<p>Okay, so there are tons of freshman houses. Which ones do you guys think are the best?</p>
<p>i dont know, but i remember there is this absolutely gorgeous house right by the admissions office (its the last stop on the tour) that's like this smallish grassy, flowery courtyard surrounded by an amazing brick building. I think they had a dining hall in it. Anyone know what its called? It really was amazing. SO I'll say thats the best house I guess</p>
<p>Do we have any say in where we live? That's so cool!</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure its random.</p>
<p>I've heard many people like Wigglesworth.</p>
<p>Pretty much everyone hates Canaday, aka "The Projects".</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Do we have any say in where we live?<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>No. You get assigned.</p>
<p>My daughter really liked Massachusetts Hall. It's the smallest dorm (only 24 students) and the oldest building on campus (1720). The small size helped them form a tight group of friends that consisted of the entire dorm. </p>
<p>Plus, Pres. Summers' office is located on the first floor, and every year he hosts a pizza party just for the Mass Hall kids.</p>
<p>I think it's pretty much agreed that Apley Court is the best.</p>
<p>When my son was assigned to Grays Hall, everyone told him how lucky he was, that it's nicknamed "The Harvard Hilton". So, of course, we had really high expectations. Well, the common room is really big, with high ceilings and all. But the bedrooms are small (long and narrow), with bunk beds. The bedrooms only accomodate one person's desk, so the other person has to have his desk in the common room. The bathroom is o.k. Anyway, I still can't figure out why it has such a great reputation, but then again, I haven't seen any other freshman dorms to compare it with. In my view, the best thing about it is the location...facing the long axis of Harvard Yard, next to the library, with Harvard Square directly behind it.</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread but here it is again:</p>
<p>The best dorms are largely opinion but these are generally the most sought after:</p>
<ol>
<li>Apley Court (wasn't open due to renovations this year, though I think they let some Katrina transfers stay there for the semester)</li>
<li>Grays</li>
<li>Weld</li>
<li>Thayer</li>
<li>some would say Matthews though the quality varies widely</li>
</ol>
<p>least sought after dorms</p>
<ol>
<li>Canaday aka "the projects" (rooms are fine - but it is the ugliest dorm built in the 70s)</li>
<li>Mass Hall (oldest dorm, rumor has it that they usually put those who are quiet/study in this dorm because the administration works in this building as well)</li>
<li>Greenough/Hurlbut/Pennypacker due to location away from the yard</li>
</ol>
<p>The rest fall somewhere in between. Keep in mind, even in the best dorms you may get a bad room or in a bad dorm an exceptionally good room - it's all luck of the draw.</p>
<p>I mean all freshman dorms are pretty nice... Apley Ct is my personal fav, but the only one I'd personally have a problem with is Canaday... it's just so hideous...</p>
<p>Apley Court is really inconvenient. Thayer doesn't have its own bathrooms. Wigglesworth is where it's at!</p>
<p>haha - wigg isn't that much closer than apley</p>
<p>(and I'm not biased here, I live in wigg)</p>
<p>But we're in the yard, at least....!</p>
<p>I never really liked the appearance of any of the buildings (it's just not my thing, but I can deal with it for 4 years, no biggie), so which one is the best in terms of rooms?</p>
<p>It really depends on what ur looking for because there are so many combinations (even within the same building). They're all relatively nice, though I really like the gigantic doubles in Hollis and Stoughton.</p>
<p>I'd suggest browsing the Frosh Dorm Gallery from prefrosh.net and deciding for yourself:
<a href="http://prefrosh.net%5B/url%5D">http://prefrosh.net</a></p>
<p>Matthews all the way - you may have bathrooms in the hallway instead of the room, but Matthews is crazy fun. the layout is pretty different than the other dorms.</p>
<p>It's generally two small rooms (bedrooms) attached to a pretty big common room - the corner rooms even have a coat closet in the entryway. </p>
<p>BTW, the thing about bad rooms even in the good dorms, that is so true. There are crappy rooms in every single building.</p>
<p>just a disclaimer - the gallery has some inaccuracies in its descriptions. Sometimes they only describe one kind of room in the dorm when in fact there are several other setups (wigg as an example).</p>
<p>I'm in Canaday right now and its location just can't be beat at all. You can literally roll out of bed 5 minutes before a class in the science center and still get there on time. Annenberg is right there and it's not like it's far from the Square either as it is in the yard. Canaday is also close to the Law School Gym (better than the MAC by far) and the convenience factor of being near all the classrooms and the dining hall just can't be beat. Oh, and unlike other dorms, we get to control our heating and such. I mean, yeah, our dorm looks ugly, but in terms of rooming arrangements, it's really generous.</p>
<p>I like my radiator in Wigglesworth. I also like how my room looks out both onto the Square and onto the Yard. It's really convenient to my classes in the Yard, although it is kind of far away from Annenberg/Science Center. Of course, the advantage of my location is that it's close to all of the upper-class dining halls, which is fun. I eat in Adams all the time and the two best libraries--Lamont and Widener--are just outside my door.</p>
<p>So maybe the conclusion you Class of '10 people can draw is that most freshmen are happy where they live.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>...most freshmen are happy where they live.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Correct.</p>
<p>One more unique advantage to Mass Hall. Harvard has many famous people - authors, artists, politicians, etc. visiting all the time. It's a constant stream. And they all start their visit by calling on Pres. Summers first. So kids in Mass Hall whose dorm rooms were on the same side of the building as the door to Summers' office could sometimes spot out some famous person they admire coming in or out of the office. They would then dash down the stairs and get to "accidentially" meet them out on the sidewalk.</p>