First-come, First-placed

Deeply entrenched in the marketing of on-campus
housing is the first-come, first-placed basis for assigning rooms. Besides being intuitively easy to understand and explain to students and parents, it encourages students to get their paperwork in early. Although originally intended for office use only, these `lottery numbers' are now an open secret, and students become very upset upon learning that someone behind them in line received their requested dorm but they didn't! Students who have higher seniority, that is, more consecutive semesters in the dorms, also get a significant advantage. Student priority order is discussed further in Section 2.2.1.

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