<p>So, according to the rules, it is all random. How many choices do I need to put down? In other word, what is the minimum amount of choices I need to do. Let say. I picked two residence halls, one as first choice and one as second choice. What if I'm so unlucky that I don't get neither of them so what happens then if I didn't put in my third choice residence hall? Like, I'm wondering how many residence halls you need to put in your reference to guarantee you'll get at least one? Thanks!</p>
<p>Parent of UW student here – I believe the preference form requires students to rank preferences for all dorms, not just the top 5 etc. It won’t let you submit the form until you have ranked each regular dorm. </p>
<p>You can search this board for lots of threads on dorm choices. Some students say that, if your preference is one of the two big southeast dorms – Sellery or Witte – which hold 2000 students between them, you are fairly likely to get into one of those. If you are looking at the lakeshore dorms that tend to be smaller, then you could wind up fairly deep down your list. </p>
<p>Follow the direction and rank all choices. The randomness is in the order requests are met- not in assigning dorms. Do double check your rankings, or let someone (parent?) else do so to be sure you didn’t slip one you meant last higher up. Usually you will rank all Southeast or all Lakeshore dorms ahead of the other area so be aware if you slipped in one ahead - son did that and I noticed (he happened to get his first choice the year they opened up Liz to men, there were no returning men to take spaces so chances were best that year only).</p>