On Feb 25, Saint Louis University students began the exhausting wait for housing assignments for the 2011-2012 school year.  This process follows the decision to move the $2000 housing scholarship to merit-based, allowing more upperclassmen to move off-campus next year. This shift will likely help to aid in the housing process although the student body still has concerns about where they will be living next year.

The Department of Housing and Residence Life is taking a step in the right direction with this change after facing criticism last year when sophomores were given first pick on housing due to the requirement that they stay on campus, leaving some upperclassmen, attempting to maintain the whole of their scholarship, stranded in unwanted apartments and lofts.

Further criticism is already rampant for this year’s housing though, as upperclassmen are not given the chance to keep their current housing, or squat, in the coming year, and many will likely end up in off-campus housing, some out of choice and some out of necessity. As sophomores, this is more than welcomed, giving us a chance to maybe get the housing we want, or at least out of the community bathroom, 12 square foot space lifestyle.

The ordering process for sophomores is one within the housing selection system that is far more complicated (arguably unnecessarily so) than the lottery for upperclassmen.  For this order determination, groups of sophomores are given a time to pick their housing based on a combination of factors including average GPAs and credit hours of applicants.  Once an individual or group is assigned their time to pick housing, the wait begins, hoping time slot by time slot that the desired housing does not fill.

I have not dealt with the housing system, outside of dorm assignments, in all of its glory yet but I am optimistic, at this point, to its efficiency.  My optimism has convinced me that my goals of a triple in the Village or Marchetti are within reach, but logic tells me this might be a pipe dream. The amount of sophomores that are likely trying to get into the limited Village spaces or one of the Towers is probably pretty frightening to a hopeful in the same boat.

These are the moments that I envy those in Greek life who were assigned housing weeks ago and can breathe knowing that they have nothing to worry about.

At this point, it is not the complicated nature or even the excitement of finally moving up on the college totem pole, but the waiting game that we are all grudgingly forced to play that really makes this housing selection process so excruciating. As friends from other schools excitingly fill me in on their housing for next year of which I could not really have a clue, I sit here in a seemingly endless state of ambiguity as to my whereabouts in the coming year.

I understand that it is a necessary evil and that there really is no way to control the time it takes to properly place an entire student body, but if the planets could somehow align to expedite the process and get me into the Village, I would be highly appreciative.

Stephanie Mueller is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.