With 12,500 residents, New York University has the 7th largest university housing system in the United States, the largest among private schools. Description Residence halls are unique in that many are converted apartment complexes or old hotels. Most freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. Many of the upperclassmen halls are in the Union Square area. Until the Spring 2005 semester, NYU used a lottery system to determine eligibility for residence hall preference. Under this system, a student received one point for every semester they had lived in campus housing. Freshmen are freed from the lottery system and are by tradition placed in the halls closest to the main campus area. Therefore, historically, most of the students who lived in halls found far from Washington Square were sophomores. However, beginning in the fall 2006 semester, sophomores received priority housing, giving them first choice of residence halls. The purpose of this initiative was to keep the sophomore class together in the Union Square area. As a result, that year's junior class (class of 2008) and senior class (class of 2007) never benefited from having first choice, either as seniors under the old system or sophomores under the new system. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students, by bus or trolley, to campus. Undergraduate students were guaranteed housing during their enrollment at NYU if they declared a need on their admissions applications. Twenty-one buildings comprise NYU's undergraduate housing system. In general, NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings, and some are opulent. Many rooms are spacious and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms, such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas. All residence halls are staffed by 24-hour security staff, contain multiple resident assistants (RAs), and several halls contain faculty in residence. Unlike many other universities, NYU rooms all have their own bathrooms and thus no common bathrooms exist. Many residence halls have their own dining hall, and the university has meal choices to suit various diets. Almost all the residence halls have a laundry room that is open to resident students 24 hours a day. The price of using these facilities varies from hall to hall; as some halls are leased, NYU is unable to control the laundry prices. All the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), an umbrella student council organization. Each hall elects student representatives to the