<p>Honestly, I’m not sure how one would end up in a divided double, except by coincidence. There’s not a way to request a room type on the housing application. Add to that the fact that there just aren’t that many, and most (if not all) are taken by returning students, who get to pick their rooms in spring…</p>
<p>There are similarly few singles, both in dorms and co-ops. Singles in co-ops are filled by lottery, and students who need certain housing accomodations get priority on the waitlist. Anyone can enter the lottery; one of my friends is a first-year who happened to get a single in her co-op when one opened up. But it’s really the luck of the draw. The only people I know who have singles in ResEd got them for medical reasons.</p>
<p>And a thought about co-ops, because I’m kind of evangelical about them 
Food in co-ops is definitely variable. It depends on who’s cooking, as well as the time of week. (Produce orders come in on Thursday: Wednesday meals tend to be bland, weekend meals lavish…) It sometimes seems like a strange philosophical puzzle: would you rather have food that’s 10% spectacular, 80% delicious and 10% inedible, or food that’s consistently mediocre? That said, OSCA is uniformly a much better choice than CDS for people who are vegan; kosher; halal; celiacs; seriously allergic; opinionated about food politics (eating local/organic/fair trade). It’s also an outstanding environment for people who want to learn to cook, and have more responsibility and choice regarding what they eat. The practical skills I’ve picked up in Harkness this year are on par with the academic knowledge I’ve acquired in the classroom.</p>