First-year Helen Newman suggests equating numbers with letters (A=1, B=2, etc.) when selecting houses. "The numbers in my name, H + E + L + E + N, are 8 + 5 + 12 + 5 + 14. Plus, my last name, Newman, 14 + 5 + 23 + 13 + 1 + 14. Plus the letters in Leverett, 12 + 5+ 22 + 5 + 18 + 5 + 20 + 20. Add those and you get 221. Then divide that by the number of houses, 13, and you get 17." Newman explains that calculations for no other house name yielded at integer. "It's the only' whole number house' for my name!" she exclaims. "Yeah, my roommates sort of roll their eyes at me."

"I'm really superstitious about numbers," Newman says. "I keep my calculator with me always." When picking colleges, Newman added the numbers corresponding to the name "Harvard" with those corresponding to her own name. She discovered that "it all comes out to 72, and I was born on the 27th, then 3x3x3...."

For some, the process of beating the system began with their choice of rooming partner. "I guess you could call it numerology," says first-year Alex Trias. Trias says she consulted horoscopes and lucky numbers in her quest for the right roommate. "Two people in our blocking group are Scorpios, and our lucky numbers are eight. We decided which housing slip to fill out by that number."

Trias' future roommate, Lorana Duerte, agrees. "We didn't exactly choose the block because of our signs, but we do all balance. [Alex and I] are the ones who are into numerology. Everyone else just puts up with us."

One blocking group went to Au Bon Pain the night before the housing sheets were due, and filled out the entire form consulting a Magic 8 Ball.

"Mather?"

"Sources point to YES!" Magic 8 Balls were a favorite among the first-years interviewed. No one admitted owning a Ouija board, but tarot cards and the I-ching abounded. Mystic Rosa, the fortune teller on the corner of Bow St. and

HouseSuperstitious ways to ensure your first choice in the lottery Adams   Eat in the dining hall at least once a day... But as first years, you probably do already. Cabot  Don't talk to anyone for the rest of the month. Don't visit anyone. Skip a lot of classes. Currier  Declare your room in the Yard a temple to the God of the lottery. Lock your first-year roommate out, and get used to having a single, Rearrange your furniture to suite yourself. Dunster  Shave your head the night Before lottery results. Cultivate a sullen and disaffected air. Eliot Comp the Crimson Key. Kirkland  Sorry. Noting but a direct line with God will guarantee you a place here. Leverett  Is this really your first choice? Lowell  No one's that passionate about Lowell. Don't stress. Mather  Drop your clothes and steak through the bathhouse. Streak through the MAC. Streak through the Grill. Pforzheimer  Call it Pforzheimer, not North. Quincy  This isn't your first choice, either. Winthrop  Assign Melrose Place character parts to each of your blockmates. Figure out exactly how long Matt appears on each episode. face Winthrop each day for that amount of time. Gossip religiously. Arrow St., is always available forconsultation.

A certain gifted Eliot house resident claimsthat by simply sleeping on a list of a blockinggroup's housing choices, he can guarantee "threeout of four times" that they will get their topchoice. As his roommate recalls, "He claimed tohave dreams about the houses...When he claimedthat he knew with absolute certainty our lotterynumber, we called him on it. He said he wouldn'ttell us because it would jinx us, so he put thenumber he dreamt into a sealed envelope and we allsigned across the top. We did get into Eliot, buthe was wrong by about 300 numbers."

Professor Mitchell says he has heard offirst-year holding goodluck slumber parties withtheir blocking groups after rooming assignmentsarrive and then opening the fateful envelopetogether the next morning. How could a mere mortalwait an entire night before opening the envelopewhich contains her fate for the next three years?

Every year, a Comp Sci major or two tries tobreak into the system and fashion him or herselfcomputer God-for-a-day. "It'd be so cool to knowthat you single-handedly fucked over everyone inthe freshman class," says one anonymous,vindictive first-year. However, as far as FMknows, no one has actually managed to changeanyone's housing assignment in this manner. (Ifanyone has, could you please tell us?)

University Mythology

All colleges have myths, including some thathave spread across the country. For example,everyone "knows" that you are allowed to leave aclass if the professor is more than fifteenminutes late. According to Levy," some college inConnecticut has the 15-minutes late rule, but noone else does. "Despite the lack of an officialsanction, "every school has that legend."

Many college superstitions involve campusarchitecture. At the University of Maryland,students rub the nose of one statue for luck onexams. This month's edition of RollingStone magazine documents campus myths aboutstudent virginity and statue animation. Accordingto University of Michigan lore, a particularstatue on campus will stand up if a virgin passesit.

Harvard has its own mythology. Before you knewwhere Sever was, or how to use e-mail, you knewabout the Big Three.