Housing and Residential Services shares Fall 2021 housing processes
Juniors and seniors will revert to Spring 2020 assignments; sophomore housing will ‘reset’
Housing and Residential Services (HRS) Associate and Director for Residential Services and Operations Dean Rich Hilton and Associate Director of Residential Services Tasha Coppett outlined the 2021–2022 housing process in an email to undergraduate students on March 31.
The email follows an email from President L. Rafael Reif on March 12, in which he wrote that MIT will “resume full academic and research activities on campus by the start of the new academic year in September,” and will be inviting the “full population of students to be in residence,” provided “all goes well.”
The March 31 email stated that “HRS has been working collaboratively with DormCon [Dormitory Council] leaders and House Teams to develop and implement a housing process for the fall semester,” and included class year-specific timelines and housing assignment information.
According to the email to rising sophomores, housing assignments for the Class of 2024 will follow the first-year housing assignment process; students will rank the available residences, as they did when applying for housing for Spring 2021. The first-year housing “reset” was “developed in consultation with Dormcon” so that rising sophomores would have “equal opportunity” to explore their housing options, irrespective of whether they are currently living on campus.
The email advised first years to rank their Spring 2021 building as their top choice if they would like to remain in their current communities, but emphasized that “the same assignment cannot be guaranteed,” though the preference rankings “have a significant impact” on the final assignments.
The sophomore housing lottery application contains several sections: the first, residence hall preferences, requests students to rank all buildings, including the cultural houses. The application also includes a rooming questionnaire, which will be used to assign students to rooms “and possibly” roommates.
The form allows students to form a roommate group of up to three other students, and notes that these groupings do not guarantee that all members of the group will be placed in the same dorm; rather, if students “are assigned to the same building, room assignment chairs and the house team will be instructed to assign” students and their roommates together.
Rising juniors and seniors were also asked in a similar email to share their housing plans through the Fall 2021 Undergraduates Housing Intent and Preference Form. Students who resided in on-campus housing as of March 1, 2020 and who maintained enrollment during 2020–21 academic year are guaranteed housing for the 2021–22 academic year, regardless of whether they lived off campus during the 2020–21 academic year.
Building assignments for rising juniors and seniors will revert back to their Spring 2020 assignments by default. Students may also submit a building switch lottery application by April 9. Students who lived in Burton Conner will receive priority in the lottery process “due to the ongoing renewal project and disruption to their community,” according to the email.
The housing preference forms for both rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors are open until April 9. Rooming assignments for rising juniors and seniors will be shared May 14. Rooming assignments for rising sophomores will be shared by Aug. 4.
Students interested in living in an FSILG during the 2021–22 academic year will receive additional information “in the coming weeks,” the email wrote. Students considering FSILG housing are still “strongly encouraged” to submit the housing preference form to guarantee an on-campus assignment.
The Spring 2021 move-out deadline for all undergraduates is May 28 at noon, and the penalty-free housing cancellation deadline is June 21.