrol said.

The 109 students on the wait list are 11 more than the 98 who were on the list last year. Students on the wait list are placed into rooms that are made available through cancellations made by other students over the summer, Undergraduate Housing Manager Angela Hodgeman said in an email.

Doug Stuart ’14, another sophomore whose draw group had to apply for the wait list, visited the Housing Office once he found out that all the rooms had been drawn. Stuart said the Undergraduate Housing staff was unclear and vague in explaining the process and how they would eventually get rooms.

“They told us that the last five pages of the wait list were unable to draw for rooms and that enough people would study abroad or do similar things so that their rooms would open up for us,” Stuart said.

Once they apply, the wait list is organized in order of original room draw times. Students who did not take part in the original draw are put at the end of the list.

“Students on the wait list are assigned housing as rooms became available, and while Housing staff endeavor to match the students as closely as possible to their preferred housing, the choices are not guaranteed and they are limited to the rooms that become available,” University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said in an email.

All wait list applicants are guaranteed housing, but students on the upperclassman wait list will not learn where they will be living next year until early August at the earliest.

“We have no idea where we are living next year,” Abrol said. “And we won’t know where we will be living [on campus] until two to three weeks before we get back, which is unfortunate.”