A handful of advice to freshmen regarding housing

First, regarding hosing. As we near the ed of the year the housing lottery looms in the back of our minds. Who will I room with? Where will we live? Something you definitely want to think about earlier than later. Just today I saw someone's facebook was advertising that they were desperate for a fourth person to be in their quad for the housing lottery which was taking place tonight! I can say that is an easy way to be left without a roommate or be thrown into a less than ideal rooming situation. I was lucky enough to love my roommate freshmen year and we will be living together for the third year in a row next year in a theme hosue. Specifically the "Experiencing the Decades" theme house! Wonder what that means? Stay tuned next year for our monthly activities.
All that aside however deciding who to live with is a big decision. Some people are great friends but would be horrible roommates. Consider everything when looking for a roommate because there will be a lot of "togetherness" whether or not you like it.
Also, where will you live? Personally I have lived in Warren and Duvall. Hall and Pod style set-ups. All the information the school can provide you with is right here. Look through it and decide which set ups look nicer. Personally I loved living in pods more than halls. I feel like I have more community than I had in Warren. But don't take my word for it, everyone's experience is different. Talk to your friends and see what they know about the life and community of each dorm (each one is unique and different). You will also want to look in the middle of the HUB on those housing lottery days and notice which rooms are available or not.
When it comes to the night of the lottery there's not much you can do about the order. As you may know you will be placed in order of how many points you and your roommate ahve combined which is determined by how many credits you have. Then withint those subcategories you will have a random lottery number. Fortunately for me my roommate is an overachiever and had lots of running start credits so she had more points than normal. I had a really good lottery number. We pretty much had our pick of what we wanted. I couldnt' say the same for the people in back on the line sadly. But all you can do is hope for the best as you watch on the giant overhad screen as the rooms you were hoping forget slowly crossed off the screen crushing your hopes for next year (or so I've heard :P). Good Luck!