Office of Residential Life
Housing Lottery Information
The following information is very important. Please read this entire page, and then print or bookmark to keep it as a reference. It covers the following topics:
Housing Lottery number distribution (top)
The Housing Lottery is IWU’s Residence Hall Selection Process. It receives this name due to the process we undergo to provide students with their room selection order.Once the fall registration process is complete, ORL staff place all registered students into tiers based on credit hours. Once students have been placed in their tiers, a number is randomly assigned to each student. So, if there are 100 seniors in Tier 1, each student has an equal chance of receiving #1 to #100. See “Assigning students a specified time to chose a room” below for details on each tier.Housing Lottery Numbers are not provided to students.
For students who complete early applications, Housing Lottery Numbers are used to determine the order applications are reviewed. As long as an application is complete, students with the best (lowest) numbers are offered placements first. For students who do not receive early placements, Housing Lottery Numbers are used to assign selection times. Finally, at the completion of the Housing Lottery Nights, students who have completed wait list applications will be sorted based on their Housing Lottery Numbers.
Assigning students a specified time to choose a room (top)
Students at Illinois Wesleyan University choose rooms in an order determined by the number of class units earned, assuring that senior students have the opportunity for the best campus placements. This is because some of our facilities are more highly desirable than others. Using an ordered process gives all students at a similar class and credit-hour level the same chance at each type of housing available on campus. Students within each credit-hour range are assigned a time to choose space randomly so that every person has the same chance of choosing first or choosing last within the credit-hour range. The following chart shows the class tier, and the corresponding credit-hour levels; specified times will be noted after they are assigned following the online housing registration process:
| Class tier | Credit-hour range | Estimated times range* |
| Senior Tier I | 22.25 or more | 3:00p, 3/26 - 4:00p, 3/26 |
| Senior Tier II | 19.00 - 22.24 | 3:50p, 3/26 - 4:20p, 3/26 |
| Senior Overflow | 19.00 or more | 4:10p, 3/26 - 4:20p, 3/26 |
| Junior Tier I | 13.25 - 18.99 | 4:10p, 3/26 - 5:10p, 3/26 |
| Junior Tier II | 10.00 - 13.24 | 5:00p, 3/26 - 5:40p, 3/26 |
| Junior Overflow | 10.00 - 18.99 | 5:30p, 3/26 - 5:40p, 3/26 |
| Sophomore Tier I | 4.25 - 9.99 | 5:30p, 3/26 - 7:20p, 3/26 |
| Sophomore Tier II | 2.00 - 4.24 | 7:10p, 3/26 - 4:40p, 3/27 |
| Sophomore Overflow | 2.00 - 9.99 | 4:30p, 3/27 - 5:00p, 3/27 |
| Advanced Freshman | 0.00 - 1.99 | 4:50p, 3/27 - 5:00p, 3/27 |
| Late Registration | 5:00p, 3/27 - ongoing |
*Based on 2011 times
AP Credits are not recorded by December, and therefore are not included in unit counts for first-year students. Specified time blocks and a selection order within each block are assigned randomly by computer under the supervision of the Office of Residential Life after all registrations have been collected at the start of Spring Break. You will receive notification of your specified housing selection time by email before you arrive back from Spring Break. Your specified housing selection time is recorded with your name; times cannot be traded or given away.You will use the earliest specified time possible to select your room.
If you are selecting with a roommate or group of roommates, the earliest time in the group is used for the entire group. So, if Chris (3/30 at 7:25 PM) and Pat (3/28 at 4:10 PM) are trying for a room together, Pat's time would be the one they would use because it is the earliest and would give them the best possible chance of getting the room they want.
The timing of the Housing Lottery Nights (top)
Students sign up for rooms at specified times over the span of up to four evenings. The first day is Monday, March 26th and selection will continue until all registered students have had an opportunity to participate. In 10 minute time intervals, from 3pm - 8pm daily, students will be allotted time to select from available, gender appropriate spaces.
In fact, to help you visualize, students will report to the Hansen Center Upstairs Meeting Room (A) in order to check-in at their specified time. Once confirmed for that time, students will be allowed entrance into the selection area (B&C). Students arriving late will be first to choose at the next time block. Please review the very last section of this page, Before you come to housing selection..., to make sure that you are prepared on the night you attend. You will receive a specified date and time in which to sign up for housing following Spring Break. In order to minimize lines, please do not show up more than 15 minutes before your entrance time. Students hoping to keep tabs on the process can go to the Housing Lottery page.
Advice for rising sophomores - thinking realistically (top)
A simple application of mathematics will show us it's not possible for everyone who wants a single room to have a single room. Students with the highest number of credit-hours have the earliest (best) specified times. This means that seniors and juniors will have first shot at the most desirable rooms on campus. Everyone can't live in a single or a suite. Be realistic when you are planning for where you want to live. You may not get the type of room you desire most, although you will be housed. Most sophomores will live with a roommate in a double room. Most sophomores will not be housed in preferential halls (Harriett or Magill for instance).
On the last night of the selection process, there may be a handful of rising sophomores (those with the latest specified times) that will be unable to be placed into a room. This is expected--we know that a number of students will sign up for a room and then later decide that they will not be using the room which they have been placed in (because they are transferring, withdrawing, moving off-campus, etc.). Because you have not been assigned a room during the initial placement process does not mean that residence hall spaces will be unavailable to you. Students who cannot be housed on the final night will be placed on waiting lists. At the time that a room opens up, they will be placed in a residence hall space with the roommate of their choice.
Finding a Roommate (top)
There are lots of good reasons why people don't have roommates. "Find a Roommate Night" is a facilitated function (not an awkward social) that will provide you with a chance to meet someone with like interests who you may be able to tolerate sharing space with for nine months.
Find a Roommate Night
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
5:30-6:30 PM
Hansen Center Upstairs Meeting Rooms
Outside of a Martin super-single, you cannot sign up for a multiple-occupancy room during the Housing Lottery without a roommate. If you do not have a roommate at your specified time block, you will be consolidated (put in a double room) on the spot with the next person who shows up without a roommate. Students who do not have a roommate should make plans to attend. And if you're lucky you might make a friend.
Medical and Mental Health Accommodations (top)
Before single rooms placements are made from early applications, students who have a medical or mental health need are considered. Housing accommodations are granted to students who provide appropriate medical documentation supporting the need for said accommodation. Decisions are made through the Office of Residential Life in consultation, as necessary, with the Arnold Health Service or Counseling and Consultation Services. The documentation criteria can be found on the Housing Accommodations page. Once the March 1st deadline passes, requests for housing accommodations will be granted when space is available.
Before you come to the Housing Lottery Nights... (top)
- Know your specified selection time! There will be a listing provided, but it will be easier for you if you remember the time block during which you'll be signing up. (Bring your specified selection time confirmation notice!). You must be on time if you want to sign-up in order.
- Make sure you have registered online for Residence Hall Housing by March 1. (It seems obvious, but...)
- Make sure the person you plan to room with has registered online for Residence Hall Housing. (Again, it seems so obvious...)
- Bring your student ID. At housing selection, you must present your ID and the IDs or photocopies of the IDs of the student(s) that will be your roommate(s).
- Have an idea of what room you want and have a back-up plan if you don't get that room.
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