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The Housing Games

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Ally Bruschi
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Caroline Black
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Kenyon chapter.

The day is almost upon us, folks: the infamous Housing Lottery. The day we all trudge our way down to the KAC basketball courts to have our fates determined. The day that a unanimous feeling of anxiety and grumpiness fills the air (along with ResLife’s playlist, which last year included ALOT of The Fray). Some will be walking out of the arena with the promise of a luxurious Taft Cottage; others will leave with a third year in Mather looming over their heads. The harsh objective “fairness” of the lottery leaves some of us feeling as disadvantaged as little Rue from the Hunger Games (what are the odds that the same person could get in the bottom 15 numbers of her class 2 years in a row? Seriously???)
 
But we must remain optimistic! The lottery is only as daunting and stressful as you make it, right? Here are some tips for our readers to help you all prepare for the lottery:

1. Plan ahead! This is not the time to take a laissez-faire approach to your future. Grab life by the horns, sit down with your friends, and plan your dream (or most realistic) home.

2. Be Assertive with what you want: if all of your friends want to live south and you want to live north, give your most persuasive arguments, take a chance! You are considering where you’re going to live for ten months of your life, after all.

3. Be aware of costs: Check out the different housing rates and make sure that the space you have your sights on is within your parents’/loan’s/financial aid’s budget.

4. Check out your options online! See where the biggest rooms are, how close the nearest laundry facilities are (you’re not going to love a long commute when there’s a foot of snow on the ground and you’re literally toting your dirty laundry across campus.

5. Shop around: Ask people you know if you can take a tour of their living space so you can get a feel for the place before you commit. Because who really knows what 155 square feet looks like? (I’ll give you a hint, guys: it’s not very big.)

6. Bring tissues: Someone is bound to need them, even if you hopefully don’t. Also: spiked coffee.
 
And may the odds ever be in your favor!

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Ally Bruschi is a senior political science major at Kenyon College. She spent this past summer interning as a writer with both The Daily Meal, a digital media group  dedicated to "all things food and drink" and The Borgen Project, a non-profit organization that partners with U.S. policymakers to alleviate global poverty. Before entering the "real world" of jobs, however, Ally spent many summers as a counselor at an all-girls summer camp in Vermont, aka the most wonderful place on earth. A good book, a jar of peanut butter, a well-crafted Spotify playlist, and a lazy dog could get her through even the worst of days.
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Caroline Black is a senior Drama major at Kenyon College. In addition to co-founding and writing for her school's HC branch, Caroline is co-president of Beer and Sex, Kenyon's student-run freshman orientation program (and she enjoys making jokes about that title as much as you do). When she's not doing hippy-dippy acting warm-ups or volunteering with her service organization, The Archon Society, Caroline enjoys watching "Parks and Recreation" and dismaying her friends with terrible puns.