<p>First - It sounds like you are thinking this through in a good way, so for that I commend you :)</p>
<p>Second, while we can give you impressions/datapoints, ultimately having never met you it’s hard to say where you will feel most at home. Dorm Rush/REX is designed for people like you! Unfortunately, they are making some changes and it is not 100% clear whether there will be much liquidity in the adjustment lottery after REX this year.</p>
<p>Here are some random thoughts that I hope might be helpful:</p>
<p>1) There is a pretty big difference between not dining (Senior Haus, Random) versus dining (Simmons, Next) in terms of your life and the culture you live in. As you probably know a dining plan is mandatory at Simmons and Next. Dining halls obviously have their perks (someone will always be there to serve you dinner) but in terms of cost, it’s extremely unlikely to be cost effective, compared to basically any other way of feeding yourself. (I.e. you can buy preprepared meals <em>at MIT</em> ala carte and still save money compared to these plans).</p>
<p>How people eat has a large impact on community. The possible plus of a mandatory dining plan is the idea that it is supposed to help build community in terms of people sitting around and chatting at mealtime. I have heard that the results are mixed here - some dorms suffer from the fact that most people do takeaway or sit alone. I can’t say for sure as dining was implemented recently and I haven’t been in a dining dorm since.</p>
<p>By contrast, cooking dorms at their best can build community around the kitchen and around getting together and cooking shared meals on occasion. I believe Random in particular has a strong tradition of building community around cooking, though all the cooking dorms do to an extent. I think one of the great things about MIT is that it has long fostered a since of personal responsibility and community around cooking together, which dining dorms don’t have. Also, there are no dining plans in real life… We all have to learn to feed ourselves eventually :).</p>
<p>2) Size. Aside from the stereotypical East v West divide between Next/Simmons and Random/Senior, you also have chosen two of the smaller dorms (146 at Senior and 93 and Random) versus 344/347 at Simmons/Next. Random and Senior House are similar in that they have a strong sense of house-wide community (while still having hall-level culture). Both tend to view themselves as relatively autonomous and self-governing, as much as they are allowed to by the administration. There is a strong drive to preserve as much autonomy/responsibility as possible. They are more likely to have MIT alums as GRTs. They have strong alumni networks. Both are probably much more close-knit than Simmons/Next. </p>
<p>3) Check out these political rankings (though a bit old) [Facebook</a> Social Analysis: Fun with Facebook](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/varenc/www/facebook.html]Facebook”>http://web.mit.edu/varenc/www/facebook.html), these religious rankings [The</a> Tech Religion | Dorm Breakdown](<a href=“http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N25/religion/dorms/]The”>http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N25/religion/dorms/), and these rankings by the Living Pink Survey [LivingPink</a> | Summarized Results](<a href=“http://livingpink.mit.edu/summary.php#campus]LivingPink”>http://livingpink.mit.edu/summary.php#campus). </p>
<p>4) Senior House throws one of the biggest parties of the year, Steer Roast. It is an alumni event and tons of alumni come back for it. Students are in charge of basically everything in terms of making the party go well (e.g. keeping people safe) and making it awesome. They tend to do an amazing job. There is also a lot of nerd art made for this event, and at SH more generally.</p>
<p>5) EC is getting renovated this summer. While it will (hopefully!) always be a place where people have a lot of control over the physical structure, it will probably be less falling-down-y than when you saw it. As you probably know hall based culture is a bit more salient at EC, and they have a lot of variety in terms of community. Given the little you’ve said, I think you might consider not completely writing EC off.</p>
<p>6) Broadly speaking, Senior House is edgier than Random. It is probably more open to alternative practice (sexually, etc). Although I think Random is also probably very open in theory, you are more likely to see these kinds of differences at Senior House. For example, SH has a BondageComm.</p>
<p>7) I am possibly not giving Next/Simmons a fair shake, not having spent much time at either. That said, given you seem drawn to ‘nerdy’ culture and strong community - I am going to guess you’ll probably prefer Random and Senior House (as you have said). Everyone at MIT is a nerd and is awesome and people do interesting things everywhere, but some places are more focused on cultivating their nerdy side and turning it to ‘good’ use with projects, hacks, art, etc.</p>