Office of Housing and Residence Life @ Mason

Sometimes you have to choose….

March 9, 2011

There is no perfect Housing Selection process.  The reality is that, with over 3000 students participating in Housing Selection each year, there is going to be a range of preferences, and no one process will meet everyone’s expectations.  The best we can do is offer a process that is fair and transparent. Each year we look at feedback from students and take opportunities to tweak the process and make improvements that will have the most positive impact on the most students.

Many of the conversations we have had with students this year seem to center around the idea that people have to make a choice between two or more priorities.  For example, students who are interested in mixed singles and doubles suites aren’t sure if they should have their doubles select during the earlier round of selection set aside for roommate pairs, or whether they should hold off and all pick together during general selection.  That decision is going to be different for each group, but that’s part of the benefit of our process – groups get to choose what is right for them, rather than having OHRL make a decision or assumption about what is best.  Some groups will decide that letting the pairs take advantage of the doubles/roommate process is worth it, other groups will decide that being guaranteed the ability to pick at the same time (even if it may mean not ending up in the exact same suite) is the better option.

We understand that making that choice may be difficult, but it is ultimately your (and your roommate/suitemate(s)) decision to make, based on your own priorities.  We are going to give you as much information as possible to help you make your decision.  Check out the room and suite type availability lists and the floorplans now, and after lottery numbers are released, use our lottery number tool to see where you fall in the selection order.

We’ll be posting more information over Spring Break and will keep students with active applications updated!

Entry Filed under: Housing Selection 2011-2012. Posted in  Housing Selection 2011-2012 .