May i ask, if you already have a preferred roommate, will you be more likely to get your top choice dorm compared to someone who opted for “random roommate” ?
No. You will both be in the lottery and I’m not sure but you may both get the further down lottery pick rather than the one nearer to the top. No advantages. Be sure you both want to share a room. Sometimes friends do well not living together.
I don’t think so – each of you gets a lottery number, and whoever has the higher number gets assigned first, pulling the roommate with them. But the students don’t see the lottery number or know where they are in the pool. If you go random, I think you are paired with the next person in line whose preferences align with yours. Technically if your roommate has a much higher lottery slot than you, that makes it more likely that you get your preferred choice, but that is totally random and you have no way of knowing if they have a better lottery pick than you. If your roommate is lower in the pool than you, then you are the first one pulled and they get pulled in with you – same outcome as if you went random.
I’m probably not explaining that right, but I think the answer is – no, there is no significant advantage in terms of getting your preferred dorm.
Choose your neighborhood first, and rank your preferred dorms. Assume that, unless you choose Sellery/Witte, you are likely not to get your first pick. Pretty much all the dorms have their own advantages, so don’t worry about what you wind up with – they will be the place of great memories and stories.
Be sure you and your preferred roommate rank all dorms in the exact order. Double check with each other! If you have a Lakeshore or Southeast preference be sure you rank all dorms in that area first, then those in the other area. Double check your rankings for this- the one help I was to my son back in the day. I knew which dorms were where and could easily spot his mistake.
If you rank a learning community first, one of you logs in at a specific date and time and chooses the exact room. This isn’t a guarantee though because in smaller learning communities there could be more demand than rooms so if you don’t log in at the right moment and click on a room, they could all be taken in that first 30 seconds.
But- only choose a learning community if that is what you really want. They are great for some but the majority does not choose them.