Fall Lottery Process
The room selection process happens in three steps. Please read the information below carefully and be mindful of the dates and procedures that apply for the type of assignment you would like to pick for the coming academic year.
Eligibility
All currently enrolled Caltech frosh, sophomores, and juniors will be automatically entered into the 2023-2024 Fall lottery process if eligible to enroll for the 2023-2024 Fall term without UASH or Dean's approval. Eligible students will NOT be required to apply to be assigned a random lottery number. A list of eligible students will be available on Monday, April 10, 2023.
If you are not on the list of eligible students and need to live on campus in the fall, you may request to be added to the lottery by emailing us by 12 noon on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Eligibility to participate will be confirmed by the undergraduate deans.
If you have made local housing arrangements for the 2023-2024 academic year, you may opt out of future housing lottery communications, and we will not generate a lottery number for you. Please complete the Opt Out of Fall Housing Lottery form to remove yourself from the housing lottery process. Please note that submitting this form is binding, and if you change your mind after lottery numbers are generated, you will be added to the bottom of the waitlist.
Lottery numbers will be posted on Friday, April 14, 2023.
The room selection process happens in three steps. The Housing Office will run one set of lottery numbers to be used in both the Early Bechtel Lottery (Round 1) and the General Unaffiliated Lottery (Round 3). Houses can use these numbers or other fair processes that produce random results for the individual House Lotteries (Round 2).
ROUND 1 – Early Unaffiliated Lottery
Unaffiliated students interested in living in Bechtel may participate in the first round of room picks by filling out the Early Unaffiliated Lottery application. The deadline to complete the form is Tuesday, April 18th at 12 noon. The early lottery will occur via Zoom on Thursday, April 20th starting at 1:30pm and individuals/groups will receive an appointment time in lottery number order. This will be a limited lottery where 80-100 spaces will be available for selection. This includes both suites and standalone singles. Depending on interest, this is an approximate breakdown of which suites will be available during the early lottery:
- 5 standalone singles
- 2 four-bed suites
- 1 six-bed suite
- 10 eight-bed suites
The goal of the early lottery is to allow students without an affiliation to secure unaffiliated housing, and the Housing Office will do our best to accommodate these needs during the early lottery. Only students who are unaffiliated as of the start of Spring term 2023 are eligible to use their picks during this round of the lottery. To maximize the number of unaffiliated students who get assignments during the early lottery, groups with a higher number of unaffiliated students per group size will have priority.
Note: When picking into suites in Bechtel, the best lottery number in your group of 4, 6, or 8 determines when your group will pick a suite.
Students who select a housing assignment during the Early Bechtel Lottery will be removed from the lottery list on the Housing website on Friday, April 21st, and they will not be eligible to participate in Round 2 or Round 3.
ROUND 2 – Individual House Lotteries
The 8 Houses (Avery, Blacker, Dabney, Fleming, Lloyd, Page, Ricketts, Venerable) will conduct their own house lottery processes. For guidelines regarding any specific lottery process, please consult the Excomm in that house.
Rooms will be held out of the house lotteries to accommodate incoming students for the fall. The breakdown of frosh rooms for Fall 2024 will be:
*Please note: these numbers may be adjusted based on the size of the incoming class.
- Avery - 36
- Blacker - 23
- Dabney - 20
- Fleming - 25
- Lloyd - 28
- Page - 26
- Ricketts - 20
- Venerable - 31
House Picks Officers must submit their room assignment list to the Housing Office by 12 noon on Thursday, April 27th.
Students who select a housing assignment during individual House lotteries will be removed from the lottery list on the Housing website on Friday, April 28th, 2023, and they will not be eligible to participate in Round 3.
ROUND 3 – General Unaffiliated Lottery
Any students who have not chosen a fall assignment will be eligible to participate in the General Unaffiliated Lottery on the afternoon of Thursday, May 4th, 2023. All remaining spaces for upperclassmen in Bechtel will be available for selection. Suites must be filled to capacity, and only after all full groups have had the opportunity to select a room will partial groups be able to fill suites.
The configuration of suites available during the final round of lottery will be:
- 1 four-bed suites in Bechtel
- 2 six-bed suites in Bechtel
- 2 eight-bed suites in Bechtel
- 4 four-bed suites in Marks/Braun (Marks/Braun suites are configured as 2 double rooms sharing a common area and bathroom)
During Round 3, the application to participate is required. Please complete the application by Tuesday, May 2nd by 12pm.
Groups will be given appointment times starting at 1:30 pm on Thursday, May 4th. Appointments will be scheduled in lottery number order, and full groups will have priority over partial groups.
For students who will enter Round 3 as individuals or pairs, the application is now required. Individuals and roommate pairs will be able to select rooms starting at 2:30 pm on Thursday, May 4th. Pairs will select rooms in lottery number order. Individuals will be able to select vacant rooms in partially filled Bechtel suites, standalone singles in Bechtel, and if/when those have been filled rooms in Marks and Braun Houses will be available as double occupancy spaces. Students may pull in a roommate or one will be assigned.
Bechtel will hold out 36 bed spaces for incoming students. The 36 frosh spaces will be in both 12-person suites, one 8-person suite, and one 4-person suite.
At this time, we will continue to hold the second floor of Braun House out of the lottery for alternative housing for healthy roommates of self-isolating students.
What Happens If ...
If you are not able to attend the room picking process during Round 1 or Round 3, you may designate a proxy to pick an assignment for you. Proxies must have written authorization from the student for whom they are selecting.
You may also designate the Housing Office as your proxy. We will select a space for you based on your preferences available at the time of your pick.
Proxy forms are available online.
At the end of the full room picking process, students that have not selected an assignment will be automatically added to the waiting list (in the order of their lottery numbers). As vacancies occur, spaces will be offered to individuals on the waiting list.
If you have a house affiliation, you will not be able to use your pick during the Early Unaffiliated Lottery. Unaffiliated students may pull in students with an affiliation during the Early Unaffiliated Lottery. Unaffiliated status is determined by the results of the winter term Housing Affiliation survey sent by the Office of Residential Experience.
Groups that fill a suite with unaffiliated students will have first priority to pick among groups of the same size. Then the group with the next highest number of unaffiliated students will pick among groups of that size. If there are multiple groups with the same number of unaffiliated students (e.g. 4 unaffiliated students and 4 affiliated students going into an 8 person suite), the groups will pick in order based on the best lottery number out of the unaffiliated students in that group.
If a vacancy occurs in a suite that was picked as a group, the group may be given a reasonable amount of time to pull in a new suitemate, but the Housing Office will reserve the right to assign that vacancy to any student after that period.
Students with emotional support animals (ESAs) or service animals that are registered with and approved by the CASS office, will be eligible to select housing in limited locations. Each residence on campus has a section of the building designated as animal friendly.
- Bechtel Residence:
- 256, 356: 4 person suites
- 114, 272, 372 : 6 person suites
- 121 & 122: 8 person suites
- 164, 265-275, 365-375: standalone singles
- Marks House: All Rooms
- Avery House: Rooms 101 - 114
- Blacker House: Rooms 102 - 112
- Dabney House: Rooms 103 - 106, 203 - 206
- Fleming House: Rooms 127 - 134
- Lloyd House: Rooms 112 - 119
- Page House: Rooms 226 - 232
- Ricketts House: Rooms 114, 245 - 268
- Venerable House: Rooms 239 - 244
The CASS Office will communicate accessibility needs for students directly to the Housing Office, and the Housing Office will work with the student to assign them to housing that meets their needs.
Undergraduate students can opt out of Caltech housing prior to participating in the lottery.