The minutes were slowly ticking by. By 10 a.m., Decker had reached capacity. By 10:40 a.m., New Res and
Eickhoff were out. A.B.E. was practically full. People with 11:00 a.m. time slots were considering rooms in Norsworthy and Centennial. Even with the addition of Eickhoff to sophomore housing, buildings were flying. It was a long, dramatic morning. How did this tremendous upset happen?
My future roommate, Maria, and I were extremely lucky with our 9:40 a.m. time slot. We had our pick of rooms in New Res, our first choice building. But even then, the pressure was overwhelming. We didn’t want to make a silly mistake and lose a potential room.
Even our friends with 9:00 a.m. times said they picked a room in New Res randomly in complete panic. Nobody wanted to make a mistake — missing a key step like selecting a bed assignment could ruin a housing possibility. After all, rooms were being taken by the second. I saw the last room in New Res get snatched up, meaning future roommates with 10:40 a.m. timeslots having to go to A.B.E.
My friends across the hall were positive they would have their choice of rooms in A.B.E. It was 11:20 a.m. As they clicked on Allen, Ely, and Brewster, it became all too clear that even with their fairly early time slot, they would have to choose from rooms at the bottom of the housing barrel.
It’s not that Norsworthy and Centennial are inconceivably horrible places to live; students who live in these two places do manage. But everyone knows that Nors and Cent are always last to be chosen by rising sophomores. The other housing assignments are much more desirable for various reasons: Eick with it’s proximity, amenities, private bathroom, and spacious rooms; Decker with it’s WiFi, social environment, and quads connected by a bathroom; New Res with its air conditioning, spacious rooms, private bathroom, and hotel-like feel; and of course A.B.E. with its bed-and-breakfast feel, quaint yet adorable drawing rooms and pastel-colored doors.
But why was this year’s housing lottery so different from last year? Last year, as I am told, people could still get A.B.E. well past 11 a.m. Out of New Res, Decker, and Eickhoff (which was previously junior-oriented housing with a select few rooms available to sophomores), Decker was the last building to fill.
The upsets occurred because people wanted to recreate their floors in Decker, ensuring a social environment, while also attempting to save friends with bad time slots. Essentially, for every one person with a good time slot in Decker, three beds were taken. Likewise, in all of the buildings, some people without roommates selected doubles instead of singles. Predetermined roommates did not wish to split up, so they selected another building instead.
All in all, housing was a pressure-cooker. Nobody expected rooms to fly like hotcakes, for entire buildings to completely close up barely two hours into the housing lottery. It was impressive, shocking, and unexpected. Everyone knew rooms would go fast, but we didn’t think they would go as fast as they did.
I guess, in the end, no matter where you live next year, it is what you make of it. Sadly, the social environment will never be like freshman year again, but you have to make the best of it. Make friends on your floor. See your friends in other buildings. And especially put in the extra effort to maintain these unique freshman friendships, these friends that you chartered your freshman year of college with, who share similar experiences with you. No one else can relate like they can. It’s sad that freshman year will be over before we know it, but such is life. As long as you enjoy your time at TCNJ, that’s all that matters.
Julia will be charting the course of freshman year here at TCNJ, giving voice to her fellow first-year collegiettes and bring back memories for our upperclasswomen.
Comment below if you have a suggestion for Julia to write about!