<p>My daughter received an email from the college today stating that the college would allow Juniors to live outside of college housing. Apparently there are too many people wanting college housing. D insists that this is an overabundance of first year enrollees, because the college already knew how many upper class students it had and that they don’t take transfers until they know how many first years they have. According to this line of reasoning the housing shortage indicates a greater than expected yield as that is the only unknown with which the college must deal. This may, at least partially, explain the waiting list that Calmom mentioned in an earlier thread.</p>
<p>Sorry, I meant "too many" in the good sense.</p>
<p>The waiting list Calmom mentioned is a factor of the (IMO) rather cuh-razy way Barnard has of doing housing selection each year:ie the infamous lottery. As I understand it, it's sort of luck as to whether you sign up for a housing arrangement that happens to be in high demand that particular year, or not. In my d's case, for ex, after her first year, she and 4 friends signed up for a 5-person suite at Plimpton. By the time their lottery number came up (as that was evidently not a "high-demand" year for 5-person suites), there were several available so they got one. They then chose that same suite this past spring for next year (of course, their lottery number was higher since they were all a year older). Calmom's d, on the other hand, is a year younger and this past spring evidently was a "high-demand" year for 5-person suites, so she was put back in the general selection pile and is now waiting to see where she will live. </p>
<p>Mardad, I know you know all of the above (and now have two daughters attending!!!! :eek: ), but thought I'd clarify for any who are not familiar with the system. And if I got any of it wrong, please correct me!!!</p>
<p>I agree, though, that it sounds like Barnard's yield must be higher than anticipated since some transfers aren't even being offered housing at all. I don't know if my junior d got that same e-mail (I imagine she did, though), as she is currently doing her internship in NYC.</p>
<p>My daughter was waitlisted for housing at the time of the lottery, in March - before the Freshman enrollment number could possibly have been known. Churchmusicmom is correct -- it has to do with the way the lottery works. My d & her friends had a fairly good lottery number as far as sophomores go, but all the 5-person suites were gone by the time they came up -- and in general selection there were no singles left. Since my d. prefers a single, and Barnard guarantees housing, the waitlist was her last, best chance of getting one. </p>
<p>The irony is that my d. would be quite happy to live off campus -- she wanted to get an apartment with a couple of other non-Barnard students -- but I told her that she couldn't consider it because of Barnard's financial aid policies. (She would lose at least $10K of her grant if she did not live on campus).</p>
<p>Update:
I have figured out that at least part of the housing crunch is 2 floors on Elliot have been converted to temporary office space, due to the Nexus construction; see: <a href="http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/elliott.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/elliott.html</a></p>
<p>And all is well with my daughter. She has been assigned a very nice single in one of the 600's (on 116th street) - and is eagerly looking forward to meeting her suitemates. If there is a junior or senior who accepted Barnard's encouragement to move off campus... we are very grateful.</p>