Fall Lottery Process

Stage 1: Houses submit "guaranteed" and "priority group" lists

Each residence will have a maximum number of "guaranteed" spots, that residence leadership may or may not use. House leadership will provide a list of students given "guaranteed" spots to the Housing Office. The Housing Office, in cooperation with Student and Family Engagement staff, will determine these guaranteed positions for the remaining (unaffiliated) residences.

Primarily, "guaranteed" spots will be available to student leadership and support positions such as ExComm, Health Advocates, Peer Advocates, etc. To protect rising seniors who have been unable to live in their house, each house's leadership will have the option to additionally identify students to receive a "guaranteed" spot in said house. These rising seniors must not have lived in any affiliated residence for at least one year to be eligible.

In the situation where there are more students in a priority group than the minimum number of guaranteed spots for that group, the house will submit a list of all students in the priority group. During stage 3, the minimum number of students in that position will be assigned automatically to the room picks group in lottery number order.

Students who receive a guaranteed pick will be notified by the Housing Office. Students who are part of a priority group will be notified that they may receive a guaranteed spot in the house. Students must still submit a Housing Application and must indicate this on the application form.

These lists will be due April 12, 2026, before applications go live.

Stage 2: Student Applications

Every student interested in living on campus will submit a housing lottery application. On the application, students will apply to live in specific residences (buildings) by ranking their choices in preferential order. Students will rank a maximum of one full house affiliation (if affiliated) and all other undergraduate residences (Bechtel, Marks, and Braun).

Students must list their status as ExComm/HA/PA/etc., and if they received (via a Housing Office notification) a "guaranteed" pick or a spot in a priority group on the application. To exercise a guaranteed pick, student (and their respective roommates/suitemates if applicable) must indicate the given residence as their first choice. If a student does not list the house where they have received their guarantee, they will forfeit the guaranteed pick.

Students without a full affiliation who rank an Unaffiliated residence (Bechtel, Marks, Braun) or students in a residence with only double room configurations (the North Houses) as their first choice will be able to optionally enter the name of one roommate/suitemate who they would prefer to live with. These pairings will be assigned together if the first choice is used in stage 3.

Applications will go live April 13, 2026, and be due April 27, 2026 at 12 noon, with information sessions the week before the application goes live and while the application is open.

Students with CASS accommodations for a single room, a single uncarpeted room, or single room with a private restroom, who want to live in a Bechtel standalone single or Marks/Braun single room, will specify this preference on their application and enter a private lottery for these spaces. Students with CASS accommodations may also specify a preference to use their accommodations in their house or in a Bechtel suite. Students can also select both options to use their accommodations in either. The Housing Office and CASS will work together to communicate directly with students who make this selection. The lottery results for the private lottery for accommodation spaces will not be published online.

If you have made local housing arrangements for the 2026-2027 academic year, you may opt out of future housing lottery communications. Please complete the Opt Out of Fall Housing Lottery form to remove yourself from the housing lottery process. Please note that submitting this form is binding, and if you change your mind after lottery numbers are generated, you will be added to the bottom of the waitlist.

Lottery results will be posted on Friday, May 8, 2026.

Stage 3: Housing Lottery

Random lottery numbers will first be generated for all students who have applied for housing. Students with guaranteed spots in specific residences from stage 1 will then be directly assigned to those residences.

Next, the Housing Office will go through lottery numbers in order (lowest to highest), skipping students who have already been assigned to a residence. For each student, they will be assigned to their most preferential pick in order, being bumped to the next residence for each choice that is no longer available.

The Housing Office may make specific modifications to the lottery (deviating from the random order) only where necessary, following the Caltech Honor Code, and with internally documented justification. Reasons may include: ensuring second-year students may live on campus, gender balances, CASS accommodations, Title IX cases, or other similar cases. Additionally, this mechanism will be used to enforce "minimums and maximums" within residences for student support systems (HA/PA/etc.) or disparities between grades. These "minimums and maximums" will be agreed upon by house leadership and the Housing Office.

When a student is being assigned, who has listed a roommate/suitemate (assuming the other student has selected the given residence as their first choice and indicated the first student's name), both students will be assigned together. Since roommate/suitemates can only be chosen for the student's first choice, if said residence is not available, only the original student will be assigned at that point.

To prevent forced roommate pairs in houses with only double bed configurations, 1 or 2 student(s) may be pulled from elsewhere following the lottery process. Therefore, if there are an odd number of "single placements" (a student being placed in said residences without having selected a roommate on their application), then the remaining 1 bed will not be assigned during the lottery. If there are an even number of "single placements", the remaining 2 beds will not be assigned during the lottery. If there are no "single placements" then all beds will be assigned during the lottery.

This process will occur from April 29, 2026, until May 8, 2026, when lottery results will be posted.

Stage 4 (A): House Room Picks

Students are only able to pick rooms in their assigned residence, published from stage 3. Generally, students will pick rooms in lottery number order (lowest to highest). Room picks processes will:

• Be set by residence leadership, approved by the Housing Office, and published prior to the lottery process.
• Only deviate from established lottery order when in accordance with the House's published process and in line with the Honor Code.
• Be fair to all students and comply with Institute policies regarding discrimination.

Examples of deviations from lottery number order include prioritizing leadership positions or factoring seniority into the order in which rooms are selected.

Students selecting double or triple rooms (that have not already chosen roommates during the application phase) may pull roommates from within the assigned residence until a given room has been filled.

Students selecting single rooms in suites (in Bechtel residence) may only pull one additional student into their suite. Standalone singles in unaffiliated housing will be reserved for CASS accommodations.

All residences will hold room picks at their discretion between May 11, 2026, and May 21, 2026, when room picks will be due to the Housing Office. All room pick dates, and individual processes will be decided by the residence's leadership (ExComm or the Housing Office) ahead of Housing Applications going live (stage 2).

Stage 4 (B): Unaffiliated Room Picks

Students who are sorted into the Bechtel Roompicks Group will not receive a lottery number when lottery results are published. The total number of students in the Bechtel Roompicks Group will be divisible by 4, so that the students can form groups of 4 when picking into suites. An application will become available when lottery results are published, and all students in the group must submit an application listing 3 other students and their preference for suite size. The number of available suites of each size (4, 6, 8, 12 person suites) will be published with the lottery results.

The application will be available for 5 days after lottery results are published, due at 12 noon on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. During this time, Residential Experience staff will host opportunities for students to find suitemates and form groups of 4. On the application, groups will list their preference for suite size. If they select and pick into a 6 person suite, they will be expected to pull 2 people from the Marks/Braun Roompicks Group into their suite to fill it to capacity. Suite groups will also be able to note other preferences via the Comments section on the application. Suite groups with preferred restrictions (e.g. gender, substances, guests in the suite) or groups that are interested in the 12 person suite (if available).

The Housing Office will review applications and assign suite groups to a suite size based on random lottery numbers generated after groups have formed. Groups will be assigned a time to pick into suites in lottery number order within each suite size group. When picking into a 12 or 8 person suite, the suite group picking will be able to pull in other suite groups from their suite size group to fill their suite to capacity. 

Students in the Marks/Braun Roompicks Group will select double rooms in Marks or Braun during the Marks/Braun Roompicks. If a student does not have a roommate to pull in, one may be assigned after the student picks into a room.