<p>What's the house system like?
Do you guys enjoy it- what are some of the pros and cons of it?
And could you also talk about what each house is like from your experiences. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Can't talk about what each house is like here. By rotation rules, you have to wait until rotation to find out.</p>
<p>First thing I would say about the house system is that people's opinions of it will vary A LOT, so make sure not to take one or two people's opinions as the general opinion of the undergraduate body.</p>
<p>Personally, my opinion of the house system comes out neutral. The greatest thing that it does for me is it lets me build friendships that I know I will treasure for a long time. It keeps me in close contact with them and prevents me from letting work consume my social life. One thing I like to do a lot is keep my door open whenever possible. You never know when someone will stop by to chat with you a bit, and that's something that's fairly meaningful to me. Oh, and house dinners--those are often loads of fun, if for no reason other than that it's a great time for people to de-stress, have fun, and blow off some steam by being really silly.</p>
<p>What don't I like? Sometimes house traditions get on my nerves. Unfortunately, I can't talk about it in detail (rotation rules). It's true that no one is ever forced to participate in house events or traditions, but everyone will be affected at least in some way or another. I find some traditions to be fun, and others to be more irritating. (When I say irritating, I don't mean harmful in any way--Techers are pretty careful not to do stuff that will get people hurt.)</p>
<p>We can actually talk about what each house is like, most people just avoid it to minimize risk. (See Rotation</a> Rules, 5(c).)</p>
<p>There are some stereotypical things that houses have tended to be/do. Obviously some of these things are value judgments, you're smart enough to figure out what is what. Fleming (of which I am a not very typical member) is kind of the "jock" house -- lots of sports, activities, fairly boisterous dinners, not so intellectual, lots of poker. Page is similar, perhaps even a little closer to a traditional frat, but a friend tells me that the upperclassmen are actually very supportive of people studying and doing well in school.</p>
<p>Blacker does very typical "supernerd" things, like playing elaborate roleplaying board games (Dungeons and Dragons, etc.). They also like to build things like impressive parties and blow things up. Their dinners are my favorite at Caltech -- very close-knit and friendly. Ruddock is somewhat similar in the sense of building, though its personality seems a little more mild to me.</p>
<p>Dabney is the "hippie" house -- tie-dye, barefoot, long hair, laid back. They hug people.</p>
<p>Ricketts comes off as scary to most people -- shouting, weird symbols, generally less friendly from the outside. But inside it's close-knit and many of the people in it seem to really like it.</p>
<p>Lloyd is a little hard to characterize -- they're probably the most "normal" house in some sense and do not do very many "supernerd" things. I don't know much about Lloyd and so you have to ask someone else.</p>
<p>Avery is the newest house and for that reason has a less established personality. They put a big emphasis on not having any loud or unpleasant rituals and generally letting people be themselves a little more. People seem quite friendly to each other, but maybe it's not so coherent as other houses just by virtue of not having been around very long.</p>
<p>These are things I doubt many Techers would view as wild mischaracterizations... and they should add more. I think rotation rules are often over-obeyed in the sense that people refrain from discussions that the rules don't even exclude.</p>
<p>One thing that's bad about the houses is that they make it harder to interact outside one's house. Some houses act "exclusive" and some are downright hostile to others and very possessive of their frosh. (But I should say this is a minority of houses.) That's good because it builds a community, but bad because it makes a tiny school tinier and the social atmosphere weirder. </p>
<p>What's good is that people really do look out for each other and have a "family" which will tend to accept them even if (like me) they aren't really good fits for their house. Especially if you are clearly right for a certain house, you will probably like Caltech more for this reason. If the system doesn't really fit with how you view your college social life, then it could be a minus.</p>
<p>I can't remember the name of the house we saw on our campus visit, but its dinnertime rituals are distinctive enough that I hope they pin it down:
a) pople can throw food at dinner, they just can't hit a server
b) the penalty for hitting a server is having water poured over you
c) after dinner the servers offer challenges to the president like "make this piece of pie stick to the wall" or 'identify (while blindfolded) this odd concotion of drinks and spaghetti.</p>
<p>Which house (or houses, but I really hope only 1 fits the description) is that?</p>
<p>Sounds like Lloyd.</p>
<p>Minus (c) and it might be Ruddock, though I've only had a few experiences with Ruddock dinners. What type of food, specifically? :-P</p>
<p>"What type of food, specifically?" I'm guessing this is about (a), and I think it was rolls? or maybe bread?</p>
<p>That sounds exactly like Lloyd. I'm a Lloydie, by the way.</p>
<p>I would agree with Ben's characterization-- there's a little bit of everything in Lloyd. Stereotypically we are associated with the game Super Smash Brothers.</p>
<p>The more I hear about Caltech the more I feel like it's the place for me. Thanks for the replies guys.</p>
<p>Yes for Lloyd on (c), but did we start throwing food since I moved off campus?</p>
<p>In the spirit of accuracy, which is kind of important, I'd like to clarify that it is a minority in Blacker that indulges in role-playing games (Dungeons and Dragons), and they don't do any LARPing (Live-action role-playing, probably the most horrifically dorky thing you might ever hear of).</p>
<p>Right... I should have devoted a sentence to the fact that what distinguishes houses is often mostly practiced by a minority. So that only a minority in Fleming really are loud and boisterous and play a lot of sports, but that is what the house looks like from the outside. Similarly, DnD is a played by a minority in Blacker, and scariness is done by only a minority in Ricketts. Most people are just "normal" college students with diverse interests. But since the house atmosphere is often driven by the most active stereotypical minority, it can help to know what that minority does.</p>
<p>Super Smash Brothers at Lloyd? If I do end up going to Caltech, I know where I'll end up.</p>
<p>Most houses don't throw food on a normal basis. However, pretty much any house that throws food will do so every night of prefrosh weekend. That goes along with the general fact that we pack more "fun stuff" into prefrosh weekend than we would any other weekend of the year.</p>
<p>I personally love the House system, as do a lot of people. It is probably my favorite part of going to Caltech. :) During rotation, pretty much all of the people I spent time with were frosh. The House system gives you a bigger social group that also includes a lot of upperclassmen. I really love the people in my House and it feels like a giant friendly family to me. Upperclassmen are generally extremely supportive of frosh and look out for us. Not everyone is as lucky as I am to end up in a really well-suited House for them, and that's why rotation is so important.</p>
<p>I'm in Blacker House, so I can tell you a lot about it specifically: </p>
<p>We're a South Hovse. We're called "Moles" (there many different probably all untrue stories behind this.) Our slogan is "GDBG" for "God Damn Blacker Gang!" Once again, there are many probably only partially true stories about the origins of this, most of which involve some zany mischief and a security guard uttering those timeless words. Our official motto is "Nothing is worthwhile unless it is difficult," which I think applies to us pretty well. Nobody actually remembers it.</p>
<p>A lot of us are pretty damn big nerds, and are not ashamed of it. Some of us, many of which are very active House members, are not particularly nerdy at all beyond a love for math and science. Too many, including our House President, play Magic: The Gathering (I'm more of a D&D person myself.) Eight out of the twelve people in my alley use a Unix-based OS for their laptop or desktop (Mac and Linux are about evenly split,) and most of the ones who use Windows do so for gaming reasons. Many of us play video games, but probably no more than any other House (<em>cough</em> Lloyd.) We tend like our fire, explosions, and sharp pointy objects. We have a trip out to the desert just for fire and explosions - people from other Houses are welcome to come though. We beat [lame] inside jokes to death. LN2 is a necessary ingredient for all flavors of fun. We tend like to dress like ninjas, particularly when President Chameau is at our dinner or when we're playing capture the flag against Lloyd. :D </p>
<p>Like Ruddock, we take our Interhouse parties way too seriously. Unlike Ruddock, we're terrible at organization (they even had a construction wiki for OPI this year!) and always end up doing most of the party the night before. In the recent past we've had a weird obsession with totalitarian regimes - this year's South Hovse Reopening party theme for us was "Soviet Russia" (cue "In Soviet Russia, Interhovse builds YOU!" jokes) and last year's Interhouse theme was "Saddam's Palace." By the way, our Interhouse theme this year is "Classic Nintendo." Complete with Bowser's-castle final-boss-level-style-double-decker-dancefloor bridge-going-over-hot-lava elevated-walkway-going-over-everything animatronic-piranha-plant duhnuhnuhNUUUH!-20rupees lifesize-Bowser-with-flashing-red-lights-and-smoke-n-stuff Tetris-pieces-falling-from-the-sky-thingymajiginator-doohicky and everything. Nobody's actually going to come to it. </p>
<p>Our dinners tend to be long - anywhere from half an hour to two hours - and filled with tons of arbitrary rules, which the waiters enforce gleefully (okay, so they're usually just too lazy.) Rules include: No throwing things (often broken,) no singing in rounds (should be broken more often,) no hitting waiters with food (broken by only masochists,) no rain gear, no reading materials, and no hitting the tapestry with stuff (this is the only really serious one, it's over 200 years old and doesn't need to be damaged more than it already is. :() We're also not allowed to have all-frosh tables but this rule hasn't really been enforced since first term. Now, we usually only have all-frosh tables when the frosh plan a special event (such as say... a delightful musical performance) and we pack as many frosh as possible at one table. Also, for whatever reason, we're the only House without long dining-hall-style rectangular tables - we have circular tables that seat only six each. Something about us desperately wanting to be a unique snowflake. </p>
<p>Like most of the other Houses, we pound on the tables instead of applauding during announcements. We also have a host of ridiculous dinnertime traditions such as: Anytime someone announces "I have a story," everyone responds in unison, "Story!" When a first-term frosh is called on, everyone yells, "On your chair, frosh! What's your name, frosh? Where ya' from, frosh?" Also, whenever anyone announces, "I have n things," everyone shouts "One!" and the speaker will start their list at two but still end at n. It's all very Orwellian, but I think it makes dinners more fun. We have all sorts of bizarre specialty drinks that you can order from the waiters, such as "Ninja-ade" or "the Pass/Fail Special." Feel free to make up a drink, like "Something Delicious," "ACM 95," or "The Grand Parade of 1000 Hungarian Oxen Playing Scrabble." You will get anything varying from delicious to undrinkable depending on how nice your waiter is ("ACM 95," however, is guaranteed to be undrinkable.) </p>
<p>We also take The Ride [of the Valkyries] more seriously than any other House. Every year, the frosh of my alley (the highest alley in Blacker, logically named "Hell") barricade some area off and play The Ride. Upperclassmen have to find a way to turn it off. Typically, "barricading" meant lots of concrete, cinder blocks, bricks, and steel, and "finding a way to turn it off" meant physically destroying a tiny Hell single with jackhammers, drills, saws, and sledgehammers. I've been told that there was some difficultly redoing the electrical wiring during the South Hovse renovations because frosh of Hellride-past had completely rewired everything, obfuscating the circuits to the point where it was nearly impossible for the upperclassmen to shut off power to the Hellride room. I'm not sure this is entirely factual though. ;) I do know that generators have not always been successful in the past (due to lack of ventilation,) so the frosh must have protected their sweet, Ride-enabling electricity some way.</p>
<p>Finally, for those of you going to Prefrosh Weekend, ask about the nightly tours we give. :D</p>
<p>Hopefully other Techers will talk more about their Houses - I don't know them nearly as well as they do. The point of this is not to help you decide already what House you want to be in, but to give you adorable little prefroshlings (and I bet almost all of you are taller than I am) a look at the many different cultures of Caltech. Trust me, if you make that decision just off of what people tell you, especially people from the INTARWEBS, you are bound to be unhappy. Also, rotation gives you plenty of time to hopefully figure out which Houses you'd fit best in. Just talk to as many people as you can in each House, and it should be obvious which groups of people you'd be most comfortable or have the most fun with.</p>
<p>Llama -- you rock. Now if everyone expands on my one sentence stereotype of house X with something of this level of depth and informativeness, prefrosh will know a heck of a lot (and incidentally, I think the above post is a REALLY good advertisement for Caltech).</p>
<p>Once a frosh has gone through rotation and been assigned to a House, by what system does she get her room and roommate?</p>
<p>Each House has a different system. In Blacker, Dabney, and probably others, all of the frosh get a randomly assigned pick rank before the move in date, then pick rooms based in that order a few days before they move. Dabney does this with tarot cards, Blacker with a random number generator (previously with normal playing cards.) ;) Lloyd and Ruddock have more complicated systems where the frosh move into temporary rooms and pick their final rooms a while later. For Ruddock at least, the room-choosing order is not determined randomly, but instead by how many points frosh earn by doing various activities. The Houses are basically given a lot of power over themselves and the school administration tends to not interfere too much, so you can get all sorts of varied, strange rules and customs between Houses.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For Ruddock at least, the room-choosing order is not determined randomly, but instead by how many points frosh earn by doing various activities.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is not true- Ruddock frosh room picks are random. You do live in a temporary room for a few days, but after that you get to pick your roommate.</p>
<p>Really? That was the explanation I got when all the Rudd-frosh were dressed up in silly costumes soon after moving into their House.</p>