<p>Good reasons to choose a dorm:
1. You like the people who live there
2. You like the types of activities that people who live there are involved in
3. The way that residents of the dorm socialize appeals to you
4. Many people who live in that dorm share your interests (academic or otherwise)
5. Whether you want to participate in residence-based advising
6. Whether you want a single-sex environment</p>
<p>Not-great reasons to choose a dorm, but acceptable tip factors:
1. How many people are assigned to a given room
2. You think the rush video is awesome
3. Whether pets are allowed (if you have deathly cat allergies, this gets bumped up to a good reason, I think :))</p>
<p>Bad reasons to choose a dorm:
1. How new/shiny the dorm is
2. Whether the dorm has air conditioning
3. The dorm is close to/far from main campus (do I just think this because I lived in MacGregor?)
4. Rooms in the dorm have a nice view</p>
<p>You're picking a home, possibly for the next four years. (And possibly for longer</a> than that, even if not in physical residence.) But don't forget that the housing lottery form is not the be-all and end-all of your residence picking -- when you get to MIT in the fall, you'll want to explore all of the dorms and some of you will want to switch to another dorm. (Some cautionary</a> tales from Jessie.)</p>
<p>I assume, of course, that everyone has read through the dorm entries on the admissions</a> webpage -- in the spring of 2006, we covered the majority of dorms in entries.</p>
<p>As someone who tends to like about the same percentage of people no matter where I am, I actually made my decisions primarily on your bad reasons mollie, and it was OK. I'd say the first group you listed are good reasons, but the rest are all acceptable.</p>
<p>Actually, in my mind the only qualities of a dorm not subject to manipulation or misrepresentation are the physical qualities (all of your bad reasons, mollie). There's no dispute about a good view, or a great location, or a dining hall. On the other hand, as we can see from the misunderstandings between east and west campus, and the failings of one in describing the other, people often get the wrong impression of the culture of a place. Like River says, there are great people to meet all over the place, I don't see the necessity in imposing our value system on everyone else. Some people are highly adaptable so it doesn't matter to them the overwhelming culture of a dorm. Some people see right through it and see in different dorms the same kinds of people just dressed up slightly differently. I picked my dorm for 3 years based on mollie's "good reasons", and I've liked it just fine; I picked my summer residence based on mollie's "bad reasons" and maybe an unspoken worse reason (cost) and I'm loving it here, as well. Far be it for me to tell you how to run your life.</p>
<p>I definitely don't mean to set these up as some sort of definitive system (and if anybody has anything to add, please do). But I do unabashedly think that aesthetics and dining halls and such are bad reasons to pick a dorm, the same way I think they're bad reasons to pick a college. People who pick other schools over MIT because the campus is prettier make my eyes roll out of my head. And hey, maybe that's super-important to some people. I think it's bizarre.</p>
<p>I realize that there are people who know they'll be happy where they land, but I think that's a distinct case from picking a dorm based only on, say, its distance from main campus. What you're saying is "all of the dorms were basically equivalent on people factors, so it's valid to pick based on physical factors," with which I don't have a problem. What I don't like is sorting first based on physical factors and second (or not at all) based on culture factors.</p>
<p>I definitely think it's true that there are great people all over the place, and deciding based on culture doesn't preclude having your top three choices be three dorms with very different cultures. I don't think you have to have a culture theme, I think you just have to like the culture/people of your top three or so choices. But if you want to like both Baker and Random, I'm all for that.</p>
<p>(Pebbles, just curious, is your summer residence anything more than a room? I never felt like my summer entrymates made anything resembling a community.)</p>
<p>A lot of people have already given good advice. I'm just going to repeat something that I'm sure I said in the "Housing for Dummies" thread in the 2012 forum.</p>
<p>Do Dorm Rush (REX). Really, do Dorm Rush. Have tentative preferences before then, sure - you want to try to get a temp room in a place you really like, in case you don't manage to switch - but don't allow your mind to be fully made up until you have actually been around to the different dorms and had a chance to talk to the people. Be open to the idea that there will be places you like better than your temp living group, that you will want to switch. Switching dorms after Dorm Rush is <em>not</em> the fluke done by malcontents that certain branches of the administration make it out to be - in recent years, close to a fifth of frosh have done it.</p>
<p>There are people who will be genuinely happy with any group of people. There are people who will not be. There are people (I'm probably in this category) who will do okay with any group of people, but will truly enjoy themselves and feel like they belong among only a few groups of people. </p>
<p>I could tell the difference in my own behavior when I was around my living group (or frosh who eventually ended up there) vs when I was around people from some of the living groups most stereotypically unlike mine - and it wasn't deliberate; I frequently didn't know until after the fact where the people in question lived. I just responded to their manner, their personalities, their ways of interacting with other people, totally differently. When I was around groups of people from the living groups that were very unlike mine, I got a lot quieter and more withdrawn. I couldn't relate to them. I didn't dislike them in the least, I just had little to talk about with them. This was true from the earliest days of my freshman year, true (based on where we eventually ended up) even in my pre-Orientation program when nobody had a living group yet when we met. There were a handful of exceptions to this, but it was definitely true in general. When I was with people from my own or similar living groups, I generally felt a "click", and immediately felt more at ease and more sociable, even if I didn't know yet where they lived.</p>
<p>Hm, well I'm at Bexley right now and in my suite there's me in a single, and two other girls in a double. The general setup really caters to forming tiny little suite-size communities, I think. Since there's no way to avoid your suitemates. I don't know, perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask cause I already know a couple people at Bexley so it's not like I'm totally stepping into a new and unexplored territory.</p>
<p>Actually, I think a very important point of consideration for a dorm should be whether you are more comfortable being somewhat close to a large group of people or extremely close to a small number of people. That's the main 'cultural' difference between EC and Bexley at least, as far as I can tell: East Campus w/ 40 residents per hall vs. 3-6 people per suite at bexley. Actually, I'm more of the latter type, but I'm already plenty comfortable at EC.</p>
<p>You think you know where you want to live. Odds are, you are wrong.</p>
<p>Okay, that's not true. But that's the attitude that you should take. Rank your preferences, be psyched that you ended up somewhere that you think you will be happy, then assume that you were wrong. Seriously. Visit every dorm looking for the one that's better than the one you are temped in.</p>
<p>Take REX seriously. I came to campus as a freshmen with COMPLETELY wrong preconceived notions about certain dorms. I tied two dorms for my first choice in my summer preferences, and was lucky enough to land in BC. I know now that I could never live in my "other first choice." I came <em>this</em> close to requesting a transfer to the dorm that I had originally ranked 9th. I finally made the tortured decision to stay in BC. Three years later, I still wonder about that decision!</p>
<p>Please, please, please, please take REX seriously. People like me and Mollie go moderately insane for several weeks in a row to bring you fun and exciting events- go to them! Do not stay in your temp dorm all the time. When I notice frosh spending too much time in BC, I kick them out. Literally- ask Snively. I followed him out the dorm once to make sure he actually left. Now, Snively lives in BC and is really happy there- but no harm done, right?</p>
<p>That was my point of view going in - I was stoked to be at East Campus (my first choice), but I made it a point to visit <em>every single dorm</em> at least once. I even visited Bexley even though I was certain I wouldn't want to live there (though now it'd probably be in my top 5). Seriously, even if you really <em>did</em> land in the perfect dorm, by checking the others out you'll <em>know</em> your choice is right.</p>
<p>And meet people. And get tons of free food. It's win-win.</p>