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• Assignments are made based on preferences, with much less emphasis on a lottery system.

Assignments are made with the aim of getting as many students in on-campus housing as possible in a manner that favors community optimization over first choice optimization. More weight will be given to moving someone onto campus than moving someone from their second to their first preference. Similarly, more weight will be given to moving someone from their fourth to their third preference than moving someone from their second to their first preference. The more places you rank among your preferences the more likely you are to receive an on campus housing assignment.

• When you indicate your preferences on the Assignments Preference Page, you are indicating a desire to live in a particular building – and a commitment to live there, if assigned. Please Note: you will only be sent ONE building assignment.

Preferences and availability determine assignments. Students who receive a housing assignment will be expected to accept it. Students will have the option to change their preferences or withdraw from the Allocation process up until May 16, 2008, but after that date no further changes in a student's status will be accepted. Students who withdraw from the Allocation Process after May 16, 2008, or who do not accept their assignment by May 30, 2008, will be assessed a $250 cancellation fee.

• Please make thoughtful and purposeful preference decisions. If you are assigned to one of your choices, you will be expected to live there. Each residence has a link to its homepage, which provides details of its living arrangements and community.

It is important to remember that students who receive a housing assignment in the Allocation Process will be expected to accept it. Refusing an assignment will incur a $250 penalty fee. With this in mind, it is important for students to make thoughtful and purposeful, rather than casual or whimsical, decisions and choices regarding the preferences they indicate on the Assignments Preference Page. Students can rank as many or as few of the residence hall living options as they like and they can tie different living options with the same preference.

It is also important for students to make informed judgments about where they would like to live. Each residence hall has a homepage that provides detailed on-line information about their various living options, including the size and variety of their rooms, their location on campus, the nature of their facilities, and the style of their community.

• You may change your preferences as many times as you like (or withdraw from the process altogether) up until the final deadline on May 16, 2008.

Students will have the option to change their preferences or withdraw from the Allocation process up until the deadline. When you apply, you will receive an automatic response from this office verifying that we have received your application. The email will also contain your preferences and you confirmation code. Make sure you save this email!

To make changes, simply use your confirmation code to log back onto the Assignments Preference Page and update your preferences. After the May 19 deadline, however, no further changes in a student's application will be accepted. Students who withdraw from the Allocation Process after the deadline will be assessed a $250 penalty.

• Students will be notified of their assignment by web and email if possible.

The Allocation process will close on May 16, 2008. The following week, assignments will be available on the web. You will need to respond to your assignment by May 30, 2008. If you do not confirm by this deadline, you will be charged a $250 cancellation fee and your assignment will be given to another student. Please make sure you save the auto-response from us when you do confirm your assignment.

We will also email the results to everyone, but due to past difficulties with non-MIT emails, we DO NOT recommend relying on your email to find out if you have been assigned. If you don't respond by the deadline because you do not receive an email, we will still charge you the $250 cancellation fee and your space will be reassigned to another student.

If you will be unable to check your email or the web site during this time, make sure you have someone you trust do it for you. You may also contact the Office before the deadline to make other arrangements if special circumstances will prevent you from having access to your email or the internet during this time frame.

• License agreements will be on-line.

Student license agreements are part of the on-line confirmation process. When students confirm their housing assignment, they will be asked to review and agree to MIT's policies and procedures, and to accept the terms of their license agreement. You will be able to print out a copy for your records. Please make sure you keep the auto-response from us that confirms that you did complete the license agreement and save this for your records.

• There will be a once-yearly Building to Building Transfer Process for those who would like to request a change of residence.

Once a year, in November, students who would like to transfer to a different residence hall may apply to the Building to Building Transfer Process. Students' preferences will be collected and new assignments will be made. Due to limited spaces, not everyone who applies can transfer, but if a student does not receive an new assignment, he/she will remain in the original assignment. If a student is assigned to a different assignment, they must move or else lose their housing altogether.

• There is a Spring Assignments Allocation Process held in November for those who need housing starting with the Spring Term.

In November there will be an assignments process, very similar to the Fall Assignments Process in May, to allocate any openings for the Spring Term. Students and visitors may apply to this process. First, regularly registered MIT Graduate Students will be assigned housing. Then, if space permits, the lottery program will be run with the remaining spaces and the visitor information to allocate spaces to visitors.