Interview with Elise, An employee of Ocupancy Management for the Housing and Dinning Services at CU-Boulder

I interviewed an employee of the Housing and Dinning Services at CU-Boulder today to find out on what basis does the school decide where to put students.

Elise told me that the decision on which dorm students live in is based on three factors. Date of application, eligibility and preference questions.

Date of application is probably the most important factor for getting the dorm of your choice. Rooms are filled on a first come first serve basis. Therefore if you apply early and are eligible you are very likely to get your desired room.

Eligibility is specific to your major. Certain halls allow only students with certain majors. For example Farrand Hall only allows arts and science majors or the engineering quad only allows students in the engineering school to live there. You can find information of the eligibility requirements of any dorm online.

Preference questions are used to match you with your roommate(s). They ask questions about your cleanliness, sleep schedule, if you are a smoker and what kind of activities you enjoy. On a side note I asked Elise how they choose the students that live in the five person sweets (arguably the best rooms on campus). On your preference application you must check that you want to live in a sweet. This usually means you will live in a three person room but could mean that you get the five person sweet atop of Farrand Hall.

I would also like to make the point that although they look at preference questions those can only go so far. Incoming freshmen are really paired with someone totally random. You could be living with any type of person really for an entire year.