<p>I was recently accepted as an incoming Freshman for 2008 as was a HS friend. We are thinking of rooming together in a UW dorm and listing identical choices in both our room applications. But in doing so the instructions say if you request a specific roommate you are telling UW that a roommate is more important than the location.</p>
<p>Should I take this to mean if we submit the request to room together we will probably end up with one of the least popular choices?</p>
<p>That's tricky...it's done by a lottery by name. So you'll have a lottery order pick number, and she'll have one...whose would they use? e-mail the residential housing people</p>
<p>I personally know four sets of roommates from high school who received either their first or second choice dorms. And the the specific dorm is not as important as the location, SE or Lakeshore. So if you put all of one location at the top your your list you should be fine.</p>
<p>You can check with Res Halls for the official answer. It may mean you get the worst of your two lottery chances, you may give up a better chance than otherwise. It does not mean last pick. Let us know what you find out from Res Halls. If you have a good roommate choice I would compromise on the location choices (and if you can't agree on which dorms you two prefer you may not be as compatible as you think).</p>
<p>Part of the reply from the residence hall assigment office came back as follows:</p>
<p>"We look at both roommate requests and building preferences when assigning students. However, a roommate match will trump a building request if it does come down to that decision."</p>
<p>That reply didn't really tell me about how the lottery works. Do both names have to be drawn before the hall assignment is made or just 1 name?</p>