My daughter applied for housing at Cal Poly yesterday. The application stated that there is no advantage to applying early, that as of a certain date everyone who has applied will be put into a lottery–sometime in May, or could be July–sorry I can’t remember exactly, but it’s definitely after the May 1 deadline. Then, based on your lottery number, you go into the system and choose your room. At least that’s what I got from it.
Older daughter is a 3rd year at Davis, coincidentally, and I seem to remember that you put your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices, based on area (Tercero, Segundo, etc.) and room size (double, triple, etc.) Then you are simply assigned a room.