<p>I am checking in to my temp dorm on August 18th for an fpop. Does anyone know whether I can have a UPS delivery to the dorm for that week after check in or do I have to wait until I have a permanent room/dorm?</p>
<p>You can probably have stuff shipped then but you'll just have to move it from your temp dorm..</p>
<p>Oh, and, I'm temped in Baker. I'm pretty sure it's a triple or a quad (which I honestly don't mind) but is there any chance I'll get a double. Are freshmen with doubles allowed to request they stay in their dorm? Or do all freshmen get a fair shot at all rooms once REX is over?</p>
<p>cheersfan, you can definitely have stuff delivered.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm pretty sure it's a triple or a quad (which I honestly don't mind) but is there any chance I'll get a double. Are freshmen with doubles allowed to request they stay in their dorm? Or do all freshmen get a fair shot at all rooms once REX is over?
[/quote]
There are some freshmen in Baker who end up in doubles, though it's not as likely as a triple or a quad. </p>
<p>Either way, you can choose to stay in your temp dorm no matter what -- you just don't enter the readjustment lottery if you're happy where you are, and you can stay in that dorm. You are not guaranteed to be able to stay in that room, however. Baker has an internal room lottery for final room assignments, and you rank your preferences for different types of rooms (e.g. different types of singles, front doubles, back doubles, etc.). So you can request a double, no matter what room you are assigned in Baker temporarily, but there is no guarantee that you will get it.</p>
<p>Incidentally, you can check which room you'll be living in on the [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/facilities/maps/floorplans.html%5Dfloorplans%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/facilities/maps/floorplans.html]floorplans[/url</a>] webpage (requires certificates to view the floorplans). That can give you an idea of how big your room is and how many roommates you are likely to have.</p>
<p>Ohh, ok. So if freshmen are temped in doubles do they have any advantage over freshmen temped in triples or quads or are all freshmen treated the same way? haha..</p>
<p>I checked the floor plan and my room seems pretty big so I'm guessing it's a quad. I've already found 2 of my temp roommates so it's atleast a triple haha. I think it's actually good that I got temped in a quad (or triple?) for REX because that way I can try it out instead of having to jump into something I've never done before..</p>
<p>I'm not absolutely sure (this is second-hand information from a friend who lived in Baker -- each dorm does it differently), but I would tend to suspect not.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure the only quads are rooms at the ends of the building, but don't quote me on it. So if you're at the end of a hall way, you're likely in a quad.</p>
<p>You cannot "squat" your rooms in most dorms (including - I believe - Baker). However, your best bet for accurate information is to find an upperclassman on Facebook or something. I'm going to go ask one of my upperclassman Baker friends now, actually. :)</p>
<p>been outa the country for a month and it feels good back on CC.
Baker 402; one floor above Sidfromaus</p>
<p>Just curious. Apparently it's possible for the lottery to assign someone to a dorm which they had listed as a second choice ahead of someone who had selected that same dorm as a first choice, resulting in both getting their second choice. I have heard this from a couple of people and I am guessing that there is some kind of macro "happiness" maximization policy that prefers two 2s to a 1 and a 3. Does anyone know the exact sorting rules employed in the lottery?</p>
<p>I thought for sure they (a computer?) just went down the list of individuals in their randomly selected order and put each person as he or she came up in the top choice that still had room.</p>
<p>Besides, isn't what you're saying explainable by the first person's first choice being full? Therefore, the first person is put in his second choice, which could fill up down the line (perhaps by the first person him/herself), and so the second person wouldn't be able to get into that dorm as his or her own first choice.</p>
<p>I can't imagine housing lottery being anything but a natural lottery. If it IS anything but, that's news to me.</p>
<p>Haha, macro "happiness" maximization made me laugh. I can just imagine a computer monitor sitting there, frowning and tilting its head as it moves people around to make itself happy. Anyway, the logarithm apparently gives as many people their first choice as possible in terms of maximization policy - I know I read that somewhere. I have no clue how really unlucky people ended up getting their fourth and fifth choices though :/</p>
<p>I haven't heard of any 5th choice yet. Seems like all the 4th choice ones are b/c of RBA (Next house).</p>
<p>My friend was placed in the dorm he ranked either 5th or 6th last year, so it happens.</p>
<p>kryptonsa: I am not sure it's a simple, straight up lottery, where number 1 goes first and gets his/her 1st choice if there is room; 2nd if not, etc. I remembered hearing that some type of more complex algorithm is employed. I just cant tell what all is involved. This is from a 2007 Tech article</p>
<p>"The Housing Office partners with
Information Services & Technology
on an algorithm that achieves the
highest rate of satisfaction for freshmen,
according to Smedick."</p>
<p>It all depends on how the Housing office elects to measure "satisfaction." I am not complaining. I might actually prefer my second choice. Just curious.</p>
<p>-Isn't- the way to achieve the "highest rate of satisfaction" just to do a plain, simple, "put whoever is next in line is his/her top, available choice"? Anything more than that just strikes me as having to double-guess how "satisfied" each student is with every "choice" he/she could get; i.e. someone who would hate being in anything less than his/her first choice vs. someone who would basically be content in any of his/her top four choices becomes a factor.</p>
<p>Though I suppose if they're going to be so wordy so as to describe what they do as an "algorithm," then perhaps there is something more complicated than a natural lottery behind the scenes.</p>
<p>Kryptonsa: I agree -- with both your points.</p>
<p>I think the way to achieve the highest rate of satisfaction would be to minimize the total choice sum -- i.e. if everybody got put in his/her first choice, the choice sum would be ~1000, if everybody got put in his/her second choice, the sum would be ~2000.</p>
<p>I mean, that's not necessarily true, but it's all the information they have to go on. </p>
<p>It might be interesting to see a lottery where freshmen could assign weights to their choices.</p>
<p>Another thought:</p>
<p>Maybe they fill the dorms with all of the kids that ranked it as their first choice (if there isn't enough space, they pick kids randomly), and then go to filling dorms with their second choices, then third choices etc. etc. So maybe if you get put in your 5th choice, you had bad luck and didn't get into your 1st choice dorm, and then 2-4 were filled up with kids that had it as their first choice dorms.</p>
<p>I had something in mind that is more like what mollie described.
Maybe they first look at everyone's top choices, calculates through possible combinations, the pick the combination where the sum of the choice is the least?
Except any one to put RBA in top 4 fill those first.</p>