Okay, so I’m going to be honest, the housing lottery can be pretty stressful. However, I am only writing this post to show that it all works out in the end. I apologize for the length of this post! I will try to keep it as concise as possible, but I think that this is important information and I just want everyone to get the gist of the housing lottery. I am not sure if any of you have thought about how housing might work when you get to college, but it is definitely something to think about and to know about!
At Bates there are many options for places to live. As a freshman, you will be placed in one of the following dorms Smith, which is a dorm that is comprised of all quads, and it is known as the most social freshman dorms. You could live in Rand or 280 College Street, which are right next to each other. Rand is older, and 280 College Street is often referred to as “New Dorm,” “New Rand,” or “280.” 280 is one of the quiet dorms. You could be placed in Parker, which is located on right in between the quad and alumni walk, which is a very central location on campus. You could be placed in Page, which has mostly doubles and a few triples. This is where all of my friends lived freshman year, and is where I spent my nights when I visited before I transferred into Bates. You could also be placed in a number of chem.-free houses if you select that option on the housing survey. Don’t worry about your roommate! Bates is really great at placing students in rooms with people who they will get along with! A lot of my friends became friends freshman year when they lived with each other. Even if you do not become best friends with your roommate, the likelihood is that you will get along and it will not be as big of a deal as you think it will be! So don’t be nervous!
Now, more importantly, in March of your freshman year the housing lottery occurs. This is when you get to choose where you want to live and with who you want to live for sophomore year. This housing process is stressful and exciting all at the same time. You now have more freedom regarding where you want to live and whom you want to live with and even how many people you want to live with! However, because of the way that housing lottery is organized, which I will explain, you miiiiight not get your first choice your sophomore year.
The housing lottery goes like this. Everyone in your class gets randomized and then you get a number. These numbers are posted on the Garnet Gateway, which is where you register for classes, check your account balances, fill out course evaluations, and other really important things. When you get your number, do not be surprised if you are disappointed with how high it is. People get lucky, I am telling you! After you unwrap the surprise that is your number, you then get to decide what type of housing you want to live in. Bates has suites of four, six, and one of five people; triples; doubles; and finally singles. The suite lottery happens first as a separate event, and then the regular housing happens. Everyone is gathered in Chase Hall, and there is a giant room, which used to be the dining hall, where all of the floor plans are laid out on tables, so you get to see which rooms are available and where they are located. Sitting at these tables are the Resident Coordinators for each dorm, who are all really friendly and helpful when choosing a room. Keep in mind that you can view all of the floor plans for the dorms beforehand online.
If you and your friends decide that you want a suite you put your names into the suite lottery and your numbers get averaged, dropping the lowest number (don’t worry). There are two main places where suites exist: The Village, and J.B. The village is a group of three buildings known as V1, V2, and V3. Each village has suites of four or six people. The full name of J.B. is John Bertram Hall, but everyone just calls it J.B. This building only has suites of four people. All of my friends lived there this year and it is a really fun and social place to live! Mainly juniors and sophomores live there, but as a senior I will be living there with my friend Colleen in a double in the basement.
If you decide that you do not want a suite, then you go into the normal housing lottery. This lottery is divided by grade. They do the rising seniors first, and then the next day they do the rising juniors, and finally the rising sophomores. You can now decide whether you want to live in a double with a friend, in a triple with two friends, or in a single by yourself. If you want to go into a double or a triple, you take the highest number of your friend and go into the room with them where all of the floor plans are laid out, so that even if you have a bad number you don’t have to worry about it! There are so many options for this! There is the quiet dorm, Adams, which has doubles and singles and is in a really great location right near everything on campus! You can also live in 280 or Rand. There are also rooms in Page and Parker for upper classmen. Or you can live in one of the Houses on Frye Street or Wood Street. Frye Street is a really fun community of a lot of different houses. However, Bates is doing a lot of renovations to the campus for the 10-year plan, and the houses on Frye Street will be out of commission! But the good news is that there will be new dorms open very soon! Although there will be changes made to the living situation on campus, I just wanted to give you all a sense of how many options there are for places to live and how much Bates cares about students being able to have a multitude of choices!
I have included a link to the Bates College Campus Map, so that you can get a sense of where all of these dorms are located in reference to Commons, the gym, the quad, and all of the other dorms:
Garnet Gateway the Gemma Way 