<p>I don't know too much about the apartments, but if you're relocating to MA they are probably the way to go because you'll have a place for all of your furniture. Storage units here are a little expensive and the climate controlled storage units are REALLY expensive. If you aren't moving your furniture here, remember that the apartments are unfurnished so you'll have to purchase or rent furniture.</p>
<p>I live in a house and I love it. But it really depends on your personality and what you like to do. The houses are a little noisy, but not too bad usually. If you go to bed before midnight, it could be a problem for you if you're sensitive to noise. One big advantage is that you're more informed about what is going on around campus and there are lots of people to do things with. If you get lonely, you can just open the door to your room and someone will poke their head in before long.</p>
<p>I've seen a couple of times on this board that people have heard of "problems" between ADAs and "trads" but I've never seen or experienced that. There are sometimes problems between people of every persuasion but I've never seen a problem where age difference is at the root of it.</p>
<p>I've made some very good friends in my house and they're all trads. We're all coming back to the same house next year, going abroad the year after that and then plan on all trying to get into Chase (a senior house) or a Friedman apartment for our last year here. I don't want the Friedman, because I really like someone else doing all of the food shopping, cooking and cleaning up.</p>
<p>If you do request to live in a house, you'll get a single room, but the only houses that have the singles specifically reserved for first year ADAs are Northrop, Cutter/Z and 150 Elm.</p>
<p>Northrop is an older traditional house, but the rooms on the 5th floor (no elevator) are reserved for first year ADAs (8 rooms, I think). I think the rooms are small and dark (little windows). I think I would find them depressing.</p>
<p>Cutter/Z was built somewhere around the '50's. They're pretty ugly -- we call our rooms boxes and the house sweatshirt says "embrace the cube." Cutter also houses a lot of the international students and I think all of the American Studies grad students. Most of the grad students are 23 -27. The people who live here are great and most of the first years and sophmores are staying in the house for next year because all of their friends are here -- that's kind of what happens in the house system, you make a lot of friends within the group of people you live with. A big plus is that Cutter/Z has a huge dining hall with both a traditional menu and Kosher. That gives you double the choices for food.</p>
<p>150 Elm is a very pretty little house with around 10 rooms, all reserved for ADAs. I have a friend who lives there and she has the smallest room in the house which is still almost twice the size of mine. She wanted me to move there for second semester but the problem is that most of the people in the house aren't involved in the traditional college events. She often just ends up staying in her room and watching TV when she doesn't have homework. That just isn't for me. It is much more quiet, but they also have no dining room, so they have to go out to other houses for every meal. That's a pain when it's 6 degees outside. </p>
<p>If you want to live on campus and have a preference between those 3 houses, I would definitely put it on the form. If you want to live in a different house, I honestly don't think it will happen unless you're willing to have a room-mate. I sent the housing form in the day it came in the mail and listed 10 houses that I wanted to live in. I asked specifically not to be put in Northrop or 150 Elm. I was put in Cutter/Z even tho it was not one of the houses I requested. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out though. </p>
<p>Sorry that I can't tell you too much about the apartments, but I don't know anyone who lives there (which might tell you something).</p>