DIVISION OF STUDENT SERVICES |
Residence Life |
Housing Lottery How-To Guide 2013-2014
The housing lottery is for returning students only. If you are a first-year student, please visit our first-year students housing webpage.
We are excited to announce that we are now using a new housing portal system to complete the housing lottery process. While this change should have little impact on the registration and room selection process, you may notice that it looks slightly different from previous years. We welcome any feedback you have about this new system and appreciate your patience as we implement it.
The deadline to register for the Lottery is March 25
Register Through the Housing Portal via IRIS Starting February 25!
Understanding Reed Housing
How are rooms on campus assigned? (for returning students)
Housing contracts
The Lottery - detailed description
How do I become eligible for the lottery? Cohort numbers What happens during the lottery? How does the lottery work for seniors? If I am not on campus for the lottery, can I still get a room? How does the lottery work if I want to have a roommate? How do I increase my chances of getting a room on campus? What if I don't get a room on campus? What if I will be abroad part of next year? How do I request accommodations? Application-only Housing
Language Houses Theme Communities Summer HousingWaitlist
Important dates to remember
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Feb 25 |
Lottery registration opens, theme and language housing applications are available through the Housing Portal |
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March 3 |
Deadline to apply for theme and language housing |
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March 25 |
Deadline to pay housing deposit & submit lottery application through the Housing Portal |
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March 29 |
Lottery cohort numbers available through the Housing Portal |
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LOTTERIES |
April 1-3: theme and language April 1-3: senior April 8-16: general |
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May 1 |
LAST DAY TO CANCEL YOUR HOUSING CONTRACT |
Lottery Overview
The Housing Portal allows students to participate in the lottery from anywhere with an Internet connection. This means you may partake in the lottery by logging into the Housing Portal from home, the library, off-campus, and abroad - almost anywhere!
Each student will be given a cohort assignment. There will be 3 cohorts per day: 9 AM, 12 PM, and 3 PM. If you do not participate in the lottery during your allotted span of time, you will continue to be able to log into the Housing Portal and participate in the lottery for the remainder of the process. Students will be placed in cohorts of 20 - 25 people (depending on how many students participate in the lottery). Those who participate in the senior, theme, and language house lotteries will have smaller, separate cohorts.
Proxies
The Housing Lottery is accessible to anyone with internet access. However, if you will not have access to the internet during your cohort time please contact Residence Life for assistance. Due to the change in lottery platform we are no longer able to support the use of a proxy during the housing lottery but we will work out a way to get you a room.
Understanding Reed Housing
How are rooms on campus assigned?
Room placements for continuing students are determined with a lottery system and by application for rooms in theme communities and language houses. While we cannot guarantee on-campus housing for all continuing students, we attempt to meet requests fairly.
Housing contracts
To live in Reed-sponsored housing, students must sign a contract for the upcoming academic year. It is important that students read and understand this legal, binding document.
Each student will sign the contract electronically when they select a room in the lottery, but we recommend you review the housing contract before the lottery. The housing contracts will be available by mid-March, from the Residence Life office and online.
Once I select a room and sign the contract, can I break it?
If you inform us in writing by May 1st you will be free from any contractual obligation and can be refunded your full housing deposit. If you have not cancelled by May 1 you will be obligated to fulfill your contract and live on campus for the following full academic year. (More information is available in the contract). If you wish to break your housing contract after May 1st you must file a petition that is subject to approval. More information about petitioning to terminate a room and/or board contract may be found on this residence life webpage.
How do I become eligible for the lottery?
- Pay a $100 housing deposit to the business office by 4pm on March 25. You will need to have your Reed College ID to pay the housing deposit. In person you may pay with cash or check however online you may MasterCard or American Express: afford.com/reed Housing deposits are refundable: if you do not end up selecting a room in the lottery or if you cancel your housing contract by the May 1st deadline can email Residence Life to request a refund of the $100 housing deposit. The $100 housing deposit must be paid by anyone intending to live in on-campus housing next year, including HAs, theme housing, apartments, etc. The $100 housing deposit cannot 'roll over' from the previous year. It must be paid each year in order to participate in the housing lottery. If you pay the deposit after the due date you will receive a cohort number, BUT it will not be randomly assigned. In this case you will be automatically placed in a separate and final cohort for your designated lottery.
- Register for the housing lottery through the Housing Portal via IRIS by March 25. (Summer housing will be a separate process that will occur after the housing lottery).
- Look for your assigned cohort number in the Housing Portal.
- Log into the Housing Portal via IRIS to participate in the lottery at your assigned cohort time.
Cohort numbers are generated with the previous year's history in mind. If you were among the final 25 percent of students to choose housing last year, you will not be in the final 25 percent this year. Cohort numbers cannot be traded between students.
Each student will be given a cohort assignment. There will be three cohorts per day: 9 AM, 12 PM, and 3 PM. If you do not participate in the lottery during the allotted span of time, you will continue to be able to log into the Housing Portal and participate in the lottery for the remainder of the process.
Students will be placed in cohorts of 20-25 people (depending on how many students participate in the lottery). Those who participate in the senior, theme, and language house lotteries will have smaller, separate cohorts.
Students are assigned to cohorts by a random number generator (except in the casses of those who were previously in the last 25 percent or those who pay their housing deposit late). Numbers may not be traded, given away, or sold. Cohort numbers will be assigned and posted in the Housing Portal. As lottery cohort numbers are assigned randomly, signing up earlier or later during the sign-up period has no bearing on what lottery number you receive. However, make sure to sign up and pay your deposit by the deadline or you will be placed in the last cohort. Remember that Theme and Language lotteries have an earlier deadline!
What happens during the lottery?
Students will log into the Housing Portal during their designated cohort time span and pick a room! Students will also select a board plan and sign their housing contract at this time. If you miss your designated cohort time you will still be able to sign in and participate in the lottery after that time but the room selections will dimimish as the lottery progresses.
How does the lottery work for seniors?
Rooms are set aside for seniors expecting to graduate December 2013 or May 2014. The senior lottery is only for those rooms.
Seniors are automatically entered into both lotteries. They can select a room in the senior lottery or the general lottery, if they feel they have a better chance of getting the room they want at that time. For example, you might have number 5 cohort in the senior lottery and number 1 cohort in the general lottery, and you want to live in Anna Mann. Since you have a low general lottery number, it would be to your advantage to participate in the general lottery. After the senior lottery, all remaining senior-designated rooms and apartments will be made available in the general lottery.
If I am not on campus for the lottery, can I still get a room?
Due to our change in lottery platforms students will not be able to use proxies. If you will not be able to access the lottery during your time please contact the Residence Life office for assistance.
How does the lottery work if I want to have a roommate?
Students interested in having a roommate will be able to pair up during the application process. To form a roommate pair, select the “Roommate Request” page in the application menu of the Res Life Portal. Here you can search for a roommate, send roommate requests, and accept roommate invitations. Roommate requests and invitations will be sent to students’ Reed email accounts and will need to be accepted for them to appear under the “accepted roommates” section.
During the lottery, the student with the best cohort number will sign in through the Housing Portal and reserve spaces for BOTH roommates. The second roommate will then only have to log in to sign their contract and not to reserve a room.
How do I increase my chances of getting a room on campus?
You might seriously think about applying for the theme communities or the language houses. If you apply for these spaces, you are making a committment to live there, if accepted. If you choose not to apply to a theme community or language house, make sure you enter the lottery, pay your deposit and participate in the lottery room selection. If you miss one of these steps, you will end up at the end of the lottery cohorts. You may also consider signing up with a roommate to increase your chances of getting an earlier cohort.
What if I don't get a room on campus?
We can't anticipate whether or not the residence halls will fill during the lottery; it all depends on how many students participate. However, if the rooms are all selected before your number comes up, you may choose to be added to a waiting list and you will be offered rooms as they become available.
What if I'm abroad part of next year?
Student who will be on campus for Fall semester but have arranged to go abroad for Spring should go ahead and enter the housing lottery to select a room. These students will not need to petition to end their housing contract in order to leave for Spring.
Students cannot select housing for only Spring semester. If you plan on being abroad or on leave for Fall semester you should either not participate in the lottery or should make sure you cancel your housing contract by the deadline. If you are interested in housing for just Spring semester please contact Residence Life during late Fall semester to express interest and inform us of your preferences. We typically have room for all students who want to live on campus during Spring semester, but do not know what our specific availability will be until after Fall semester ends.
How do I request accommodations?
To request or receive housing accommodations when signing up for the housing lottery, students must register with the office of Disability Support Services. The verification forms for their office must be completed in their entirety before a housing request will be given consideration.If this is your first time requesting accommodations or if you do not have any documentation on file with DSS, you must contact Theresa Lowrie, Director of Disability Support Services, to set up an appointment. Housing accommodation appointments and paperwork must be completed by Friday, March 22nd in order to be considered for a housing accommodation for next academic year.
If it is determined that you are eligible for an accommodation, the Director of Housing will contact you by Monday, April 1 to discuss your room options. If you are not eligible for an accommodation you may move forward with participating in the general housing lottery.
Residence Life will meet your accommodation need and will do our best to meet your housing preference. If you have questions or concerns about this process or your room assignment please contact Clea Taylor, Director of Housing.
Application-Only Housing
Students interested in Chinese, Russian, French, German, Arabic, or Spanish can apply to live in these unique houses. Language house students are required to make a commitment to participate in the activities of the house and speak the language of the house. Applications and more information are available here. Applications to live in language houses are due, March 3rd. Students accepted to a language house will participate in the language house lottery. If you are applying to live in a language house you must go through the portal application process and pay your housing deposit. If you are accepted to live in the language house you applied for, we will place you in a separate lottery. If you are not accepted to a language house you will already be signed up for the general housing lottery.
Theme communities are typically a floor or area within a residence hall occupied by a group of students with a common social or academic interest such as Japanese, reading novels, or cooking. The residence life committee selects theme communities that are proposed by individuals or groups of students. After the theme community proposals are chosen, students may apply through the portal. The organizer of the community, along with a representative from the residence life committee, select the students to be invited to live in each of the theme communities.
Applications to live in a theme community are due March 3rd. Students accepted to a theme community will participate in the theme community lottery. If you are applying to live in a theme community you must go through the portal application process and pay your housing deposit. If you are accepted to live in the theme community you applied for, we will place you in a separate lottery. If you are not accepted to a theme community you will already be signed up for the general housing lottery.
For more information about theme communities, please visit the Reed Theme Communities page.
Summer Housing
Summer housing will not be secured through the general housing lottery, but instead a brief application process that will happen through the Housing Portal after the general lottery ends. Students must demonstrate a need for living in Reed facilities over the summer. This could include financial hardship, immigration issues, employment in Portland, or lack of a home to return to over break. Summer housing is not meant to serve as temporary lodging between a student’s travels. Information will be communicated to students directly after the lottery concludes on how to apply.
Apartments are no longer available for summer housing. We have received feedback from students that it is not equitable that a person can secure a high lottery number and then remain in the same place for several years. Apartments are the most highly sought after accommodations on campus and we believe that it is important for more students to have the opportunity to live in them. In addition, we believe that the buildings will be better maintained (through routine cleaning and repairs) if they are not occupied year round.
Waitlist
Residence Life guarantees all first year students housing, which means that each year we have to save a specific number of rooms for incoming students. Because of this, we can and have run out of available rooms in the housing lottery and not everyone who receives a cohort number will be able to select a room.
If we run out of rooms before any of the cohort numbers are reached, we will send an email out to everyone who is registered for the lottery who does not yet have a room. This email will instruct students to log back into the Housing Portal and fill out an application to be on the waitlist. You will not be able to access the waitlist until it opens on April 15.
The waitlist will be organized by cohort number, not first come first served. However, you must complete the application to hold your spot on the waitlist. Your cohort number alone will not guarantee you a spot on the waitlist. Please note that you may NOT be on the waitlist if you have already reserved a room. If you have a room but would like to be on the waitlist in hopes of getting placed elsewhere, you must first cancel your current contract.
We will begin offering rooms to people as they become available, taking cohort number and preferences into account.
If we offer you a room that is within your first three preferences and you do not accept it or we do not hear back from you within the specified timeline, your name will be moved to the bottom of the waitlist.
If you know someone canceling their housing contract you cannot "lay claim" to that room. Their room will be offered to the next person on the waitlist.
Students on the waitlist who have not been offered a room before the end of spring semester are encouraged to contact the Residence Life office before departing for the summer to inquire about the likelihood of being assigned housing.