Housing lottery season kicked off with the quads lottery on Tuesday night in Daggett Lounge, leaving some delighted and others dejected.
Sarah Wood '10, whose group scored the second pick in the lottery and chose a Chamberlain quad, was thrilled with her good fortune.
"Being lucky enough to get the number two pick makes me pretty happy," Wood wrote in an e-mail to the Orient.
"I definitely sympathize with people who didn't do very well," Wood added, "since this is the third time I've been in the quads lottery and the first time I've actually gotten a quad."
Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon said that this year, there were 476 students in the lottery for only 276 beds. Last year's numbers were slightly different, with more available beds in the quads lottery: 448 students entered the quads lottery for 352 spots. McMahon said that the fewer number of available beds during this year's quads lottery could largely be attributed to the conversion of Stowe Hall quads into quints, into order to accommodate a larger than predicted number of students on campus for the 2009 fall semester. The quints lottery, which also took place on Tuesday night, had 50 applications for 60 spots.
According to McMahon and Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall, trends among seniors with high picks in the quads lottery remained similar to last year's lottery. Seniors with high picks generally opted for Chamberlain quads, suites in Coles Tower, and units in Harpswell Apartments. Rooms in Pine Street Apartments—up until this year a perennial favorite among seniors—filled up slower, and McMahon approximated that the apartments would be half seniors and half juniors next fall.
Greg Tabak '11, whose group had No. 61 in the lottery, said that his group could have chosen an apartment in Pine Street, but that they decided not to because "we thought it was really far away and in the middle of a graveyard." Tabak said that his group was considering the triples lottery, while also looking into off-campus options.
In addition to the converted quints in Stowe Hall, another large change to next year's housing arrangements will be the addition of 25 forced triples in Brunswick Apartments. Rendall recommended that rising juniors consider entering the triples lottery to get one of these apartments, particularly since the triples lottery falls two days before the doubles lottery.
"Let's say there are six people in a group who are thinking about blocking together in the doubles lottery," Rendall said. "They should consider the triples lottery as well, since that would end up being two groups of three, and might give them a better shot at getting an apartment [in Brunswick Apartments]," she said.