The annual quest for the perfect dorm room turns intense with the arrival of one more e-mail in students’ crowded inboxes. This message sets off a week or so of strategizing, lamenting and rejoicing.

The e-mail contains a list of student names with randomly-generated numbers next to them. The lower the number, the better chance a student has of snagging a room of her own or the sweetest suite to share with friends.

The housing hunt culminates in three nights of “Room Draw,” an annual April ritual where hundreds of students gather to pick out their pads for the next year. Those with low numbers get the first crack, and for the rest it’s an unpredictable process. Students huddle around maps, poring over them with all the intensity of generals charting an invasion. They must find alternatives as rooms they want get picked off by people with better numbers.

Housing arrangements are a big deal at a small, close-knit college like Pomona where almost everyone lives on campus. The Student Life newspaper once asked students “What body appendage would you sacrifice for a better room draw number?” Sometimes tears are shed on the last night of room draw, when sophomores-to-be choose from the slimmer pickings. But they’ll have more choices next year.

Pomona’s system allows students to try to pick both whom they’ll live with and which room they’ll live in. The process takes into account seniority. Seniors-to-be get the first batch of random numbers, say, one to 400, then come juniors and, finally, sophomores. (Incoming freshmen are assigned rooms.)

“There’s always a new challenge,’’ says Housing Director Deanna Bos. “I’m not a chess player, but it feels like sometimes I’m operating a great, big chessboard.”

On the big night, some students clutch stacks of printed descriptions of rooms. Others wing it. It helps to have a backup plan. A group of four students may have had their sights on a friendship suite, but if none are available, they may have to break into pairs and take doubles or seek single rooms.

As the night drags on, there’s a whiff of sweat in the air and the rumble of conversation has dropped down several notches. After more than three hours, the last students pick their rooms. Then Bos, the staff member charged with housing hundreds of people, finally heads off for her own home at 11:30 p.m.

She has two more nights of room draw ahead of her, with the choices for students narrowing. And that’s not the end of it. Typically, 80 to 100 students are still left roomless when room draw is over. Somehow, Bos always manages to find room for them before fall semester starts.