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The On Campus Housing Lottery Essay

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Anxiety inducing, overly-complicated and a huge frustration are just some of the ways Syracuse University students described the on-campus housing lottery. But when it comes down to it, is there a better way?

The first email from housing comes in January, freshman are just beginning their second semester when housing asks them to to begin thinking about housing for the following year. The email touches on advanced payment opportunities, eligibility checks and your bursar account. At this, point students are unlikely to do more then skim through it, but months later, it will be a huge issue.

Syracuse University has a two year on-campus living requirement. This makes the housing lottery so critical for many rising sophomores, who are often dead set on a dorm before they receive that seemingly premature email in January.

The process for room selection is not overly complicated. Students are randomly assigned a number (this varies from year to year, in 2016 students without a requirement were given numbers 1-3999 and those with were given from 4000 up.) Then there are selection rounds based on how many roommates you intend to have. When it is your desired round, students put down their intended roommate(s). If you and the intended roommate(s) match up, your numbers are averaged and you are given a time to select your room.

Still many students find it confusing. Megan Shelton, a rising sophomore, wanted to live with one other girl. However, she misunderstood that there

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