<p>Hi!</p>
<p>Does anyone know:</p>
<p>a) if housing is guaranteed for all 4 years?</p>
<p>and/or</p>
<p>b) how freshman choose housing? Is it on a first come first serve basis or is it randomly selected? I was accepted off of the waitlist...would I receive the "leftovers" from the housing pool if I choose to attend Wash U or will I still be able to indicate my preference?</p>
<p>Pretty sure it’s guaranteed for all four years as long as you stay on campus; once you get an apartment, you’re on your own. Freshman housing is chosen randomly; not sure how it works off the waitlist.</p>
<p>To clear up Mike’s post: It is guaranteed all four years- so long as you stay in university owned places.
There are university owned apartments right off campus, for the record.</p>
<p>There is no difference in regard to WL or not WL when it comes to freshman housing assignment. Obviously, once initial housing assignments are made, then housing is assigned “as available”.</p>
<p>a lot of students choose to move off-campus their junior or senior year - it’s a LOT cheaper, for starters. Res-Life does guarantee you housing on-campus, as long as you’re in their system though which is up until you (a) graduate or (b) move off-campus.</p>
<p>i should point out that while housing is guaranteed, your choice of housing isn’t. Of course, they have no obligation to give you exactly what you ask for. But, a lot of students like myself end up moving off campus because we got (very, very) bad lottery numbers and would have been split up or stuck on the south 40 junior year when most students move over to the north side. Oh well. Luck of the draw, and bad luck that all 6 of us happened to get horrible numbers, while most groups usually end up with at least one good number to boost them up the list a bit. Still, living off campus has worked out wonderfully, since the washU area has lots of nice student apartments available, and WashU was very nice and helpful about refunding my parents, who had paid in advance for 4 years of housing.</p>
<p>About the housing though, it isn’t just WashU owned that you can stay in and be assured “on campus” housing. Certain leasing partners like Quadrangle, even though independently operated (to a certain extent), are not counted as moving off campus, allowing you to enter the lottery for university owned housing the next year. They just don’t do a very good job about keeping such students in the loop about that and housing in subsequent years.</p>