<p>Harvard vs. Princeton</p>
<p>I've read that Harvard has cockroaches and really unappealing aspects (peeling walls, smelly carpet, etc.).</p>
<p>Is Princeton like this?</p>
<p>What makes Princeton better?</p>
<p>Also...what's the difference between the House and Resident systems?</p>
<p>I heard Princeton has the best dorms in the ivy league - but that isn’t saying much.</p>
<p>I read that dorm quality and distance from center of campus are correlated…newer dorms are farther from the historical center</p>
<p>It’s pretty hard to generalize the dorms here as a whole. I’ve heard of occasional bug sightings in some places (Forbes addition, Wilson, the junior “slums”), but nothing terrible. Building services does exterminations on requests if things get bad. Haven’t seen any peeling walls, and I don’t know of any rooms with carpet. Some of the bathrooms in the older unrenovated dorms look kinda grungy, but that’s about it. I haven’t been to Harvard, so I don’t know what makes Princeton dorms better than Harvard dorms other than the people who live in them.</p>
<p>Princeton’s res college system is like Harvard’s house system in reverse. At Princeton, you live in one of six colleges for your first two years, and then you have all of upperclass housing to choose from for the next two. At Harvard, all freshmen live in the Yard, and people create blocking groups that are split into Harvard’s (twelve?) houses, where you live for the next three.</p>
<p><a href=“http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2009/10/21/pages/7350/index.xml[/url]”>Issues | Princeton Alumni Weekly;
<p>Harvard’s dorm rooms are determined by luck. Some are great, some are absolutely horrendous. </p>
<p>Princeton has the nicest dorm rooms in the Ivy League, I would bet.</p>
<p>There are 12 Houses at Harvard. Here are some of the reviews from the Crimson this year. According to Harvard’s newspaper, many Houses are horrendous. </p>
<p>Adams House, which they call “prime real estate” and one of the best houses: Adams may have nice housing, but be prepared for uninvited visitors. Residents have complained that it suffers from invasion by the bane of all River Houses: cockroaches and mice. (Although others add that they have never spotted either.) [Adams</a> House | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/6/adams-housing-day-2012/]Adams”>http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/6/adams-housing-day-2012/)</p>
<p>Random Question: How can you have “nice housing” with “cockroaches and mice”?</p>
<p>Lowell: Lowell is simultaneously praised for its convenient location and berated for its lackluster housing options. Sophomore suites are notoriously tiny, and although the options do get better later on, the insect infestation, stench of sewage and leaky roof tend can make rooms unappealing. One resident tried to be optimistic about the house’s cockroach infestation, writing that the critters appear “only at the beginning of the year, though—then they’re gone.” Nice try, but Lowell definitely has room for improvement when it comes to housing.
[Lowell</a> House | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/5/lowell-rating-5-overall/]Lowell”>http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/5/lowell-rating-5-overall/)</p>
<p>Dunster House: “Dunster has unfortunately developed a poor reputation for its suites over the years. Small bedrooms and walkthrough rooms abound in the House for sophomores, juniors, and seniors alike. Yet, there are a few exceptions, so maybe your senior year won’t involve tiptoeing past your roommate mid-hookup to use the bathroom.” [Dunster</a> House | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/2/dunster-house-12-place/]Dunster”>http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/2/dunster-house-12-place/)</p>
<p>Kirkland House, ranked number 1 House at Harvard: Rooms tend to be on the smaller side, with some DeWolfe housing available for overflow, no guaranteed singles, and of course the river pests we try not to think about. DeWolfe housing tends to be the best rooming available for sophomores, but at several blocks away, it can keep them isolated from House life. One resident lamented, “Some seniors don’t get N+1 housing, which is a travesty. But I do.” All this, of course, has to do with the downside of small rooms and walkthroughs. ([Kirkland</a> House | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/7/kirkland-housing-day-2012/]Kirkland”>http://www.thecrimson.com/series/the-housing-market-2012/article/2012/3/7/kirkland-housing-day-2012/))</p>
<p>Read all the reviews. Maybe go to Harvard, live in a hotel nearby?</p>
<p>Or transfer into Mather House, the moderne concrete river House which guarantees “singles for life”. The singles in the high-rise are quite spacious, the views of the Charles River and downtown Boston are fabulous, and insects cannot burrow through concrete.</p>
<p>What about the dorms from the Social Network? :P</p>
<p>Why would you want to be in a single dorm so bad anyway? Talk about introverted…</p>
<p>It’s all relative; Harvard’s dorms aren’t fantastic compared to Princeton’s, maybe, but on the grand scheme of things they’re very nice. Having spent a lot of high school summers at state schools, UChicago, and Brown, our dorms are ten times nicer than any of those. (Underclassman housing vs. underclassman housing; haven’t lived in senior housing here yet, and summer students didn’t get the best rooms.)</p>
<p>Princeton’s dorms are…fine? I mean, I think they’re nice enough for college dorms. I like my room just fine. No bug problems here. I think that relative to other schools I’ve seen, Princeton probably falls on the nicer side, but they’re still dorms.</p>
<p>Why would you want to live in a “moderne concrete river House” at Harvard? If I go to HYP, I want to be in an Ivy covered dorm.</p>
<p>^^^^then you deserve to be assigned 185 Little at Princeton</p>
<p>see whose dorm it used to belong to, together with a nice fireplace and plenty of ivy covered limestone on the outside…</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^hint:</p>
<p>“This Side of Paradise”</p>
<p>Aah Fitzgerald!
What a beautiful room that must be.</p>