With 97 groups of students vying for only 81 dorm rooms at Wednesday's Residential Life quad lottery, some students were bound to be left out in the cold.
The quad lottery, which is the first of six housing lotteries to be held in the upcoming week, succeeded in placing all "pure senior" and "pure junior" groups into quad housing. Four "pure sophomore" groups also received quad housing.
Before the lottery, Director of Residential Life Kim Pacelli had expressed hope that all of the "pure junior groups" would get to pick.
"It's going to be pretty iffy whether we get into pure sophomore groups," she added.
Lakhina Ky '11 was one of the 16 sophomores whose lottery number was low enough to allow her a pick in the quad lottery.
"We ended up getting Pine Street and I am so excited," said Ky. "We have a kitchen, so I can eat all the time."
Although Pine Street Apartments have traditionally filled with seniors, a number of the apartments went to underclassmen at the lottery.
"I never remember rising sophomores having that option before," Pacelli wrote.
Her only explanation for the lack of interest centered on the apartments' location, saying that some students thought it was too far away from the center of campus.
While Pine Street Apartments were less popular in this year's lottery than in past years, other residences filled up as expected. Unlike last year, when the construction of the new ice arena between Farley Field House and Harpswell Apartments drove many seniors to Coles Tower, this year, a number of senior groups opted for Harpswell.
Coles Tower was also a popular choice among students, as was Chamberlain Hall, which has historically been selected first in the quad lottery.
This year, the group with the first spot in the quads lottery chose one of the four open Chamberlain quads.
Such desirable housing may inspire student attempts at strategizing, but according to Pacelli, "the system is designed to not really allow for a lot of strategy."
However, according to Pacelli, abuse of the lottery system is still a possibility. For example, underclassmen vying for a better lottery pick might opt to block with upperclassmen despite having no real intention of actually living together. Then, once their numbers have been called, students may attempt to disaggregate back into quads.
"That's one strategy I see students try to employ, but we don't let them do that," said Pacelli, noting that students who apply as part of the same block are expected to select rooms close to each other.
Pacelli said, however, that she thought the great majority of students who block together do so from a genuine desire to live together rather than in an attempt to play the system.
The next stage of the lottery will take place tonight with the chem free lottery. The triples and singles lotteries will be held on Tuesday and the doubles and open rooms lotteries will take place on Thursday.