By Jessica Weed

Junior girls with top lottery numbAs the line of students descended the spiral staircase into SpeareCommons last night, Masiel Lantigua and Cynthia Burgos were at the front of the pack, securing their room for next year.

Lantigua, a junior dual major in accounting and finance and Burgos, a junior accounting and human resources management major, chose to live in room 1502 of West Village H.

“It’s a new building, it’s 21 plus, I wouldn’t have any keys, the views are nice from the higher floors and I won’t be sharing a room with anyone,” Lantigua said.

Burgos’ senior year is going to be her first living on campus. She currently commutes from Medford and decided to live on campus to be closer to her classes.

“It’s a lot easier to just stay on campus near everything and not have to worry about monthly rent and utilities,” she said.

Both Lantigua and Burgos said they were extremely shocked when they opened their Northeastern housing package and read “Your lottery number for Fall Semester 2005 is one out of 2,880 numbers assigned.”

“I didn’t think that [number] actually existed,” Burgos said. “But I was really happy and relieved to not have to worry about looking for housing outside of campus.”

When the girls found out they had the pick of any apartment on campus, they didn’t believe it at first.

“When [Burgos] got the letter and told me that we were number one, I said ‘You’re lying,'” Lantigua said. “I didn’t believe her until I went home and read it for myself.”

Lantigua has lived in various places during her college career. She was placed on the wait list for housing last year and ended up living at 780 Columbus Ave. for this school year.

“Although it is cheaper to live off campus, while I am in classes, coming up with rent is rough. Living on campus is much easier while in classes,” she said.

Although she was able to score the No. 1 lottery number, Lantigua said she has paid her dues by living in such residence halls as Burnstein.

“I had rats in my ceiling. It was the most disgusting place to live,” she said.

Lantigua has also lived in Smith Hall, West Village A and West Village E.

Burgos, who has lived at home in Medford for the past four years of college, said living at home is how most would imagine it to be, but it’s not too rough.

After visiting the recently-constructed West Village residence halls this past year, she and Burgos applied to live together.

The two girls said they did nothing unusual to be No. 1. Burgos turned in her deposit on time, while Lantigua paid hers the last day of the deadline. They credited their good fortune to the sheer luck of the draw from Northeastern’s random selection process that picked them to be “No. 1.”

“If the lottery was an indicator of how senior year is going to be, then we’re in for a good year,” Burgos said. er pick West Village H