Following the conclusion of the regular 2025-26 housing selection cycle, students have described mixed experiences of success and frustration with the process.
While upperclassmen described the experience as “super simple” and “straightforward,” some rising sophomores in Living Learning Communities expressed concerns over the logistics of the roommate assignment system.
Undergraduates were assigned to a room selection time slot between March 24 and April 11. Rising sophomores were eligible to select rooms in their quad connection, while juniors and seniors could also choose between 300 and 301 Swift, Blue Light and Hollows.
First-year Alexandra Himmel — a member of the Experiments in Ethical Living LLC — expressed frustration with the housing process, as she was unable to select a room with her preferred roommate who is not a member of the LLC despite reportedly being approved by the LLC coordinator ahead of time.
Because LLC members are given priority housing registration to allow members to room near one another, Himmel and her roommate did not have the same room selection time. When Himmel logged onto the housing portal during her assigned slot, she said only seven rooms — all with single beds — remained available in the Ethics LLC section.
Though she eventually gained approval from HRL to move to a different floor of Few to live with her preferred roommate, Himmel described frustrations with the process. She proposed that either students in LLCs not be allowed to live with someone out of the program or that they be made an affiliate of the LLC so that they have the same registration time.
Junior John Schappert, who accidentally selected a different dorm from his preferred suitemates, reported a smoother process.
“Housing has been really good, and they're going to get me swapped into the correct room really soon,” he said. “… They've been really responsive.”
But another first-year in the Ethics LLC, Lauren Blake, expressed similar frustrations to Himmel when she attempted to room with a friend outside of the LLC. When Blake began her room selection, the only double available was a converted single, which she did not believe would be enough space for two students.
“How on earth are they going to make this a double next year?” Blake wondered. With the time in her room selection slot running out, she selected the room anyway.
This past Thursday, her roommate picked a larger room outside of the LLC hallway, but when Blake emailed housing requesting to switch into that dorm, she hit a wall. A housing representative informed Blake that she couldn’t be removed from her existing selection because she had registered early with the LLC. Instead, she could wait until June to apply for reassignment.
Blake said she wished the system was less “rigid,” noting that she didn’t “think it would have been a huge ask to have [her] re-choose a room with [her] roommate.” Moreover, she believes there should have been greater clarity on the part of the LLC.
“They just didn't have as many rooms as I think they implied to us,” she said.
Junior Anna Zhang said her process was “fine,” saying that she was in an LLC and thus got to register early. Sophomore Ting Ting Li, also in an LLC, called the process “super simple.”
Sophomore Enoch Li said the process was “set … up really well,” and sophomore Tanner Yoon called it “straightforward — there was nothing confusing about it.”
Representatives from HRL and the Ethics LLC did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment on how the housing assignment systems are currently set up and how they may be changed in the future.
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Max Tendler is a Trinity first-year and an associate news editor for the news department.