<p>Forgive my arrogant and presumptious question. I know I propbably won't get accepted because I didn't even get an interview but I just wanted to ask admitted people to rank all 12 houses at Harvard (1 being the best and 12 the worst). Just wanted to satisfy my curiosity...</p>
<p>Pointless…with 12 houses (let’s exclude Dudley for now), you’ll have 479,001,600 possible rankings. I personally would list Pfoho and Lowell somewhere near the top of the list. Others would be shocked that I’m highly ranking a Quad house and think Eliot and Adams suck. Find another person and they’ll reverse my list.</p>
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<p>Correct. My daughter’s ranking would probably read something like:</p>
<ol>
<li> Winthrop
2 - 11 (empty)</li>
<li> Last place tie between every other House</li>
</ol>
<p>Winthrop.</p>
<p>That was easy. Next question?</p>
<p>^Only students in Winthrop have anything good to say about Winthrop, because it’s probably one of the worst houses. It’s like Dunster, but at least people have good things to say about Dunster’s dining hall. To Winthrop’s credit, it wins intramurals a lot.</p>
<p>^ Didn’t you die in the 60s…? I’m a little confused here.</p>
<p>I personally liked Mather the most. The Quad houses have their advantages too, especially for those taking lots of science courses. I like most of the houses, except for probably Lev and Dunster.</p>
<p>My rational side: </p>
<p>House preference comes down to a few things, but mostly luck and chance. Usually, people will learn to love (and feel some sense of loyalty to) whatever the house they’re assigned to. More importantly, as long as you like/love the people you’re living with, the actual house almost doesn’t matter. [The sense of house community comes and goes, with different house masters and different tutors.] I like the sports team analogy–most people actually don’t “choose” their favorite baseball team, or basketball team. You’re sorta given one by circumstance. If you’re from Boston, it’s very unlikely that you’ll be a Yankees fan. Why do people from Chicago swear by the W. Sox? And why do Mets fans remain loyal despite years of disappointment? It’s all rather emotional and irrational, and for things like house/college and teams, I’m perfectly ok with that. </p>
<p>My irrational side: </p>
<p>Back to the issue of houses…
Dunster is also know in some quarters as the “Dumpster”. And no matter what Adams house residents like to say regarding their ‘prime location,’ they are a “river house” without a single river-view room…and as a former Pfoho resident, I was able to stop in their dining hall at any time I pleased. Oh and Eliot…have fun with your 4-in cockroaches coming out of the shower drains. ;)</p>
<p>A few people gave their opinions here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/874898-housing-lottery.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/874898-housing-lottery.html</a></p>
<p>Clearly the ranking with Adams on the top is the best thought out/most rational/etc…</p>
<p>FWIW, the crimson’s blog gave eliot the #1 spot this year.</p>
<p>Flyby blog at The Crimson posted the following reviews of the houses recently:</p>
<p><a href=“The Harvard Crimson”>The Harvard Crimson;
<p>Their ranking of the 12 houses were:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Eliot</p></li>
<li><p>Adams</p></li>
<li><p>Kirkland</p></li>
<li><p>Pfoho</p></li>
<li><p>Lowell</p></li>
<li><p>Mather</p></li>
<li><p>Quincy</p></li>
<li><p>Currier</p></li>
<li><p>Leverett</p></li>
<li><p>Dunster</p></li>
<li><p>Cabot</p></li>
<li><p>Winthrop</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Haha, I like how Winthrop is on the bottom there, but certain posters seem to feel very fervent loyalty towards it 
Just interesting…</p>
<p>^^Like was posted above, everybody soon grows to love their own House and consider it superior to the others.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why Cabot gets a lot of hate. It’s right next to Pfoho and Currier and has even better rooming, although less parties. That’s not really an issue though because Pfoho and Currier have tons of parties, and the Quad is basically one huge house anyway…</p>
<p>Anywho, Mather, Quincy, and the Quad ftw because they have the best combo of space, community, and parties (I’m treating the Quad like one house because it is in a lot of senses). Adams is small, old, and lacks community, and Eliot just blends in with Kirkland, and both are alright.</p>
<p>My cousin has a friend at Harvard who’s a junior in Kirkland, apparently Kirkland is all about house spirit and all that. She didn’t have very good things to say about the other houses though (well, my cousin goes to the Harvard rival school).</p>