Upper year residence is now based on pure lottery too?

That's the most BS thing ever.

Thanks, residence committee, for giving me a crappy room this year. And thank you again for making that possible for next year!

I'm so mad right now, I can't even express my anger in words.

I'm sure some people are happy about this. But lottery has never been kind to me, and I'm just so fed up with trusting res people to do what's fair, and that never happening.

What do you mean? Don't you fill out a form with what you want and they try to match it as well as possible, regardless of the hall?

(never did res)

But I hate lotteries too. Everyone wins but me.

It used to be that, after first year, they put people in residence based on your marks, so that people with 12 avgs would be drawn before people with 11s, etc.

Now, everyone's on even ground.

I effing hate lottery, and I'm considering whether living off-campus is a better option. This is ridiculous.

How is a lottery system "complete bs" or unfair?

Seemingly that is the most fair way to make room assignments. Everyone is paying to live in residence so why should those with higher marks recieve preferential treatment?

Its hardly ridiculous. You're being super OTT about the whole thing.

Well, it's unfair to have it based on marks. Then non-health science students get screwed over in marking and residence.

Odd, I always thought upper year residence slots were based on lottery...even if getting a slot/being placed on the waiting list. :\

Originally Posted by smiles

It used to be that, after first year, they put people in residence based on your marks, so that people with 12 avgs would be drawn before people with 11s, etc.

Now, everyone's on even ground.

I effing hate lottery, and I'm considering whether living off-campus is a better option. This is ridiculous.

Be thankful you have the luxory to complain about such things; most of the people in the world live in filth and misery.





I live on the lottery system too.. one year my mom might just decide to kick me out of the house lol

Originally Posted by rcrw88

Be thankful you have the luxory to complain about such things; most of the people in the world live in filth and misery.

Good point, I'm sure some people in third world countries or heck even some homeless people in Hamilton would like living in one of the "crappy rooms" here at McMaster. Not to mention it would probably be nice if they had the meal plan to and they always knew they'd be getting a next meal.

Where are you getting your information from? It is still based on marks.
http://housing.mcmaster.ca/Residence...pper_year.html

Originally Posted by manu

Where are you getting your information from? It is still based on marks.
http://housing.mcmaster.ca/Residence...pper_year.html

but it also says: UPPER-YEAR LOTTERY PROCESS.

Also, rooms aren't assigned until the summer (i.e. after May when all grades are in, for upper years)

I'm sorry I offended so many of you.

I was given a room this year that was half the size of all the other rooms in my residence, and it was flooded in the summer so it had mould in it. And they didn't change the carpet; they painted over the walls, but didn't do anything else besides what I assume was preliminary cleaning.

I asked the housing people to look at it many many times, but they wouldn't come look at it, until the point when it was clearly a health hazard. Being new at Mac and all, I didn't know what to do (I would have done things differently if it happened again now), but I ended up getting rid of most of it myself, which isn't something that I should have had to do, especially since I paid for a room too.

I was looking to repeat the res experience, but hopefully a better one next year so my res experience wasn't going to be a negative one. Since I knew that the lottery had been unkind to me before, I was glad when I wasn't forced to rely on it when I found out that upper year residence selection was done by marks.

I guess I shouldn't have expected to rely on a guarantee of a non-mouldy room. But I kind of felt like I deserved it. But whatever. I'm most likely going to live off-campus next year if this is how it's going to play out.

And just for clarification: My lowest marks last term were health sci courses.

I don't think anyone is offended, you could have just been less over the top in your original post or perhaps you could have offered that explanation you just gave up front to justify your seeming rage over the issue.

That said your crappy room experience isn't a result of the lottery system. The choices you get to make are only based on room type therefore if you choose double room as your top preference you can be randomly placed into a double room in any building. If it were based on marks you still don't get building preference, its still based on your room type choices, not like in previous years. They don't evaluate any of the rooms as worse or better as far as I know, you're not giving a "crappy" building b/c of the lottery, you could have ended up in that room even with 12s since they no longer allow for building choices on the application.

Housing should have fixed your problem as it is a valid claim but your issue has very little if nothing at all to do with the lottery system Mac uses to assign rooms. You didn't get a moldy room b/c the lottery was unkind to you, your room was moldy and not fixed for some reason that isn't entirely clear but its not the lottery system. You should really continue to push the issue?

Did you file an official maintenance report at the service desk? Usually if you have an issue with your residence room you need to request service at the service desk, depending on the severity of the issue there is an estimated time frame of when they will get someone out to evaluate the situation in your room. For example when I was in first year we had an issue with the light in our room, we requested someone come out and within a certain time frame given the person came out to look at it and fix it. If you did request this I have no idea why they wouldn't have fixed the problem. The way you describe it it seems like a huge issue that housing ignored. It seems like it would be a health issue that would require a real fix or moving you to a different room if the room was infested with toxic levels of mold.

There are a lot of not so nice places when living off campus as well, but if you make sure to give every place a thorough examination, you definitely won't have those same problems. I think that you can get a list of what to ask about/look for from the Off-Campus Resource Centre.

Originally Posted by sew12

I don't think anyone is offended, you could have just been less over the top in your original post or perhaps you could have offered that explanation you just gave up front to justify your seeming rage over the issue.

That said your crappy room experience isn't a result of the lottery system. The choices you get to make are only based on room type therefore if you choose double room as your top preference you can be randomly placed into a double room in any building. If it were based on marks you still don't get building preference, its still based on your room type choices, not like in previous years. They don't evaluate any of the rooms as worse or better as far as I know, you're not giving a "crappy" building b/c of the lottery, you could have ended up in that room even with 12s since they no longer allow for building choices on the application.

Housing should have fixed your problem as it is a valid claim but your issue has very little if nothing at all to do with the lottery system Mac uses to assign rooms. You didn't get a moldy room b/c the lottery was unkind to you, your room was moldy and not fixed for some reason that isn't entirely clear but its not the lottery system. You should really continue to push the issue?

Did you file an official maintenance report at the service desk? Usually if you have an issue with your residence room you need to request service at the service desk, depending on the severity of the issue there is an estimated time frame of when they will get someone out to evaluate the situation in your room. For example when I was in first year we had an issue with the light in our room, we requested someone come out and within a certain time frame given the person came out to look at it and fix it. If you did request this I have no idea why they wouldn't have fixed the problem. The way you describe it it seems like a huge issue that housing ignored. It seems like it would be a health issue that would require a real fix or moving you to a different room if the room was infested with toxic levels of mold.

I ended up with my last-choice room of 5 listings I provided, so I always sort of blame the turn of events on the lottery system. Because honestly, none of it would have happened if I had been more lucky in my lottery (with the single room guarantee and all, I must have been one of the last people to be picked... Because that means by the time they drew my name, all the suites/singles with washrooms/and the other things should have been taken).

I did file a maintenance report, but I guess they're super busy at the beginning of the year, and they kept on saying that someone would be in to look at it the next day/tomorrow, etc. And it never got done. I guess I could have blamed it on both the lottery and housing, but I just got so stressed out (and still kind of am) about this that I hated my room. I hate my entire room now, and I'm not sure that I'd ever like it even if housing had came to see it at the beginning of the year. So it's much easier to say "I wouldn't have been in this room if I were more lucky with the lottery" than to blame housing for this mess.

Well, if you're looking for an off campus house, I'm also looking for one extra housemate .. so let me know if you're interested =P