<p>I'm asking this as a parent only because my son is leaving the continent tomorrow and won't be back until the MIT housing lottery closes and advising choice deadline passes. We had a death in the family just before high school graduation, and he's had daily 5-8 hour music rehearsals for this mandatory tour he's going on. I preface with all this because normally he would take care of all this, but there's no time.</p>
<p>We'll have to enter his data into the housing lottery--does it ask for any information besides dorm rankings? Since it's not open yet, I can't see what else might be there. I want to know before he leaves.</p>
<p>What about advising choices? What is the minimum commitment that can be made at this time? I'm just starting to research advising.</p>
<p>I’m the parent of a rising senior at MIT, and my memory is already a bit foggy about this process. In terms of advising choices, some dorms have residence-based advising, so choosing those dorms will lock your son into residence-based advising. That’s neither good nor bad; it’s just something to be aware of.</p>
<p>I just put a link to your question on the MIT board, so check on the regular board as well.</p>
<p>Thank you. I think the answer is traditional advising since he may be in a music performance group for credit. I just don’t want to be surprised later when he’s out of communication range.</p>
<p>The housing form will ask for your son’s sleeping habits, preferences on smoking and cats, and some personal information about music tastes, activities, etc. etc., at least as far as I can remember. It’s a fairly standard housing survey - if you could get one from another university and have your son fill that out instead, you would be well-prepared.</p>
<p>The minimum time commitment is traditional advising (no seminars, you’re just assigned to an advisor who will have meetings with you a few times per semester).</p>