Following the release of the 2018-2019 Housing Assignments Draw outcomes on May 23, 141 students — 70 women and 71 men — received notice that they were not assigned housing in the first round of the draw and were placed on the Autumn Quarter Waiting List. This is an increase from last year’s 119 unassigned students, according to Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) spokesperson Jocelyn Breeland.
This year, the cutoff draw numbers for housing assignments in the first round of the Draw were 2,854 for men using Tier 3 and 2,820 for women using Tier 3.
Students who were unassigned housing are still ultimately guaranteed housing on campus but will resubmit their preferences for the waiting list round by July 8 and receive their housing assignments on July 28.
Breeland did not attribute the rise in unassigned students to any particular change in this year’s Draw.
“Cut off numbers vary from year to year,” Breeland wrote. “These normal variations are not responsible for the increase in first-round unassigned students for 2018-2019.”
Breeland said that students may have failed to receive housing as a result of selecting a form option that assigns them only to residences they listed. Instead of being placed into random housing, the students are unassigned.
However, some students who were not assigned housing claim they selected the option to be assigned to any available housing if the residences they listed were full.
“We have to check the box that said assign me anywhere. We all checked it to stay guaranteed housing,” said Zaid Nabulsi ’20, whose four-person draw group held the draw number 2973 and was not assigned housing.
The emails notifying members of Nabulsi’s group of their housing results confirmed that their housing was guaranteed rather than “limited,” which would mean they opted to be assigned only to their listed residences. Students designated as “limited” are assigned housing only after all guaranteed students are assigned.
Tina Jiang ’20, whose three-person draw group held the number 2923, also selected to be assigned to any available housing.
“It doesn’t really make sense to me why they can’t fit everyone in initially,” she said. “There’s enough housing for everyone, theoretically. I don’t understand why it takes two rounds.”
Nabulsi, however, expressed a positive view of Stanford’s housing draw despite being unassigned.
“I think the Stanford housing system does a good job,” he said. “When you look at other schools, I know Cal doesn’t even guarantee housing at all. Most schools don’t guarantee after a year or two.”
Both Nabulsi and Jiang’s groups have resubmitted the housing application to join the waiting list round. If they and the other unassigned students do not receive an assignment after the waiting list round or miss the July 8 deadline, they can participate in continuous assignment, in which housing is assigned weekly through August and daily in September through the fifth week of autumn quarter.
Breeland wrote in an email to The Daily that students who indicate they are willing to accept any housing assignment should receive housing before autumn quarter begins.
Contact Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu.