Guaranteed List

Each year during the Housing Lottery, many students pick rooms even though they are not completely sure they will be living in campus housing next Fall. This includes students who are waiting to hear back from a Study Abroad program, thinking about moving off-campus, applying to transfer to another college, considering taking a leave of absence from Barnard, etc.

This means that more students will be taking part in the Lottery than the number of spaces to pick from. Typically the rising-Sophomores with the last Lottery Numbers & Selection Times will not be able to pick a specific room through the Lottery. Students in the 123 Lottery as an individual will not be able to pick into Doubles or Triples after all the Singles have been picked. Other students may not want to pick from the rooms available during their Selection Time and may choose to sign up for the Guaranteed List instead.

Yes! Students who submit the Guaranteed List form before the deadline at the top of the page are guaranteed to be assigned to campus housing for the upcoming academic year.

Students on the Guaranteed List will provide ranked preferences for building and room types (similar to a Housing Application). They may also request to be placed with other students on the Guaranteed List or into a specific vacant room space.

The students on the Guaranteed List will be assigned towards the end of the summer into rooms that other students cancelled from.

Cancellations occur in all types of rooms across campus. However, we cannot guarantee that specific room types or buildings will open up due to cancellations or would be available for you to be assigned to based on your priority.

Because there will be a finite number of vacancies to work from, it may not be possible to place you in one of your top preferred buildings or room types. We strongly recommend that you rank in order as many building & room type combinations as possible, in case you are not able to be assigned to a top preference.

Usually there are more requests for Singles than the number that open up due to cancellations. This means that some students (with the highest lottery numbers) will be assigned into Doubles or Triples with other upperclass students. The roommate matching questions on the Portal will be used in order to find the best match for students from among the spaces that are available.

While the College will try to place students with requested roommates or into specifically requested rooms if possible, those requests cannot be guaranteed.

The assignments for students on the Guaranteed List are made in 123 Lottery Number order. Students who filled out the Guaranteed List form before the 123 Lottery will be generated a random number to fold them in by class year standing.

Priority is not determined by when / how quickly students submit the form. Students just need to make sure they submit the form before the deadline listed at the top of this webpage (and they may edit their preferences through the deadline at the top of the page).

Note: if students are in a mixed-class group for the 123 Lottery and switch to the Guaranteed List, they will be prioritized based on the random value (between 1-9999) that was used to determine the sequential order of Lottery Numbers & Selection Times by individual or group Point Values. For a group made up of a rising-Junior & Sophomore, both students would be prioritized within their own class year where there would have been if they hadn't formed a mixed-class group.

Room assignments will be emailed to students' Barnard email addresses by August 1. Assignments may be sent out in groups as opposed to all at once.

We wait until we expect to have received the majority of the cancellations over the summer, so that we have the widest array of available spaces to match to students' preferences. This helps to hopefully find better matches for students instead of just assigning them to rooms as each cancellation is received.

Students may include roommate requests. Those requests must be mutual (i.e. on both of your forms). The College will do its best to place you together if possible; however, that depends on whether any completely empty doubles are available.

If the College cannot place you and your requested friend together in the same room, we will try to place you as close together as possible (in the same suite, floor, building, etc.) if possible. Students who wish to live with/near each other should coordinate to make sure their ranked building & room type preferences match.

Yes, students may write in a request to be assigned to a specific vacancy on their Guaranteed List form. However, assignments to specific rooms cannot be guaranteed.

If you request to move into a double where one student cancelled, please ask the remaining students to email housing@bianlifan.com (before July 1) to mutually request you as a roommate.

Requests to be placed into a specific single may not be possible due to students' priority order on the Guaranteed List. Based on the available spaces, the room may be assigned to a student before you in priority.

Students who need housing accommodations for a disability or medical condition should submit an accommodation request (with supporting medical documentation) to CARDS before July 1.

Approved accommodations will be taken into account and provide additional priority when room assignments are made.

Students may apply for a Fall room change or look for a Room Swap after classes start in September. Students who are not able to get a room change in the Fall are encouraged to apply again in December for a Mid-Year Room Change when more options may be available (because of students graduating mid-year, leaving to study abroad, etc).

Students who no longer plan to live in campus housing should submit the Housing Cancellation Form (please note that cancellation fees would apply).

If you are thinking about cancelling housing, we strongly encourage you to read the information at http://bianlifan.com/reslife/housing-options/off-campus and/or talk to Res Life staff before making that decision. Students who move out of campus housing lose their guarantee of housing for the future (and may not take part in Room Selection). Students are also encouraged to check with the Financial Aid office to see if any aid would be affected,