in reply to [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections
A simple, fair algorithm would be to draw students from the pool, one at a time without replacement. For each student, put them into their first choice section, if it is not full. If the first choice is full, try the second, and so on. If all the choices are full, pick the section with the greatest number of empty spaces.
To do better than this simple lottery scheme, you must first decide what your optimality critera are. Do you want to maximize the number of first choices satisfied? The number of any choice satisfied?
-Mark
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