<p>I’m a prospective freshman too, actually, but I just toured the campus and here’s what I got… There is no ‘first-come, first-serve’ basis, as long as your housing registration and deposit are in by May 1, you’re level with everyone else. The Residential Life Office said they didn’t even see housing forms until May 7th or so. Since all on-time housing applications are unranked by the date they are received, there is a “lottery” system in place, though - your odds at better housing (however you define it) may be hurt or helped by the luck of the draw, but that’s just internal workings that are out of student’s control, at least for your first year (sophie year you can do block registration, that’s complicated)… The building layouts are, as far as i know, the same from one modern dorm to the next, or from one traditional dorm to the next (at least essentially)</p>
<p>The difference between modern and traditional is, in layout, this:
Modern dorms are set up in single-sex units - two dorm rooms are connected together and the four occupants share one bathroom… the traditional dorms are in a hallway setup - pretty much every floor is coed and there are two bathrooms on each floor. I guess there may be more layout options for upperclassmen, but as far as i know that’s the gist of it for us freshman. Hope to see you there next year!</p>