Students say the emotions wrapped up in Boston University housing selection are not unlike an amusement park ride.
“This is like that roller coaster ride that just opened after someone died,” Maureen Christin, a Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences freshman, said. “I feel like I’m the next person to die on the roller coaster.”
As resident hopefuls showed up this week and last week in the George Sherman Union to propose all permutations of housing bliss — South Campus, singles, StuVi — but expect the worst, they willingly marched through lines and ducked behind black curtains, awaiting similar fates.
“It feels a little bit like going for a mass immunization,” College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Matthew Rogers said.
Students seeking on-campus housing have three options: they can keep their current room, choose another room within their residence hall — through internal selection — or participate in community selection, with Vegas-odds but considerably less glamour.
Students participating in the community selection process receive lottery numbers in accordance with their class years. Seniors receive the lowest numbers, allowing them to select housing first.
Caitlin Amazza, a CAS sophomore, said she expected better housing this year than the last, as she ascends the class ladder.
Amazza said she and her roommate gave up their internal selection option because they thought they would get good housing as upperclassmen. She had heard rumors that coveted Shelton Hall had filled up even before her housing appointment. When she emerged from the selection room after 15 minutes, however, she said she was relieved to get a South Campus brownstone.
“At least it’s not a dorm,” Amazza said. “We would have never considered Beacon, but it’s good.”
Most students said living near their friends was a major concern as they sat twiddling their thumbs in the waiting room.
“We wanted to live with our two good friends in a quad, but we could only get a triple,” College of General Studies freshman Jeff Stone said. “I feel really bad.”
His roommate, Sam Biancuzzo, a College of Engineering sophomore, said he would have liked to know what was left as he sat in the waiting room so he could prepare himself and make an informed decision.
CAS sophomore Hannah Leone said she plans to apply for summer swap, the process by which rooms suddenly vacated by students studying abroad or transferring are offered to unhappy with their first-round pick. Unlike community selection, students are offered summer swap housing in the reverse order, meaning students with higher numbers get first pick.
Another housing option for students who cannot get the room they want is the Hyatt Regency Hotel Cambridge. After a semester at the hotel, residents transfer to campus in the spring. The option is popular for some because those students are given the best lottery numbers for their class years.
Some students, however, said they are deterred from the Hyatt because it is across the river, and students are not allowed to have bikes there.
Zachary Wexelman, a CGS freshman, said he would not consider living in the Hyatt.
“It’s completely inconvenient,” Wexelman said. “It’s detached from campus, and they make you have a dining plan.”
Overall, the selection process was well organized and selection workers were helpful and friendly, students said. The only widespread complaint was that because housing availability is not updated for those waiting, anxiety can spread through the crowd. Fortunately, Housing offered students something to dwell on besides their thoughts.
“The cookies were delicious,” CAS freshman Dan Hatten said.