1) the new dorms will open Spring 2009 - the dorms that were torn down to make room for the new dorms were junior year dorms. the new dorms will provide more spaces for upperclassmen than there were before. housing is not guaranteed for junior and seniors, but before the old dorms were torn down they always said that anyone who wanted to live on campus generally was able to -- so things should be even better once the new dorms open. freshman and sophomores weren't really affected by this since they are guaranteed housing.
2) a couple of years ago, i think, they had a very large first year class that then resulted in a very large sophomore class - i recall reading in the campus paper that they made a point of keeping the following year's first year class smaller to minimize the housing crunch. i can't say how well that might have worked.
3) a LOT of schools triple freshmen -- i recall some schools where i was told on the campus tours that they didn't triple, and i later heard of kids who in fact were tripled. at brandeis there are 2 types of triples -- natural triples that are large rooms designed to be triples, and lofted triples which are double rooms made into triples. space in lofted triples is tight - that's true at any school.
4) a lot of people get singles after first year - no guarantees. a fair number of those "singles" are single bedrooms in apartments or suites shared with other students. a lot of people who end up in doubles choose to do so to room with a friend.
5) re course overcrowding -- you can look here for enrollment stats for the last several semesters --
Office of the University Registrar | Enrollment Statistics - Brandeis University
if you scroll through, i don't think you'll see a lot of closed classes. and you'll also get to see what types of classes tend to close.
6) how registration works -- there is a pre-registration period near the end of the prior semester. each student gets 3 registration times. at the end of your first registration time you can be registered for up to 4 credits. at the end of the second registration time you can be registered for up to a total of 8 credits. you finish the rest of your registration during the third time. this means that everyone has a shot at popular classes -- you're not stuck with one bad registration time after a lot of people have finished registering and taken the "popular" classes. you learn to use your first registration period to sign up for the class that's most likely to close early -- its still possible to get closed out of classes you want, but i really think most people end up with pretty much what they want -- maybe having to take a class a later semester once in a while. if a course is closed, there is a waiting list if spaces open and often a professor may allow additional students in.
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