An inside look at the spring dorm transfer process
Average of 48 people enter the lottery each year, 92 percent of requests granted
If a student wishes to move to another residence hall, they can complete a form in the housing portal that enters them in a lottery for spring residence. An average of 48 people each year since 2014 enter the lottery to transfer dorms for the spring semester, and an average of 92 percent of the requests are granted, according to Jennifer Hapgood-White, associate director of housing assignments. The most requested building varies each year.
The form is available starting November, and students can rank up to four residence halls. The results of the lottery are released the first week of December.
The highest number of residence hall transfer requests was 57 in 2014, while the lowest was 37 in 2015, according to Hapgood-White. In 2015, the Housing Office was able to fulfill all requests; however, in 2017, only 87 percent of requests were granted, the lowest percentage since 2014. Hapgood-White declined to release this year’s data because the small pool of requests could potentially identify students.
There are multiple reasons why the percentage of granted requests varies. “If we have a high number of people entering the lottery from one building and requesting a different building where not many people entered, then we can't move those people,” Hapgood-White said in an interview with The Tech. The number of spring housing cancellations due to early graduation also affects how many beds are available.
Most residence transfers are person-to-person swaps, but the Housing Office also adds extra students to a residence hall in some cases. “We work with dorms and room assignment chairs personally to see if they have space open, or if they want to take away from a triple or add someone in,” Hapgood-White said.
Students who aren’t granted their requests are placed on a waitlist, sometimes until the following fall.
The low number of people who request dorm transfers “speaks highly of the process in the previous spring and fall, especially for incoming students,” DSL Director of Communications Matthew Bauer said in an interview with The Tech.