Remember that floor plans are available at all times on the Cabot Website, or you can look at this spreadsheet)
Spring 2021 has three main parts (with an optional 4th):
1. Enroll to participate, group creation, room preference statement (Dec. 21-Jan. 4)
2. Review the spreadsheet for accuracy (Jan. 4-5). "Lottery" numbers assigned Jan. 6th.
3. Housing assigned live-- Jan 7th. You can chat with the House admin as it happens.
4. Optional: Wish Letters (through Jan. 10)
Here's how it goes:
Enroll to Participate: Between Dec. 21 and Jan. 4, all students who have confirmed housing on campus for Spring 2021 are invited to fill out a housing form (the enrollment form). On this form, you must agree to the terms of housing, and let the House Administrator know your housing preferences. You can choose to enroll as an individual, or as a group of 2 or 3 members.
Group size is limited to 3: The group size is limited to 3 people, maximum. Current college guidance is that no more than 3 students may share a bathroom. Each suite in Cabot contains 1 bathroom. Therefore, no more than 3 may share a suite. Hence, group size is limited to 3, since that is the maximum number that can fit into a single suite. In past lotteries, Cabot has allowed group size to be any size, regardless of how many can fit in a suite. However, in order to be closer aligned to the processes of other Houses, for this housing process, groups are limited to a maximum of 3 members.
Standing in housing is based on Registrar standing: Your placement as a Junior or Senior within the housing list will be determined by your standing with the registrar at the time that the form is active. Seniors will have the higher set of numbers assigned to them (1 through x, where x is "the total number of Seniors with confirmed housing"). Juniors will have the lower set of numbers (x+1 (or the first junior number), through y, where y is "the total number of juniors"). If you (or your friend who made the group) do not enroll to participate in housing, you will be given the lowest number within your class (junior or senior). Any sophomores eligible for housing will be given unregistered junior numbers.
Group numbers will be an average of individual numbers: Each individual person will be given a "lottery" number, like the real house lottery. By creating a group, you are choosing to average your number with the other members of your group. This will allow you to select a room or set of rooms equal to the size of your group-- a group of 3 may take a suite with a occupancy limit of 3; a group of 2 may take a suite with an occupancy limit of 2. Your group does not have to take a suite-- they can select any set of rooms, as long as it is equal to their group size. For example, an averaging group of 2 could select a double or two singles. A group of three could select a double and a single, or three singles. To see all rooms and their capacities, click on this page. When filling out the enrollment form, please list rooms that have the same occupancy as your group-- if you list a preference for a room that holds 3 if you have a group size of 2. You may not hold a valid bed space open for someone not listed in your group. That request will be ignored.
Seniors and Juniors may group together.
While you are choosing to average your numbers together, no lottery numbers will be known to you. Please pick based on who you like to live with, as you will not know who has a better number than you.
If you choose not to do this step, then you can still fill out the form as a single individual, and can list singles.
Housing in Harvard Yard: If the total number of students who will be on campus is greater than the number of bed available, then Cabot will be assigned spaces in Harvard Yard. We do not know, as of this date, if this will be the case. If it happens, then the college will be assigning a block of rooms to Cabot House. Housing in the Yard is only offered if the entire available stock of housing is filled.
You can choose to write in "Yard" in your housing form. However, Cabot will be assigning rooms in Cabot House first. Hence, if you list your preferences as "Yard, F-100, K-32, B-31," then the House Administrator will place you in either F-100, K-32 or B-31, if any are available, before placing you in the Yard. If all housing is filled in Cabot House, The House Administrator will go to the top of the list, look for the first instance of "Yard," and offer yard housing to the first group that lists it, then the next. If any student cancels housing after room assignments, anyone placed in the yard will be moved in to the space vacated by the student who cancelled their housing.
The form will close January 4th, noon.
Throughout this enrollment period, the house administrator will be emailing groups to confirm that they all wish to be averaged together. The complete list of everyone participating housing will be shared after enrollment closes-- a link will be sent on January 4th after enrollment closes, which will contain all of the people participating in housing. No further submissions will be accepted after Jan 4 at 5 p.m. ET. It will be open through January 5 to confirm. Changes after Jan. 4 are made by emailing the house administrator. In order to make sure there is time to settle any ongoing further issues, the list will be considered final on Jan. 5 at noon, so everyone can see the final list. At this point, you will still not know your lottery number.
It is the responsibility of the student to assure that information in the form is accurate, and email the house administrator if there is a mistake (apepper@fas.harvard.edu). If you do not confirm that all information about your entry is accurate by Jan 5th before noon, the information as listed will be assumed to be accurate. No further changes will be made.
To recap:
1) If you wish to pick your room, please fill out the Enrollment form by Jan. 4, 12 p.m. If you do not fill out this form, your name will be dropped to the bottom of your class (Junior or Senior), and will be housed after those who have listed their preference. If your friend lists you in your group, that counts as enrollment.
2) On Jan. 4th, 12 p.m., a list of the participants will be available-- please check over for accuracy. If you have changes after Jan. 4th, you will have until Jan. 5 at noon to contact the House Administrator to ask for an update.
3) All information on the form will go through a lottery script on Jan. 6. Every person
The house administrator will take the participant list on Jan. 6th and generate all of the lottery numbers using a script, which was written by a Cabot senior in 2014. Each person will receive an individual number, but groups will have their numbers averaged together to create 1 number. The results will be shared via a link to cabot-announce.
Again, the higher the number, the higher in line you will be placed for room selection. The first group or person (whoever has lottery #1, or highest lottery number) will be housed at noon ET on Jan. 7th. The last group or person will be housed around 10:30/10:45 p.m. Those with Senior status will be assigned numbers approximately between 1 and 99 (depending on number of Seniors). Those with Junior status will be assigned numbers approximately between 100 and 204 (depending on the number of Juniors).
Room assignment day is Jan. 7th, 3 p.m. ET. The House Administrator will use what is listed on the form Dissatisfaction with your number because it will not allow you to get the sort of room you want is not a valid reason for a change to the housing process, so please adopt a flexible way of thinking about housing.
Jan. 7, The House Administrator will be live on zoom, assigning rooms based on what was written in the form. She will be posting room assignments in a live google doc-- the link will be sent via Cabot-announce. However, since she is live, she can also chat with any group that chooses to log in. Results which show which rooms have been chosen will be posted to the Google document which every person who signed up for the lottery will be able to view-- this Google Doc will be posted to Cabot-Announce. This should provide accurate, real-time information about which rooms are available.
Each group must select a suite or a set of rooms that accommodates the exact number of people in their averaging group. For instance, a group of three could select a triple OR a single and a double OR three singles. If a member of your group goes on leave after housing, Cabot House reserves the right to re-assign the vacated space if necessary. This means you could get a floater in your suite if there is space to do so after the lottery (based on the room's stated occupancy).
One or more delegates from a group or an entire group may log on to chat with the house administrator. Each group will have 3 minutes to talk to the House Administrator about housing. If you or your group has trouble making up your mind, you can delay, but each new group will be allowed to pick ahead of you after 3 minutes.
DELAY: If you (or your group) would like to select a set of rooms with another person or group, you can pick together if you come at the time which occurs later. If you want to pick with another group who has a later arrival time than you, you must wait until their appointed time to select your rooms. The House Administrator would just like to see a representative from both groups at the later time, to confirm that this is what everyone involved wants. You still may not fill a suite with more than 3 people, but you could select ajoining suites or singles.
All lottery results will remain visible to students on a Google doc for up to a week after the conclusion of housing selection. The DSO does not give out consolidated housing data to anyone in order to insure student privacy, so the Google doc must be taken down. Please consult the occupancy spreadsheet + floor plans in advance and to prioritize your choices, so that you can be adequately prepared prior to choosing.
Once the Housing Process is over, all changes to Junior/Senior housing for Spring 2021 will be decided as wish letters. Wish Letters are accepted until Jan. 11. The House Office will attempt to optimize requests across the house based on as much information as we have. The goal of the wish letter process is to try to optimize housing for all students. Your administrator will follow up with you ASAP if able to grant a wish letter.
Your wish letters will be decided by the house administrator, in consultation with a committee of tutors and students who did not take part in the lottery. The purpose of the committee is to allow more voices from different places to decide on the fairest way to grant wish letters.