Five freshmen and a sophomore sit silently, staring wearily at each other in a draw group meeting which none of them really have time for. Tension fills the room, and the current dormmates take a vote. The verdict? An extra pair of friends isn’t allowed to join their draw group. Friendships are tested as members question their alliances.

These freshmen aren’t alone in this housing dilemma. Despite changes to the housing system to streamline the process of choosing housing preferences, there’s one thing the new draw system doesn’t simplify: draw-ma. Draw-ma, or the tension that inevitably results from forming draw groups and ranking living preferences, is a mainstay of the housing process every year.

The group of freshmen still have decisions ahead of them–where to live? Some want to draw onto the Row, another wants to draw into GovCo. One freshman wants to draw into Toyon, causing more debate to arise.

“Every freshman wants to draw into Toyon!” one freshman interjects.

Everyone has a preference, but no one is willing to compromise. “But, I want this…” and “No, that’s dumb” bombard the conversation, and the friends argue and argue until they finally agree on a list of 43 choices. By the end of the meeting, the group decides to split in half, opting to draw to opposite sides of campus.

“What if we get number 1,999?” wails another freshman, when the group decides to draw tier two. “That would suck!”

With the looming deadline of May 9 at 6 p.m. quickly approaching, the group decides to just submit its preferences. Hopefully, the draw-ma isn’t enough to split the cohesion of the clique.

Every spring, most students are faced with several important decisions that will affect their dorm experience for an entire year. According to Student Housing, approximately 95 percent of the undergraduate population decides to live on campus each year. Trying to figure out whom to draw with, what dorms to draw into and, for the first time this year, what room type to choose is no easy feat.

There are 86 possible housing choices and so the vast array of choices can be overwhelming.

“Our process was pretty tedious,” said Jonathan Hsieh ’13. “We visited all the dorms that we thought about living in and just compared pros and cons of each to try and rank them.”

However, students reflecting on the application process often said that figuring out where to live wasn’t as complicated as deciding whom to live with. Compatibility of members within the draw group is key to having a positive experience.

“You have to be able to live with them in any situation,” he said. “I heard that in places like Mirrielees, it’s really isolated, so you need to have a really fun draw group so that you can still have friends…”

According to Greg Walton, a social psychologist and professor of psychology, sometimes the Draw has the unfortunate result of straining friendships.

“People can sometimes make a single event seem to be global in its meaning, and they may think that it’s symbolic of the status of the relationship,” he said. “But it’s not. It’s important to understand that these things happen, and everyone goes through this.”

Walton pointed out that close friends don’t always make the best draw group; sometimes even close friends think it’s best not to live together.

“Sometimes you need space from people,” Walton said. “That’s how friendship works. You have to have valuable time together, but you’re not together all the time.”

Students agreed that there is a difference between friendship compatibility and rooming compatibility, but said that finding the right roommate, however, can be tough.

“I really just worry about the most basic things like sleeping, studying, having friends over occasionally,” Shah said. “I have a very haphazard sleep cycle, so I sleep anywhere between 1 to 6 a.m., so my roommate should be okay with that…If he’s a real light sleeper, then it might cause some issues down the line.”

“And obviously, I don’t want to be sexiled either,” he added.

However, sometimes students like Esaite Lakew ’13 decide to avoid draw-ma altogether by pre-assigning into certain dorms. Lakew pre-assigned into Ujamaa.

“I just wanted to get a single, even with Tier 3,” she said. “Pre-assignment just seemed to be the best option.”

Housing can be complicated for study-abroad students, but it can reduce pressure for students to form the perfect draw group.

Theodore Wesley Ford ’13 decided to study abroad in Beijing with BOSP in fall quarter of his sophomore year. He isn’t too worried about his housing when he returns in the winter, but hopes that his room accommodations will not be “exceptionally bad.”

“The fact that my housing options are so limited for the fall quarter has been somewhat relieving,” Ford said. “I don’t have to worry about the drama of forming a draw group, because all of my close friends are staying for the fall.”

Ford is drawing alone, but he is optimistic about the advantages of not drawing with a group.

“Not forming a draw group will let me meet new people and expand my group of close friends,” Ford said.