As the semester winds down, students must begin preparing for the housing lottery, which begins on Tuesday, April 16.

Like previous years, there are four separate lotteries within the overall housing lottery process, each with its own application and deadline. However, new developments could change the way the lottery unfolds this year, most significantly the fact that Park Row apartments will be available for occupancy in the fall.

“My expectation is that it will be only seniors [who get] to live there,” said Lisa Rendall, director of residential and housing operations. “It seems to be very popular.”

The apartments, which have been under construction all year, have all single bedrooms with a full-sized bed for each resident. Each apartment also has a full kitchen, living room and study room.

Caroline Flaharty

Park Row will achieve passive house certification, becoming the College’s first residential building to do so. Passive house is an energy efficiency designation that means a structure requires very little energy for cooling or heating. Harpswell Apartments, which are being rebuilt and will not be occupied next semester, will also aim to achieve this status.

The introduction of Park Row has also lessened student density in other housing options. In Stowe Inn, the one-bedroom triple apartments will be double apartments, and the two quint apartments will  now be quads.

Rendall foresees that Park Row could have a ripple effect, opening up more spaces in Coles Tower for juniors. In addition, during the lottery for off-campus housing, which already took place, the College hit its 150-person cap, so students seeking to live on campus will have a little less competition.

Ladd will, again, be a senior-only College House. Following the four- and six-person lotteries, rising seniors will still be able to opt to live in Ladd if they have already indicated a potential desire to do so.

“The thing that’s different this year is that students can submit a pre-approval application,” said Rendall. “We’re doing this for seniors that want to live in Park Row as their first choice but Ladd as their second choice.”

“A group of four could all submit a pre-approval app to Ladd, go as a group of four to try to get one of the Park Row four-person apartments, and if they’re not able to select it, then the night of the lottery they could select Ladd,” she continued.

While many rising sophomores will be living in College Houses next year, there are plenty of current first years whose housing situations are still up in the air.

Rendall believes that in order to be successful in the lottery, students must not rely solely on their first-choice housing option.

“Always have backup plans in place so that you don’t feel devastated when you don’t get the only place you wanted to live next year,” she said. “Some people get their first choice, but not everyone.”

She said it is also important to be honest with people regarding whether or not you want to live with them.

“It’s a stressful time of year for a lot of people … and we can all spare a little kindness,” she said.

The deadline to enter four-, five-, six- and eight-person groups is Monday at 12 p.m., and the lottery will take place on Tuesday. The deadline to enter the substance-free lottery is Wednesday at 12 p.m., and the lottery will take place Thursday. The deadline to enter one- and three-person groups is Friday, April 19 at 5 p.m., and the lottery will take place on Monday, April 22. Finally, the deadline to enter two-person groups or the available rooms lottery is Tuesday, April 23 at 5 p.m., and the lottery will take place Wednesday, April 24.