next house » lottery/decrowding

Next housing lottery

The freshman housing lottery occurs on an Institute-wide specified date every August in Next Dining, usually the day when housing assignments are finalized. A few hours before the lottery everyone will be assigned a number. Lottery numbers and an open rooms list will be posted in the Next dining hall along with the floor plans which are on this website.

There are no squatting rights so any room in which freshman are temped in will be available at the start. If a person has a desired roommate, the pair may choose a double together. So people may be pulled up in the lottery through their roommate.

The entire MIT Housing system is overcrowded. This means there will be 10 or more double turned into triples. The largest rooms are reserved for triples. These usually include the elevator suites (x29/x30), the far west rooms (x01/x02), the middle east rooms (x50/x51), and the far east rooms (x66/x75).

Everyone should be able to make the lottery, but if someone is unavailable they may send a proxy in their place, if they e-mail me prior to the lottery with their intending proxy. Due to the fact the their are so many freshmen, each will only be given 3 minutes for the time their number is called. It should also go without saying that males may not room with females.

here are some tips:
Don't stress about the lottery. All Next House rooms are really quite good. Try to find a roommate who is compatible in the week you have before the lottery. If you make friends with someone, don't be too shy to ask about their sleep habits and tiddiness. Have an idea of several rooms you would like to live in so that you can use your three minutes effectively.

And again don't stress out too much. There isn't much you can manipulate, just go with the flow.

Readjustment/decrowding

Throughout the semester, residents of Next House will move out to frats, sororities, ILG's, etc. When this occurs, rooms will open up for decrowding. Those in triples will get first dibs on decrowding should they so choose. The housing chair (2009-10: Jenny Zhou) will send out an e-mail to all triples residents specifying the room(s) that have opened up, and all residents hoping to decrowd should reply ASAP indicating which room they hope to move into. It is ultimately the housing chair's discretion as to who may decrowd where. Once the resident has received a confirmation e-mail, he or she may move into the new room immediately.

For those outside of Next House who wish to move in through the semester, one must submit a housing switch request form to the main undergraduate housing office to be included in the December housing lottery. If accepted, the resident may move in after the winter break.