The university released housing numbers to community members on March 20. The housing lottery system is for rising sophomores, juniors and seniors to select their on-campus housing for the next academic year.
Starting on March 20, when numbers were released, students could begin to form roommate groups, according to the Department of Community Living (DCL) website. Study abroad room selection will be held first, starting on April 18. Those who are studying abroad in the spring can select to live in Village and a select number of suites in Ziv, according to DCL’s page. These living areas are specifically set aside for study abroad students.
The next group allowed to pick housing will be sophomores, starting April 19 and going through April 21. Students will pick in order of their randomly assigned housing number, lower numbers pick first. Rising sophomores can elect housing options from Skyline, Rosenthal Quad, Charles River Apartments and East Quad. Sophomores can however choose to live with upperclassmen in other quads, but will have to forfeit their number in order to do so.
The Brandeis Hoot spoke with Timothy Touchette, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, over concerns of rising sophomores on what living situations will look like due to their large population. Touchette said rising sophomores will have options for doubles and singles and will not have any forced triple options. The rising sophomore class is the largest class in the university’s history.
The next group of students to pick are rising juniors and seniors, from April 24 to April 26. Similar to the rising sophomore numbers, juniors and seniors will pick in order of their numbers. Students numbers may lower as others get pulled into living situations or drop out of the housing lottery, moving their selection time up. Juniors and seniors are able to live in the Foster Mods quad, Village, Ziv Quad, Ridgewood and Charles River Apartments.
In an interview with The Hoot, Touchette said that Foster Mods will remain for those aged 21 years and over. Prior to the 2022-2023 academic year, the Foster Mods residence quad was reserved for only seniors. However, now students may live there if they turn 21 before October 1, 2023 instead of being class year-specific.
Touchette also told The Hoot that some first-years will dorm in East Quad as they have for the past couple of years. In addition to both Massell and North Quad which are only first-years, there are some first-years who live in East Quad which is predominately sophomore housing. “We anticipate the same number of Lofted Triples for incoming first-year students that we had this year. This does not impact room allocation for upperclassmen, and does not impact the room selection process,” said Touchette.
For students nervous about the housing selection process, Touchette offered some advice, “[DCL has] information sessions and drop-in appointments available, email dcl@brandeis.edu to set up a time to chat with a staff member.”
For more information about housing on campus, you can visit DCL’s webpage.
