Just when you’re starting to get comfortable with your living situation, housing selection time creeps up on you. You’ve barely got a handle on all the things going on this semester and now you have to start thinking about the next one. Housing selection comes with lots of questions, but luckily, I’m here to help you through some of them.

Be prepared

This may be the inner Boy Scout in me talking, but it’s a good motto to live by. When it comes to housing, go into the selection process with all the information you need.  Here is the basic guide to the housing application process. Give it a look through. If you still don’t understand something, go to any of the scheduled seminars about it. It might not be the most fun way to spend a few hours of your night but it is helpful. The Office of Residence Life is also at your disposal for any other question you might have.

Figure out your roommate situation early

A mad scramble to find another roommate never ends well. Have a plan for who you want to room with worked out early. Talk to friends. Ask around. It’s best to be ahead of the curve. You’re more likely to find someone if you ask early. Plus, if you wait too long you start to feel like the last pick in dodgeball.

“I always hated dodgeball anyway.”

Get to know your future roommates

Seriously – there are always going to be issues to work out once you’re rooming together, but you can avoid a large amount of them by making sure you know the people you’re rooming with very well. Nothing’s worse than finding out you have major issues with the person you’re supposed to spend the whole semester living with.

Do some scouting

What does the NFL draft have in common with housing selection? Not a whole lot, I’ll admit. But both go a little better for the person making the selection if they scout out their choices first. Yeah, that choice looks nice, but does it have any hidden flaws or drawbacks? What about a criminal record? Oh wait, we were talking about housing. Anyways, if you’re trying to decide what building or room to live in, it’s always helpful to check the place out and see what it looks like in person. You can go into your selection blind if you want, but if your housing selection turns out to be the proverbial first round mistake then you’ll wish you’d done some research.

Remember how great this guy was? Of course you don’t.

Know your selection time

As soon as you know when your time to select housing is, write it down in lots of places you’ll see it. Put a sticky note on your face. Set an alarm on your phone. Make sure your schedule is clear during that time. Especially if your time is already a late one, you want to get your selection done ASAP. If you forget or can’t get to a computer on time, you are only limiting your choices. But most importantly, make sure your computer doesn’t need to run a network regulation scan. We’ve all been trying to do something important when our computer needed to scan. Don’t let technology get the best of you.

“What do you mean the scan failed?!”