2009 housing numerology

SIX PERSON SUITES:
Except for the odd year an EC townhouse became available to a mixed senior-junior group, these EC options are exclusive to seniors.

Forty-three 30-point, all-senior groups have entered into the running for an EC Town House or High Rise. With 47 available, there should be a few suites left over—prime targets for senior re-group.

FIVE-PERSON SUITES:
With 17 available five-person suites between EC and Hogan and 28 all-senior, 30-point groups entered, a number of seniors are going to miss out on their top choices. The unlucky among them will have to choose from five-person suites in Ruggles and Claremont, EC Exclusion Suites (which would require two seniors to share a double), or the option to re-group.

FOUR-PERSON SUITES:
With 50 all-senior, 30-point, four-person groups entered and nearly 50 four-person suites divided among EC, Hogan, Ruggles, and Claremont, this portion of the lottery should line up nicely for seniors, though it is possible an unlucky few will miss out if none drop to general selection. The 13 four-person groups with point values less than 30 shouldn’t expect anything other than an odd Claremont suite to remain on the board when their lottery numbers come up.

DOUBLES:
The addition of Harmony Hall and a greater number of Watt studio doubles could alter cutoff numbers among doubles that for years have remained consistent. A few lucky sophomore pairs snuck into Watt last year, but increased demand for doubles from juniors, as evidenced by their takeover of McBain’s walkthrough doubles in the last two years, could limit sophomore options. Watt two-bedroom apartments remain the gold standard—the first suites off the board five years running. Woodbridge remains a choice destination for juniors, but which rooms are available to them varies from year to year.

UPPERCLASSMEN SINGLES:
With the loss of several Watt studio singles, the results of upperclassmen general selection is very much up in the air. Seniors may look to large singles in the newly-available Harmony Hall, while juniors will likely continue to seek singles in McBain and Broadway.

EIGHT-PERSON SUITES:
Several years of renovations have sent the popularity of Ruggles eight-person suites skyrocketing. Suites that just three years ago were widely available to all-sophomore groups will likely go solely to all-junior groups this year. Sixteen 20-point groups are seeking 14 eight-person suites, so any eight-person group with a point value worse than 20 should prepare to drop to general selection or sophomore pair-up.

SEVEN-PERSON SUITES:
Twenty-six groups of seven have entered with the hope of snagging one of just 10 Claremont seven-person suites. There could be as few as two suites available to the 18 all-sophomore, ten-point hopefuls. Prospects for sophomores who wanted this option badly enough to offer the singles in these suites to juniors in order to better their point values are looking good. This lottery could easily better last year’s 10/1224 cutoff.

RISING SOPHOMORE SINGLES:
In recent years, sophomores desiring singles who miss out on Furnald have had to settle for Wien. This year, however, with the addition of Harmony Hall, either River or Harmony could come into view as a possibility for sophomores.

EC EXCLUSION SUITES:
Fifty-six suites available; 58 groups entered. While close to half of the suites will likely go to 30-point EC-X groups, it is hard to predict how many of the remaining 29 suites will be snatched up by either five-senior groups that miss out on Hogan and EC High Rises or re-grouped seniors. Last year, only 18 EC-X suites survived the carnage, a number that this year would leave out any EC-X group with a point value below 25.