When I graduated high school in 67 I went to UW- Madison. College gave you a deferment. Then ‘satisfactory progress to degree’, then lottery. I sat in my girlfriend’s apartment on Basset St, Madison and listened to Clyde Coffee on WISM read the dates, live, as they were drawn. When the projected cut-off date passed, I was happier. When my birthday was read, I was pretty safe.
Rule was that if you were 1-A in any calendar year and not drafted you fell into safe classification. So, like Bill Clinton, when in late December it looked safe, I renounced my 2-S, was 1-A for a few days, then safe. Clinton did same thing but claims he wanted to serve. What a liar. Dick Cheney’s wife was my freshman English Lit TA. Like Cheney, I had "other priorities" than some iffy war in a far-off shithole.
The lottery didn’t really change my plans as I planned on going to college anyway and luck-of-the-draw lottery occured before I graduated. But I suppose it kept me from even thinking about dropping out.
Although the idea of the lottery was to make the draft more fair, the rich kids (like GW Bush) managed to find ways to escape even if they had low numbers.