And Harvard has "blocking groups".

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>When we visited Harvard, it was spring time. I head freshmen discussing with anxiety their "blocking groups." I never heard this part of the Harvard experience mentioned. Now, I won't go post this on the Harvard site, but I just thought with all the hubbub over the social organization phenomenon known as eating clubs and secret societies, here's another one to consider when you choose your school. This comes from Harvard's website.</p>

<p>FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. What is a blocking group?</p>

<p>A. A blocking group is a group of 8 or fewer students who will enter the Lottery together, so that they can all be assigned to the same House.</p>

<p>Q. How many people can enter the lottery together?</p>

<p>A. 8 or fewer students can form a blocking group. </p>

<p>Q. Does a blocking group have to be same sex?</p>

<p>A. No, it can be either same-sex or mixed sex. </p>

<p>Q. What do I do if one of my blocking mates is on leave?</p>

<p>A. Be in contact with your block-mate, get his/her user name, and verify the blocking agreement. During the application period, your group representative will register his/her information, along with that of all the other in-residence block-mates. </p>

<p>Q. What is the difference between a blocking group and a rooming group?</p>

<p>A. A blocking group is formed for the Freshman Lottery so that its members can be assured of living in the same House. A rooming group is formed so that its members can apply to live in the same suite together in the House. Most large blocking groups will be split into 2 or more rooming groups. </p>

<p>Q. If our blocking group splits into two rooming groups, will our suites be close together?</p>

<p>The House will try, but not necessarily. Sophomore housing is done after the Seniors and Juniors have chosen their suites, so it is difficult to predict how close together the remaining suites will be. </p>

<p>Q. Can I enter the lottery by myself?</p>

<p>A. Absolutely!</p>

<p>Q. Will I be guaranteed a single if I enter the lottery as a single?</p>

<p>A. Entering the lottery as a single does not guarantee assignment to a House with singles, but if a disability requires one, you should be in contact with the Student Disabilities Office immediately. (Louise Russell) </p>

<p>Q. What if I had a single this year? Will I automatically get one next year?</p>

<p>A. No, but if a disability requires one, you should be in contact with the Student Disabilities Office immediately. (Louise Russell) </p>

<p>Q. If I enter the lottery alone, or if I am the only female/male in a blocking group, will I be guaranteed a single room?</p>

<p>A. Not necessarily. All Houses do their best to provide students with their first-choice rooming arrangements, however, the suites left after from the Senior and Junior choices vary in sizes and configuration. If a single is not available, the House will do its best to match you up with compatible roommates. If you know of other freshmen who have been assigned to the same House, with whom you might want to live, you may contact them and see if you can be part of their rooming group plans. </p>

<p>Q. What size and types of suites will be available?</p>

<p>A. What will be available is unpredictable. Houses have differing configurations, and what's left, or kept aside for sophomores, can be single spaces in occupied suites, doubles, triples, quads etc. </p>

<p>Q. Then how can we get the housing we want?</p>

<p>Your preferred housing wishes may not necessarily be met or available, but if you give the House to which you are assigned a prioritized list of the combinations into which your blocking group is willing to divide, you will maximize your chances of getting the housing that is closest to your preferencs. The Houses do their best to meet your housing needs.</p>

2

<p>That sounds a lot like a room draw group.</p>

3

<p>I don't really see what's bad about this?</p>

4

<p>By the end of your freshman year you choose your house for the future. It's not just a room draw. It's drawing into your future "residential college". So the anxiety is about finding that group to join a house with. Or having to leave others out and separate. As opposed to Yale and Princeton where the residential college assignment is arbitrary.</p>

5

<p>I really don't think this is that big of a deal. Sure, being in a Harvard House is going to be more segregating than being in just a different dorm from your friends, but Yale, Princeton, and (I think) most other schools have very similar room draw procedures.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the procedure that is unfair among the three schools is Yale's policy regarding residential colleges, whereby legacy students may request to be in the same college (or <em>not</em> in the same college) as their parents or siblings. Naturally, this has led to some segregation, where the nicer colleges have a much higher percentage of legacies. It's also exacerbated by the fact that Yale's residential colleges are much more discrete units than Princeton's, and that some have far better dining halls than others (I don't know how they compare to Harvard's Houses).</p>

6

<p>It sounds very "high school" with regard to the social pressure and inclusion or exclusion of certain individuals. Maybe they need to make "secret alliances" like in the Survivor reality show!</p>

7

<p>Why is alumother hyping up a harmless form of rooming assignments? This seems like an equitable system, where is the problem? Appears preferable to other, more exclusive forms of shelter.</p>

8

<p>More exclusive forms of shelter such as ... ?</p>

9

<p>Prefontaine=Byerly?</p>

10

<p>I thought once you were in a house that was it for 3 years. So it's different than drawing into a different dorm each year.</p>

<p>I am only reporting it because of the anxiety the kids seemed to show about it.</p>

11

<p>the better analogy, of course, is the all-male final clubs.</p>

12

<br>


<br>

<p>This is incorrect. Harvard students do not get to choose their residential colleges for their final three years. They are assigned to the colleges by the housing office just as they are at Yale. </p>

<p>What the blocking function provides is a way for kids, if they so choose, to ensure that they end up in the same residential college as their closest friends that they've gotten to know during their freshman year. So if you really like your roommate and you want to make sure you both end up in the same House, the two of you (up to 8) enter the draw as a block. Once you get to the House you can change your individual roommates within the House, but you and your blockmates will be in the same House for the remaining three years.</p>

<p>Blocking is not stressful. It's a positive thing. It provides a mechanism so that moving out of the freshman dorms in the Yard need not break up close friendships and compatible living arrangements that were formed there.</p>

13

<p>I wonder how they do roomdraw at Harvard/Yale. Do they have the random draw time deal too?</p>

<p>(Nah, byerly doesn't sound like an angsty kid.)</p>

14

<p>Many years ago Harvard had a rush system for the houses. But that resulted in exclusivity and the segregation into certain types of houses: rich kids house, jock house, dope house, minorities house, etc. So they did away with that and went to the current assignment system. It's not a blindly random draw, but through assignment they seek to build more or less a balance in each house of URMs, athletes, rich kids, poor kids, regular kids, etc. I presume that Yale's system is similar, but I really don't know.</p>

15

<p>But once you are assigned to a house, how do you go about drawing for the ROOM you want?</p>

16

<p>I know they don't pick houses. I know the university assigns them. But having to form a "block" end of freshman year appeared to cause stress. I am sure for some it is positive. Just as for some at Princeton joining an eating club end of sophomore year is positive.</p>

17

<p>If the main perceived problem inherent to the eating club system at P is that "eating buddies" might get separated by not being able to join the same "eating facility" after an initial period, there is indeed a slight analogy here (the number of residential houses at H is somewhat similar to the number of eating clubs at P). Although 8 is a large number for a blocking group, if you transfer that to the eating club framework (usually just sign-ins offer that with a few exceptions).</p>

<p>The analogy ends however in that half of the eating clubs have limited randomness in picking their next class (bicker clubs may compete among each other for same individuals which leaves some impredicatibility to the "lack of randomness"). </p>

<p>The analogy would be closer, if the upper class students of half of the houses at H would select and "admit" students of the next class by themselves (you can now argue that selection of rooming goes one step further than just having meals, but nevertheless). </p>

<p>I can see how that would deter applicants, although I can also see that a majority of students at H would accept, or even like such a regime.</p>

<p>The real challenge is to find the right balance between building "bridging" social capital vs. building "bonding" social capital (see Putnam) on a college campus. My view is that both are valuable, and while both are not necessarily mutually exclusive, the cultivation of bonding social capital can come- or at least is usually perceived as coming - at the expense of the other.</p>

<p>This, I think is at the core of the criticism against (bicker) clubs like they exist at P: People who are fond of diversity (and surely academia in general is today, if you look at admission policies) or are even afraid of lack of diversity for fear of getting "locked out" generally behave sceptical vis-a-vis self-selecting (preceived as: self-seggregating) institutions. The other aspect seems to be that despite a much lower selectivity in terms of admissions probability, some people are much more sensitive, if getting banned from eating at certain places compared to getting banned from participating in some other endeavor - this simply has the smell of apartheid, even if there isn't any of that in substance.</p>

18

<p>
[quote]
If the main perceived problem inherent to the eating club system at P is that "eating buddies" might get separated by not being able to join the same "eating facility" after an initial period

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Actually, a lot of the bicker clubs have a system where you can bicker with a few friends and you're either all in or all out.</p>

19

<br>


<br>

<p>No one has to form a block. You can get assigned to house as an indvidual (a "block" of 1) just fine if that is what you want. I think the only stress comes in if you have a group of more than 8 friends you really wanted to live with (lucky you). That would comprise two blocks and you would have to decide which block to join.</p>

<p>Personally, I've never quite understood what all the fuss was over eating clubs. I'm sure I don't understand all the nuances of the system. But it seems to work out okay for pretty much everybody. But I think you are stretching quite a bit to answer criticisms of eating clubs by saying "Well, Harvard has blocks....". The systems are different enough that they have rather different strengths and weaknesses. And no problem ever gets addressed by trying to point out problems in others. It's just dodging the question.</p>

<p>I think Princeton's set-up is strong enough that it can survive on its own merits, and what's going on at Harvard is beside the point.</p>

20

<p>Z, do you have some precise data? What are "blocking group" sizes for each of the 5 selective clubs? (Is it like 3 max rather than 8?)</p>

<p>Since the "blocking group" mechanism with bicker clubs work the way that either all get in or don't, the latter wouldn't say anything about their chance of getting in together elsewhere, would it? So this would be another lack of analogy: take 8 freshmen at H who do not fit together into house x but into house y. Chances are the admin will stick them into some house together (and be it z).</p>