A: Once a year, Sidney Pacific holds an internal housing lottery for residents with continuing housing status and incoming officers. If you would like to make a request to change rooms outside of this lottery process, please fill out the Room Transfer Request Form.
Internal Housing Lottery
Q: I'm a first-year student, and I've applied to the continuing student housing assignment process. I want to stay in Sidney-Pacific, and I want to keep my room. What do I do?
A: The continuing student housing assignment process is totally independent from the Sidney Pacific government and is run by the MIT Housing Office. If you get reassigned to Sidney Pacific, the MIT Housing Office will assign you a room.
Q: I am eligible for the internal housing lottery and would like to stay in my current room, but I don't see my room listed as available in the online room ballot. What do I do?
A: You don't have to do anything. The default option is for you to keep the same housing assignment. Your room is not listed as available to give you the priority to keep the same room and to prevent other people from selecting it. Just make sure you renew your contract with the MIT Housing Office.
Q: I would really like to move into a different room. However, if I don't get it, I want to stay in my current room. Do I have to place my current room as one of my preferences?
A: No. By default, if you don't get any of the rooms you indicate, you'll stay where you are. This again explains why the rooms of people who are continuing residents (yet intend to switch) are not on the "available" list.
Roommates
Q: I am currently in a double and want to stay in my room but would like to request a specific roommate. Can I do this?
A: Yes. If the requested roommate is either a SP resident with continuing housing status or an incoming officer (in other words, someone who is definitely going to live in SP for the coming year), you can simply indicate your preference on your lottery ballot. Keep in mind that this person must also request you as a roommate on their ballot.
Q: The roommate that I am requesting is a prospective incoming student (or a first-year SP resident without continuing status). What do I do?
A: These cases cannot be accommodated in the internal housing lottery because Sidney Pacific does not have access to or influence on the list of people who will be assigned to live here for the coming year.
Q: I don't want to request a specific roommate, but I would like to somehow indicate a roommate preference (i.e. religion, ethnicity, vegetarian, night-owl, early riser, non-weirdo, etc). Can I do this?
A: You may place such requests in the notes section on the ballot. However, we have not implemented a formal policy to handle such requests. The best solution would be to find someone eligible for the internal housing lottery that you are compatible to live with.
Q: How are the seniority points treated when two people want to room together (are the points summed, averaged, etc)?
A: The seniority points of two people who want to room together are summed. For example, if one person has 6 points and the other (the requested roommate) has 4 points, then they will be treated as a pair with 10 points. Together they will have priority over a single person with 7 seniority points who wants a room in the same apartment. If the pair's points were averaged (so the average would be 5) then they would have less priority over the single person. Most people seem heavily inclined towards accommodating people who want to live with chosen roommates.
Q: Do seniority points from Ashdown or other dorms transfer over to Sidney Pacific?
A. No.
Q: I am an incoming officer who does not currently live in SP. Do I have any seniority points?
A: Incoming officers (non SP) have zero points because points are awarded at the end of each term. However, incoming officers have a better selection of rooms than incoming new students and first-year residents who are reassigned to live at SP.
Miscellaneous
Q: I am currently in a double that was meant to be a quad. I know that some quads will be turned into doubles. Can housing turn my double into a quad without telling me?
A: No, this would be cruel and unusual punishment, even by MIT standards.
Q: I don't like making hasty decisions. Can I get an extension on this deadline?
A. No. The reason for this deadline is so that we can make the assignments and then provide the MIT Housing Office with a final list of available rooms (in order for them to begin their housing allocation process to incoming students, re-assigned first-years, etc). The deadline for this Housing allocation process are set and we (SP house government) cannot change them.
Q: Who is in charge of the internal housing lottery?
A: The Chair of the Halls is responsible for the internal housing lottery. You may ask questions by email, but please make sure your questions have not already been addressed here sp-hallchair [at] mit [dot] edu
