Guaranteed List

Each year through the Housing Lottery, many students pick rooms even though they are not completely sure they will be living in campus housing next Fall. This includes students who are waiting to hear back from a Study Abroad program, thinking about moving off-campus, applying to transfer to another college, considering taking a leave of absence from Barnard, etc.

This means that more students will be signed up for the Lottery than the number of available spaces to pick from.

Typically the rising-Sophomores with the last Lottery Numbers & Selection Times will not be able to pick a specific room through the Lottery. Students in the 123 Lottery as an individual will not be able to pick into doubles or triples after all the singles have been picked. Other students may not want to pick from the rooms available during their Selection Time and may choose to sign up for the Guaranteed List instead.

Students on the Guaranteed List will provide ranked preferences for building and room types (similar to a Housing Application). They may also request roommates.

Students on the Guaranteed List will be assigned over the summer to rooms that other students cancelled from.

Cancellations occur in all types of rooms across campus. However, we cannot guaranteed that specific room types or buildings will open up due to cancellations or would be available for you to be assigned to based on your prioriority.

The assignments for students on the Guaranteed List are made in 123 Lottery Number order. Students who signed up for the Guaranteed List before the 123 Lottery will be generated a random number by class year to slot them in-between the other students.

Because there will be a finite number of vacancies to work from, it may not be possible to place you in one of your top preferred buildings or room types. We strongly recommend that you rank in order as many building & room type combinations as possible, in case the College cannot assign you to one of your top preferences.

Usually there are more requests for singles than the number that open up due to cancellations. This means that some students (with last lottery numbers) will be assigned into multiples with other upperclass students. The College will use the roommate matching questions on the Portal in order to find the best match for you from among the spaces that are available.

Room assignments will be emailed to students' Barnard email addresses by August 1. Assignments may be sent out by class year as opposed to all at once.

We wait until we expect to have received the majority of the cancellations over the summer, so that we have the widest array of available spaces to match to students' preferences. This helps us to find better matches for students instead of just assigning them to rooms as each cancellation is received.

Students may request on the Guaranteed List Form to be assigned with another student who does not have a room assignment. Those requests must be mutual (i.e. on both of your forms). The College will do its best to place you together if possible; however, that depends on whether any completely empty doubles are available.

If the College cannot place you and your requested friend together in the same room, we will try to place you as close together as possible (in the same suite, floor, building, etc.) if possible. Students who wish to live with/near each other should coordinate to make sure their ranked building & room type preferences match.

Students may apply for a Fall room change or a Room Swap after classes start in September. Students who are not able to get a room change in the Fall are encouraged to apply again in December for a Mid-Year Room Change when more options may be available (because of students graduating mid-year, leaving to study abroad, etc).

Students who cancel housing to move off-campus would be subject to cancellation fees.

If you are thinking about moving off-campus instead of living in campus housing, we strongly encourage you to read the information at http://barnard.edu/reslife/housing-options/off-campus and/or talk to the Res Life office before making that decision. Students who move out of campus housing lose their guarantee of housing for the future (and may not take part in Room Selection) and may qualify for less financial aid than students who live in campus housing.