Characteristics?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I was accepted into the class of 2013 for Harvard and am going this fall! <so excited!!=""></so></p>

<p>I know that we don't get to choose our own dorms/houses (I don't know the difference--yet), but I was wondering if current students, alumni, parents, and people who know about the housing at Harvard could share about the pluses and minuses of the dorms/houses.</p>

<p>For example, for the prefrosh weekend, I stayed at Matthews.</p>

<p>MATTHEWS</p>

<p>Pros:</p>

<p>Close knit
Nice window-futon area
Near the Harvard square
Cozy</p>

<p>Cons:</p>

<p>Bathrooms are shared by a floor
A bit old-fashioned (this could definitely be a "pro", too)
Small common room</p>

<p>It would be great, especially since it would be nice to know more about them. I know that MIT has dorms with distinctive personalities. Is it the same with Harvard?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Here’s a link you might find interesting. If you click on the specific dorms on the map, you will find additional information about those dorms.</p>

<p>[Frosh</a> Dorms Project: Graphical Map](<a href=“http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~trishin/sergey/galleries/2004/froshdorms/index.htm]Frosh”>http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~trishin/sergey/galleries/2004/froshdorms/index.htm)</p>

3

<p>hi silversuz!</p>

<p>im a prefrosh for harvard 2013 too and i stayed at wigglesworth</p>

<p>Pros:</p>

<p>your own bathroom
right across the street from food
common room space is all right(depends on how many roommates you have)</p>

<p>cons: the T is right underneath you</p>

<p>visited my friend in Thayer and his room was pretty nice. you have to share bathrooms though</p>

4

<p>hey, i was at thayer during pre-frosh weekend</p>

<p>pros</p>

<p>really really close to annenburg and science center
decent size common rooms</p>

<p>cons
bathroom shared by entire floor
pretty big hallways compared to other dorms</p>

<p>i also got a chance to go to grays and hollworthy (i think that was what it was called…)
grays</p>

<p>pros
super big common rooms
own bathroom</p>

<p>cons
i was only there for a bit, but none that i could really see</p>

<p>hollworthy(?)</p>

<p>pros
nice common rooms
share bathroom with one other room
bigger bedrooms than other ones I saw</p>

<p>cons
seemed a little quieter than the other dorms, but i dont know if maybe i was just there at an off time</p>

5

<p>Unlike MIT, freshmen at Harvard tend to group less around their dorms
and more around their key ECs. So you do not have an ‘East Campus
spaced-out’ dorm vs ‘sour-milk random’ dorm scenario here. The absence
of upperclassmen in the freshman dorms at Harvard is the main
organizational difference with MIT. Also all freshman at Harvard eat at
one place (Annenberg) unlike the system at MIT.</p>

<p>Common rooms or music rooms are shared/booked out across all the
dorms (any freshman group could be using any of these facilities)so their
size or absence in a particular dorm means very little. This is true
especially in the yard area.</p>

<p>By the Spring of your freshman year you would have found your blocking
mates probably from different dorms based on your EC groups where you
spend a considerable amount of time.</p>

<p>Living in the yard is like being at a fest all year :slight_smile: so don’t worry where you
get placed you will most probably love it!</p>

6

<p>^ Thanks! That’s really helpful! Browsing through the website, I found another question: how do we do our laundry? I know that Matthews does not have washing machines. Which dorms do? Thanks!</p>

7

<p>I know Weld does in the basement.</p>

8

<p>bump?</p>

<p>10char</p>

9

<p>[click here](<a href=“https://cash.harvard.edu/textpage.php?pageid=402&cid=154&”>https://cash.harvard.edu/textpage.php?pageid=402&cid=154&&lt;/a&gt;) for a list of laundry facilties that accept CrimsonCash. This list includes the upperclassmen
houses as well. Canaday, Thayer, Weld, and, Wigglesworth amongst others appear on the list.</p>