The College Houses may not be flooded with the record 300 applications they collectively received last year, but interest in the houses is still running high. According to the office of Residential Life, there were a total of 241 applications for 200 openings to live in Bowdoin's eight College Houses next year with 27 returning applications.
According to Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon, Reed House and Ladd House received the most applications. Reed received 41 first-choice applications for 27 beds while Ladd had 38 first-choice applications for 22 beds.
In order to accommodate the increased interest in College Houses, McMahon said that a total of three beds will be added to the overall House system. Two large singles in Ladd and Helmreich will be converted to doubles and a large double in Quinby will become a triple.
McMahon said, "After looking at square footage comparisons, we consulted with current residents of the house in all three cases and were told that those spaces could fairly easily handle the additional capacities."
The Office of Residential Life is set to mail all decision letters out on Monday, according to McMahon.
Upon receiving their contracts, students must return their applications to the Residential Life office by Wednesday, which gives students two days to make final decisions about their living situation for the upcoming year. McMahon said that second round offers will be made to house alternates and will be sent out next Monday.
According to McMahon, the selection committee consists of three people: "the point person from our office or the Dean's office, a member of the house who is not returning who was elected by their house, and a member of a different house who was elected by their house to help another house."
McMahon said, "The candidates are also vetted by the advisory committee for each house, which consists of a current officer of the house, the head proctor of the affiliated brick, and the faculty house advisor."
While the committees are in their final stages of deliberation, students anxiously await the results.
"I'm trying to put the whole thing out of my mind because I'm nervous but there isn't anything I can do about it now. It should be really interesting to see the different mix of people for each house," Heidi Harrison '13 said.
Liz Huppert '12 applied to live in a College House last year, but did not get in. She described that her experience at Bowdoin was not impacted negatively because she did not live in a social house.
"It's really not the end of the world if you don't end up living in a College House," she said.