More than 2,200 students will participate in the Community Living and Learning Center’s housing lottery Saturday for space in GW residence halls, according to CLLC Assistant Director Paul Barkett.
All students interested in living on campus next year turned in Intent to Return forms by Feb. 6, Barkett said. Though 2,285 students returned the forms, the actual number participating in the lottery will be less, he explained.
“There’s always some percentage of students who turn in ITRs but don’t pick rooms,” Barkett said.
Not enough rooms are available to accommodate all students who turned in ITRs, but Barkett said he doesn’t know how many students will drop out of the lottery.
“I don’t ever really know until the lottery,” he said. Seniors often choose to live off campus if they don’t get the housing they want, he said.
“I’m hearing from lots of students that they want to get into New Hall, and if they don’t they’re going to live off campus,” Barkett said.
The lottery will be in J Street. Students with senior numbers will pick rooms at noon, and junior numbers are expected at 2 p.m. Students with sophomore numbers of 2,500 or less should arrive at 6 p.m., and those with numbers greater than 2,500 should report at 8 p.m.
Students received lottery numbers, which are based on credit hours, in the mail Wednesday. GW students who studied abroad have been working to get the right number of credit hours on their transcripts to improve their picks in the lottery.
Transcripts from overseas can take several months to arrive, said Adrian Beaulieu, director of GW’s study abroad office.
Beaulieu said incidents of study abroad students stuck with lower lotto numbers because of late transcripts are “isolated” – and that the solution lies in students filling out the appropriate paperwork, which includes the number of credits they received abroad. The University uses this unofficial record until receiving the verified one.
He said mail delivery also is a major factor, since the process involves official transcripts that must be sent via mail service, not by any other means, including e-mail or fax.
“It’s an unfortunate situation. We are at the mercy of other schools’ registrar’s offices,” Beaulieu said. “There’s not much we can do.”
