THE WHEEL OF HOUSE FORTUNES

It took less than a minute to run the program that assigned freshmen to upper-class houses, but the Class of 1990 will have to live with the results for the next three years.

And they'll learn those results this morning when envelopes containing the 1590 Yardlings' future addresses arrive on their doorsteps between 8:30 and 9:15 a.m.

More than a month after house-hunting season began with a panel on the housing lottery, a computer program matched 495 blocking groups to 12 residential houses in a few fateful seconds shortly after noon on Tuesday.

Only five houses filled up in the first round this year, Housing Officer Lisa M. Colvin said. However, a sixth house had only two slots left after the first round and no rooming group that was sufficiently small had listed that house as a second or third choice, she said.

One house filled up in the second round, and two filled up in the third, Colvin said, adding that another house had very few spaces left after the second round and no small groups had put it down as a third choice.

Four houses, including the two which were nearly full, had students randomly assigned to them, Colvin said.

College officials refused to release the order in which houses filled up. Assistant Dean of the House System Thomas A. Dingman' 67 said, "The masters of those houses that have not filled up by choice felt that a public record of that fact was not a helpful thing in building a community."

Only 76.4 percent of the freshmen were assigned to their first-choice houses, down from 80 percent last year. The remainder suffered the consequences of the College's "maximization of first choice" system.

If a rooming group's first-choice house was full by the time the computer reached its number, the computer skipped over the group to complete the first round of assignments. It returned to the unassigned groups' second choices after it had run the gamut of the freshmen's first choices.

Next year, 8.3 percent of the Class of 1990 will be living in their second-choice houses and 5.4 percent received their third-choice houses, Colvin said.

The remaining 9.9 percent of the freshman class did not receive any of their three choices. The program sorted these rooming groups by size from largest to smallest and then randomly assigned them to spaces in houses that were not yet filled, Colvin said. Last year, only 8 percent of the Class of 1989 were assigned to houses that were not among their three choices.

One reason fewer freshmen got their first choice "may be that people were putting down their real choices and there was less scheming," Dingman said.

In addition, the College's quota system may have affected which houses went random. The quotas require that the ratio of sophomore men to women be between 1:1 and 2:1. If a house had reached its quota for male or female sophomores, the computer would only accept members of the opposite sex.

Slow Starters

Although the computer program took almost no time to run, the housing lottery process started slowly for the Class of 1990.

More than a quarter of the freshman class failed to pick up their lottery applications by the scheduled March 4 deadline, forcing Colvin to track the missing Yardlings down and give them their forms.

One of the 432 delinquent freshmen, Christopher J. Fox '90, said at the time, "One way or another it'll get done." And get done it did. Two weeks later, all 495 freshman blocking groups turned in their house choice forms on time.

Meanwhile, Yardlings experienced confusion and crises as they became the second class to receiver their lottery numbers and tried to figure out what houses to live in.

Although Colvin said this year's freshmen were much calmer than the Class of 1989, many freshmen still tried to cheat the lottery game and changed their first choices in an attempt to find houses that would have space for them.

"It was a pretty bad scene the whole time. This system seems to yield itself to a lot of worrying," said Undergraduate Council member Jeff A. Cooper '90, who observed the running of the computer program.

Playing the Numbers

An unscientific Crimson poll conducted before lottery numbers were distributed on March 12 found that more than a third of the freshman class said they would change their first-choice houses if they received a number in the 300s.

Accordingly, a second poll taken after house choice forms were submitted found that more than 50 percent of the frosh with numbers larger than 250 did not list their favorite houses as their first choices.

Although Winthrop and Quincy led the pack in that first survey, garnering 16 percent of the vote each, the second poll found that Leverett had catapulted to the lead with 17 percent of the vote.

Not all of those who changed their first choices had bad Numbers. Although Wendel C. Ocasio '90 and his roommate had planned to list Cabot House as their first choice, they reconsidered their plans on learning that their group was number one on the list.

"The fact that we were number on made us choose the house we really wanted to live in," said Ocasio, who ultimately selected Quincy House.

And not everyone who had a bad number changed their choice. Claire M. Valente '90, who received lottery number 495, said she still listed her rooming group's first choice of Dunster House.

Those who did try to play the lottery game depended on Crimson surveys, word of mouth and sometimes their own hard work.

One rooming groups polled classmates as they submitted their house choice forms at University Hall on March 16.

"We did it more for curiosity than anything else," said amateur pollster Heather S. Cross '90. But their survey of between 150 and 200 freshmen did help them pick a house, Cross said. "We saw from the survey alone that there were too many people putting down Dunster for us to get in," said Cross, who had number 338. She said she and her roommates finally listed Adams as their first-choice house.

"It was definitely worth it," said Larissa MacFarquahar '90, another pollster. "Otherwise we would have been a lot more conservative [with our house choices.]"

On a more serious level, two economics professors conducted their own survey of the freshman class. Assistant Professors of Economics Susan M. Collins '80 and Kala Krishna distributed detailed questionaires to freshmen with their lottery forms. Collins said they will use the results to discover" how individuals and groups plot their strategies in a competitive environment," and "how individual preferences are combined to form group preferences."

The results of their survey are not yet available.

Now that the lottery process is all over, freshmen remain sharply divided over whether the housing office should inform groups of their lottery numbers.

"My guess is that because we knew our number we got a house that we are happier with," said Cooper, who learned Tuesday that he will be living in Cabot House, his first choice.

"I don't think they should tell us our numbers. A lot of people put houses they really didn't want to live there get pushed out," Valente said.

Said MacFarquahar, "It would be much better if we didn't know our numbers. It was so much of a hassle."

It remains to be seen whether their complaints will be heard. Said Dingman, "The Committee on House Life will take up whether this is the best way to do things." Where They're Going

House  1987  1986  1985  1984 Adams  136  121  131  148 Cabot  132  132  117  120 Currier  135  141  145  147 Dunster  121  107  126  115 Eliot  153  126  144  162 Kirkland  113  102  123  110 Leverett  135  161  161  144 Lowell  119  167  154  128 Mather  130  151  116  137 North  131  98  122  79 Quincy  164  174  142  170 Winthrop  121  112  128  128