<p>How are roommates assigned at ND? Is it completely random?</p>
<p>Roommate assignments are 100% Random. You don't fill any preference cards out with your sleeping habits/personal habits. It usually works out, sometimes not.</p>
<p>Ok, yea, for all intents and purposes, it is completely random. However, there are a few exceptions. If you have health issues (especially respiratory issues), you can request a newer dorm with larger rooms, elevator access, and air conditioning. There are a couple of girls dorms that are designated as women's engineering dorms, because they found out that in such a competitive and male dominated major like engineering, women benefit from having an in-dorm support structure. Also, I know for a fact that some students with well connected parents (board of trustee members, celebrities, campus officials, huge donors) are given the opportunity to influence where they will live, and I also know for a fact that each rector gets anywhere between 5-10 "pulls" per class, meaning the rector picks them for their dorm's freshman class. This usually goes to the siblings and children of former dorm residents, although some of the newer dorms use it to recruit for their hockey team <em>cough</em>Knott<em>cough</em>. There are probably other types of exceptions, but those are the ones I know of. </p>
<p>Anyway, unless you are one of this probably smaller than 5% of each incoming class, yes, rooming is completely random. Don't worry about it, it'll all work out. Almost everyone ends up being more or less happy with where they end up living, as every dorm has its own pros and cons. </p>
<p>That said, Alumni Hall is the best dorm in the history of the universe, as anyone who has been on this board around dorm announcement time has heard me say. I was abroad this semester, and will be living in Sorin next semester, but my heart lies in Alumni, and I'm hoping to be an RA there senior year. Go Dawgs.</p>
<p>so if you have respiratory issues (which I do) how do you go about requesting a dorm that you can actually breathe in?</p>
<p>Not sure, but dorm selection isn't until late June, so you have time to figure it out. If you've already sent in your deposit, I recommend calling ResLife.</p>
<p>Kevdude - what the women's engineering dorms. I had not heard of that. I think that sounds great.</p>
<p>They will send you a card to mail in that asks if you have any disabilities, etc that require special dorm accommodations (some of the older dorms are not handicapped accessible). Just put that you have allergies/respiratory issues and that you need an air conditioned dorm.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what all the dorms they put the women engineers in are although I know that Pasquerilla East is one of them. They aren't "engineering dorms"- they will still have a mix of majors. They just designate a few dorms to concentrate all the women engineers in since there are so few female engineers and they might otherwise end up with girls who are the only engineer in their dorm, which would put them at a significant disadvantage to those who have their classmates down the hall, as male engineers do.</p>
<p>there are also women engineers in lewis, farley, mcglinn, and welsh fam. i'm not sure about any others.</p>
<p>Roommates are randomly assigned by zip code.</p>
<p>Roommates are mostly random. Kevdude's exceptions are correct; some assignments are "fixed", but it is a small percentage. Zip code has nothing to do with it. Oh, and St. Ed's is THE best dorm on campus.</p>
<p>Actually, zip code does have a small impact on roommate assignments: you can't room with someone from the same zip code as you. That prevents even the slightest possibility of rooming with a friend from high school or something. The whole point is to meet someone new (first year anyway). Other than that, zip code doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Yeah ZIP code is what they say they use. I knew two guys from Denver who ended up in the same quad freshman year, but that is the only discrepancy I can think of. In three years, none of my roommates were from the same side of the Mississippi as me. One guy wasn't from the same hemisphere.</p>
<p>Those two freshmen from Denver that roomed together could have been from two different zip codes. That wouldn't be a discrepancy then.</p>
<p>They use city for room assignments, and its only a quick glance. People from the same zip codes can end up together. The people who lived across the hall from me were assigned together from the same ZIP but different cities around Chicago.</p>
<p>I just have to throw in that a lot of people on this thread are mis-informed. Fisher is the dorm you want to be in, or the dorm that you want to know people in. Does your dorm have an event as beloved or well-attended as the Regatta? "The Fisher Regatta was recognized by ESPN as one of the "Top 100" college student activities in the United States in 2004" (Wikipedia). The only one which comes close (in my mind) is Dillon. YOU GOTTA REGATTA!</p>
<p>My brother always like to use the Hogwarts analogy to describe dorm life at ND to non-Domers (such as myself) so I think it's fitting to envision the Sorting Hat doling out freshman room assignments. I think that should be ND's official party line from now on.</p>
<p>By the way, Dillon Hall runs it, don't forget.</p>
<p>Alumni Halls rocks so hard that they cancelled the Calling because it got TOO REAL. Who Let the Dawgs Out Alumni Let the Dawgs Out Woof Woof Woof Woof</p>
<p>Alumni Hall: the Center of the Universe (assuming of course that you subscribe to the theory that the universe has a gigantic Black Hole at its center).</p>
<p>Btw, what is the deal with all the great signature events getting canceled? My brother said the Dillon Pep Rally got 86ed this year-- I came out to watch that once, I gotta tell ya, with the crowd-surfing priest and dancing RA's that is one solid event. Is Notre Dame systematically stripping itself of any vestiges of student enjoyment?</p>
<p>No pigtostal apparently.</p>
<p>The Dillon Pep Rally was my favorite signature event. I was so upset when they canceled it. Rumor now has it the Zoo and Pigtostal are history too. Fricking Fr. Poorman...</p>