<p>I thought for sure they (a computer?) just went down the list of individuals in their randomly selected order and put each person as he or she came up in the top choice that still had room.</p>
<p>Besides, isn’t what you’re saying explainable by the first person’s first choice being full? Therefore, the first person is put in his second choice, which could fill up down the line (perhaps by the first person him/herself), and so the second person wouldn’t be able to get into that dorm as his or her own first choice.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine housing lottery being anything but a natural lottery. If it IS anything but, that’s news to me.</p>