Most Freshmen Get Top House Choice

More freshmen than ever before received their first choices in this year's housing lottery. Thomas A. Dingman '67, assistant dean of the College, said yesterday.

Seventy-four per cent of the Class of '82 received first-choice assignments, compared to last year's 71 per cent, Dingman said. Only 14 per cent of this year's freshmen did not get one of their top three choices, he added.

The Housing Office would not release the number of freshmen who applied to each House.

"We've never made those figures public because we don't want to cement in anyone's mind that he or she will be living in an unpopular House," Dingman said.

The number of students who received one of their top three choices of Houses has steadily increased over the past few years, he said. He added that this trend may indicate that freshmen have become more careful in choosing Houses.

"I think students are strategically trying to figure out which Houses they might have a good chance of getting into," Dingman said.

Very Clever

Peter F. Walsh '82 said yesterday that he and his roommates had developed a strategy for making their choices.

"We didn't want to get into our second choice--Mather--but we were afraid of not getting into Winthrop, our first choice, and we didn't want to get sent to the Quad," Walsh said. The group, however, was assigned to Winthrop House.

Dingman also said the trend may have resulted from the abolition of sex ratios in the five Houses that had them last year.

"With fixed sex ratios, sometimes a man would have a relatively low lottery number, but would be turned down even though there was room left in his first-choice House," Dingman said. "That meant a woman who did not want to live in that