Allocating projects based on preference

[FrazzledCat]

I have 150 students who each need to be allocated one of 170 projects (some projects won’t be allocated at all). The students are asked to choose 6 preferred projects from the list. In previous years the allocation has been done manually. Is there a way this can be done in excel? The data from the survey they complete is already in an excel file. We’re expecting to do a bit of manual allocation afterwards to make sure the allocated student fits the project but anything that gives us a starting point would be useful.