Home Sweet Home: the Basics of the Room Selection Process

It is already that time of year again when housing deposits for next year are due.  So for people who are not familiar with Fordham’s housing process, I thought I’d provide a little insight. 

For incoming freshman in June, you fill out a lifestyle survey and rank your preferences of which of the freshman dorms you would want to live in .  Residential Life pretty much takes over 

from there and notifies you of where you will be living in August. 

Finlay Hall, where I live now

After your freshman year, you have much more say over where you live; you can literally pick the exact room you’ll have for the next year.  The basic format for room selection is a lottery process, where students are randomly assigned a time slot on a certain day.  Groups are formed with people who wish to room together, and the person with the best time slot becomes the group leader.  The group leader is in charge of going online during the designated time and selecting a room for the group.  Seniors choose on the first set of days, juniors the next, and finally sophomores.  If students do not select a room during this time, whether because they chose not to select a room, there were no empty rooms available, or there were no rooms large enough to accommodate a group, these students are placed in Post Lotto.  If you are in Post Lotto, you are guaranteed campus housing; however, you are not guaranteed where you will be.  Residential Life makes every attempt to fulfill the requests of the survey you fill out with you building and roommate preferences, but you do not find out where you will be living until at least the middle of the summer.  

A panorama of my single in Finlay

Post Lotto may sound horrible, but I know many people, myself included, who have benefited from being in Post Lotto.  My friends who were not able to find a triple during the regular selection process were able to get a triple by taking a chance with Post Lotto that a group would withdraw.  I personally ended up in a nice single in Finlay Hall, and I have no complaints.  I mean, I have two closets and my own bathroom.  My advice about the housing process is not to worry.  If you’re lucky enough to get an early morning timeslot, then you shouldn’t have any problems, but even if you are forced to patiently wait through the Post Lotto process, I promise you it’s not as bad as it seems.  There have been multiple times when my friends have asked how I managed to get such a good room this year, and my reply is always “Post Lotto.”