The Guaranteed Assignment List
The Room Selection Waitlist (for students who are unable to select during their appointment time) has been renamed the Guaranteed Assignment List to reflect that all students on this list have guaranteed housing status and will be assigned to on-campus housing. Students on the Guaranteed Assignment List are assigned by the end of July.
Group Composition
Groups can only be formed with students from adjacent classes (e.g., senior-junior; junior-sophomore) to ensure fairness in the lottery system. Rising seniors cannot form groups with rising sophomores.
Blind Doubles
Blind doubles will not be available for students to choose into during Room Selection.
A blind double is when a student selects into an empty double and then another student with a later appointment time selects into the remaining half of the double room. In previous years, there would come a point in the Room Selection process when all single rooms were claimed. At that time, doubles were opened for individuals to pick into one half of a room.
While creating additional selection opportunities for students, the blind double process had unfavorable and unintended consequences. First, it required Housing to interrupt Room Selection mid-process to open rooms. Then, it allowed students with a less favorable lottery number to pick into spaces not previously open to students who selected earlier in the lottery. Finally, it raised questions of gender privacy when selecting into a blind double.
It is Columbia Housing’s priority to support a fair process in which rooms are selected solely by point value and lottery number. Knowing that the inventory for singles and odd-numbered suites is limited, students (particularly rising sophomores and juniors) are strongly encouraged to form even-numbered groups to improve their chances of selecting a room during their appointment time. Individuals and odd-numbered groups who are unable to select will be added to the Guaranteed Assignment List.
Wien Hall
Residents should be aware that traffic related to construction on the Columbia Law School building may impact the Wien Courtyard during Academic Year 24-25.
47 Claremont
Residents should be aware that construction is planned on an adjacent Barnard property during Academic Year 24-25.
Resources