Unlike last year, when students were scrambling for a place to live after on-campus housing demand exceeded expectations, many upperclassmen have already secured their housing for next year.

Currently, 1,740 rising juniors and seniors are eligible for on-campus housing for the 2004-05 school year, which leaves approximately 1,400 upperclassmen to make off-campus arrangements.

Unlike last year, students have more time to take care of their housing early on and many sophomores have decided not to enter the housing lottery so that they can preserve their housing eligibility for their senior year.

While Valerie Hernandez (SFS ’06) and Kristin Yates (COL ’06) agree that living on campus is more convenient, they said that they had many friends who were living off campus next year as juniors. As a result, they instead opted to defer housing eligibility in order to have more points in the housing lottery during their senior year.

The key to finding affordable and close off-campus housing seems to be starting the process early.

“It’s just a matter of making the time,” Hernandez said. “You have to do it really early or you’re scrambling at the end.”

Local landlord Lee Garbick said that this year his houses were all rented in November.

“We were back on track,” he said. “Students and groups were well-organized and rented [the houses] right away.”

Garbick attributed the change in timing to the university’s planning.

“The university did a great job this year,” he said. “Everyone found out early.”

Jon Martin (COL ’06), who will be living in Burleith next year with five friends, also opted to forego the housing selection system, and instead began looking for a house in early November. With the help of Georgetown’s Off-Campus Housing Referral Services, the group had secured a house within two weeks.

“Georgetown helped us find some properties and it was up to us to do further research,” he said. “Overall, I’m really happy with the way things worked out.”

Meaghan Remshard (COL ’05) started looking for housing in October when she learned that she wouldn’t be able to live on-campus her senior year. Due to the fact that one of her roommates is disabled, and therefore guaranteed four years of housing, Remshard and the rest of her roommates were under the impression that they would be able to live on-campus together for four years.

After learning that they would, in fact, not be allowed to live on campus with their roommate, they began to search for a house which fit everyone’s needs.

“Housing handled that situation really poorly,” she said. “We had to scramble to find a house close enough for her and cheap enough for all of us to afford.”

Remshard also suggested knocking on doors, versus working with a real-estate agent, as sometimes the listings are not entirely correct.

“We went door to door and that seemed to be the best way,” she said.

Since some students are only guaranteed three years of on-campus housing, however, there are also upperclassmen who have a more difficult time finding housing.

Octavio Gonzalez (COL ’06) is currently in the process of searching for off-campus housing. He was guaranteed four years of housing as a sophomore, but said that this year he was given only three. Due to the short deadline, Gonzalez rescinded his eligibility in the lottery without first having found a house.

“Setting clear deadlines and notifying students well in advance would have been a huge plus for me,” he said. “Unfortunately I didn’t know my choices until very late in the game.”

Since many of his friends are going abroad next year, and would therefore live on campus their senior year, González wanted to hold his third year of eligibility until senior year.

“I feel like senior year is so important, and living with the right people and on this campus is important as well,” he said.

Margie Bryant, associate vice president for Auxiliary Services, said she believes that students will have an easier time finding housing this year.

Although the housing closest to campus usually goes first, she said that the students who were inquiring about housing early in the year hadn’t even looked into anything yet themselves.

“We’ve seen an increase in vacancies, which is good for the students,” she said. “I’m pleased that we have more listings than ever before . and I hope that students don’t panic and have confidence that they’ll find housing.”