Every September at Tufts, a fresh cycle emerges where students begin inquiring about their friends’ houses/apartments/rooms trying to figure out their housing for the following year. A lot of the best places are taken pretty quickly, and connections are the most useful in this arduous task.
As a sophomore, if your housing lottery number isn’t a decent one, you won’t get a room for junior year. As a junior, if you don’t have an amazing number, you also have slightly more trouble landing a decent apartment for senior year. Due to unusually high numbers this year, three friends and myself found ourselves without the four person apartment we wanted, which we could have gotten easily the previous year. Panic commenced!
As transfer students, my friend Angel and I don’t actually know a lot of junior (to be senior) girls. Most of my closer friends have been made through EPIIC, and most juniors study abroad, so things were a little difficult on that front. We ended up deciding to live with two sophomores that we know instead somewhat last minute.
Perhaps another downside to being a transfer- you don’t know enough people to easily figure out housing very early on! Obviously in the end I found an amazing group of people to live with, but I think there was some added stress in the process. It’s also somewhat harder to scope out friends’ houses when you’re in the process of making all new friends and don’t yet know where everyone lives.
Yesterday, after having called several landlords & visiting a somewhat run-down house, in the midst of desperation, I finally asked a senior friend if his apartment had been claimed yet. It hadn’t, and he took one of my future roommates and me to see it… and we fell in love right away 
It’s the perfect apartment- and I can’t imagine living anyplace else. In fact, I almost want to start my senior year now just so I can go live there right away! Plus it has the most incredible kitchen I’ve seen in any of the houses off campus so far.
Moral of the story? There can be two here- either things always work out in the end (the fluffy one) or I’m a ridiculously lucky duck (the more likely one) .
