The Housing Lottery

It’s that time of year again at Hamilton College… The Housing Lottery. The weather is just starting to pull itself out of the eternal winter, and the stress of finals is just starting to hit, so why throw in the chaos that is the Housing Lottery. Every year upperclassmen tell nervous first-year students, that you’ll realize who your real friends are during the housing lottery. This half cynical and sarcastic statement sums up the housing lottery pretty well though. While nearly all friendships survive the experience, there is nothing quite like scrambling to find housing near the people you want to live with, but with a little flexiabilty anyone can survive the housing lottery. 

Numbers:

Everyone is assigend a randomly generated number, going from 1 to around 400 for each class year. The lower your number is, the better pick for housing will be, but if you have a really high number, it’s not hopeless yet. 

Pulls:

Pulls allow someone with a lower number to help a friend with a higher number. Singles can be “pulled” next to each other, meaning that one person  can choose two singles that they and a friend can live next door to each other in. This also works for doubles, triples, and quads.

The Lottery Day: 

The day of the lottery is an eventful and stressful day, but one thing to remember is that in the end everyone gets housing. There are three separate lotterys – for rising seniors, juniors, and somophores – that start at 9:30 am and into the evening. There are always plentiy of friendly and helpful RAs hanging around to help guide people in the lottery, so be prepared with your top housing pick and about 500 backup plans, but take a deep breath because everything will turn out fine.