Three hundred and nineteen students have applied to live in College Houses for the 2013-2014 school year.
Rising sophomores submitted the bulk of the applications, though 10 of the applicants are upperclassmen, according to Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon.
There are 200 available spots in social houses, not including eight beds reserved for proctors.
College House applications allow students to apply to multiple Houses, so total numbers of applications can be calculated in two ways: how many students rank a House as their first choice, and how many students applied to a House in total (regardless of rank).
Quinby House was the most popular first choice and received 63 applications for 24 beds. Fifty students applied for 31 beds in Baxter House, and 47 students applied for 22 beds in Ladd House.
MacMillan, Quinby and Ladd received the most applications overall.
“We already have enough first choice people for every house except Howell,” McMahon said. “Some rooms in Howell will go through the lottery.”
The Office of Residential Life would not provide additional application numbers.
“We don’t release all of the House numbers at this point because past experience tells us this information will cause some applicants to scrutinize their prospects and chances in a way that is purely numbers-based when the actual selection process can be more qualitative than the [bed to applicant] ratio would suggest,” McMahon wrote in an email.
There are 497 students in the Class of 2016, and nearly all members of the first-year class began applications, though over a hundred did not complete them.
“We had 442 people start the process, and then learned more about it and decided not to do it, which I think is good,” McMahon said. “It’s not for everybody.”
One hundred and three blocks of students applied; block interviews will take place next Wednesday through Saturday. Twenty-seven faculty and staff members will assist with the interviews, as will numerous students, though the final count is yet to be determined.
College House decisions will be released the week of April 1.
ResLife has also completed its interview process for proctor and RA positions, and decisions will be released next week.
The updates to the chem-free first-year housing system are the most significant changes in the selection process for ResLife and College Houses this year. Next year, each floor in the first-year bricks will be affiliated with a different College House (and designated chem-free “floating floors” will be spread throughout individual dorms), so House residents are going to have to use “that much more energy” to connect to their first years in four different bricks, McMahon said.
But, she added, “I think the Houses are totally, totally ready for this.”
ResLife has also begun the search for a replacement for Chris Rossi ’10, assistant director of residential life, and Ben Farrell, former associate director of residential education. Farrell left ResLife earlier this month, and Rossi will leave his post when his contract expires at the end of the academic year. The positions have been posted in the “higher education job world,” according to McMahon, and the search committee will begin after Spring Break.