<p>Looking for dorms for freshman year at MIT. We have nearly no financial aid so we'll be on a tight budget and I'll have to pick one of the cheaper dorms that doesn't require a meal plan.</p>
<p>Also, I'm trying to room with a friend of mine who has the same interests as mine (tournament Scrabble). He prefers East Campus out of those three. For me, I don't mind East Campus at all, but Random Hall is also an option b/c it's smaller, and closer to Central Square. However it seems like East Campus is much closer to a T stop than Random, and closer to classrooms. Location-wise, East Campus is probably better.</p>
<p>I'll probably go with East Campus as my top choice. Any CC'ers have input on those two halls (or even Bexley)? Thanks!</p>
<p>You should wait until you get the guide to residences and can watch all of the i3s. All of the dorms have different personalities, and picking one based on its proximity to public transit above all else is a recipe for a terrible freshman year.</p>
<p>MIT’s housing system gives you the unique opportunity to explore a bunch of different places and pick one that fits your personality. I met many of my best friends by living in the same dorm as them. Don’t squander that opportunity because you don’t want to walk more than 5 minutes to get to a T stop.</p>
<p>Public transit’s just one of the factors…of course I’ll consider “personality,” cost, size, and whether a meal plan is req’d. Because we have nearly no financial aid, Bexley, Random, and East Campus are the top three choices (in some order). Idk about the fourth choice yet.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely look around for the i3’s. Thanks!</p>
<p>I definitely second k4r3n2. MIT dorm culture is phenomenally cool and rests on the idea that we actively seek out communities that we can call home. It is unique compared to other universities in that you form bonds with upperclassmen as well as frosh. It fosters a sense of individuality and community responsibility/autonomy. It is just awesome. It is really not about amenities; it’s about community.</p>
<p>It seems like you picked these dorms because they are the cheapest place to have a double. Things you should know about them - they are all considered part of the greater “East Side,” (along with Senior Haus) which means they are generally quirkier and more oddball than what you may be expecting. People in these dorms like to make stuff, hack stuff, and paint crazy murals. They have cats and some halls allow smoking. IMHO this is awesome, but some people expecting traditional dorm life find it scary or off-putting.</p>
<p>And you can also look at prior years. You might additionally have a look at last year’s uncensored version of the Bexley i3 vid, which is on youtube! </p>
<p>3) Participate in Dorm Rush/REX! This is when all frosh go around during orientation to the various parties/events thrown at each dorm. At the end, they decide where they want to live. You can stay where you were temped, or you can usually move if you find somewhere that fits you better.</p>
<p>4) Consider rushing an ILG. They are awesome smaller communities (~30) which are fantastically cool for many reasons (you run your own house!). Because you are cost-conscious, consider pika or Student House - they are much, much cheaper than dorm options, usually including food plus room for less than just room costs on campus.</p>
<p>Also I want to add - I don’t want you to feel bad about considering cost in your choice, and I hope it doesn’t seem like I implied that. I was very, very poor when at MIT and completely understand your thoughts. I have been dismayed to see MIT move towards expensive dorms with expensive dining plans (the $4500 required, gold-plated, freshman meal plans are a new thing that most students are very unhappy about for a variety of reasons, including cost). </p>
<p>That said, MIT is already so expensive, and where you live is a vital part of your education. It may be worth considering, for example, the $3,525 price point (Burton, MacGregor, New, and Senior - excluding Next House because it has mandatory dining) as well as the $3,147 price point, to expand your options. The marginal increase of a few hundred dollars a semester is so small compared to the rest of your education that it may be worth it to get it right in terms of where you will be happy, productive, and learn the most.</p>
<p>That said, again, I think that Random, Bexley, and EC are fantastic. But they aren’t for everyone.</p>
<p>This is really good advice. I know that $400 seems like a lot of money right now, but when you consider what you’ll be making when you graduate it’s really not that big of a deal. In addition, I have an on-campus job that pays me way more than $400 a semester, so if your parents want you to foot the difference, that’s definitely possible.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for the input everyone. I’m also considering the “mid-range” dorms that don’t require a meal plan (I get sick of dorm food after a couple weeks…lol). True, a margin of $800 a year is relatively small, considering I might only live on campus for one year.</p>
<p>Right now, I’m still leaning a little towards East Campus, but we’ll see once the housing lottery opens…</p>
<p>Just wanted to let you know my son got his Residence Guide & DVD in the mail today (we’re in the midwest) so yours should be there hopefully within the next few days!</p>
<p>Buried in the fine print you will also find that if you are placed in a dorm that has binding RBA, you are not allowed to participate in the adjustment lottery. In other words, you will not have the opportunity to rush/explore the other dorms at the beginning of the year with your classmates, and if you decide another dorm is a better fit once you arrive, you have to wait until sophomore year to move.</p>
<p>@kelin - they’re no longer doing the rush/housing adjustment lottery starting with this class. Actually, they kind of are, but it will be “opt in” rather than “opt out”. Meaning that the Rex activities will be geared towards getting to know your dorm and classmates, rather than exploring other dorms and only if you request to move will they try to accommodate it. Otherwise, the dorm assignments given in July will be final, while the rooms will still change after Rex. So it won’t be as big of a difference as in the past.</p>
<p>sbj - my understanding in the past was that McCormick and Maseeh were binding. Next allowed you to participate in the reassignment prior to classes to starting, but once the year started, you couldn’t change until the following year (instead of at the semester like all other dorms). I don’t know about the other RBA dorms like Spanish House/Chocolate City as far as binding but I think McCormick & Maseeh are the main two.</p>
<p>^ That’s not really the case, at least not that current students have been told. Before, everyone had to fill out a housing assignment form (either to confirm your temp assignment or to get a new one) - now, you only need to fill out the form if you want to switch dorms.</p>
<p>@marciemi - Incoming students technically will have the same rights under the changes that are being made to the adjustment lottery and REX as they have in prior years - the lottery will still exist, students can still rush dorms during REX, and they can still move after that period if they find a place they like better, unless they live in a binding RBA dorm. Therefore what I said about binding RBA and its disadvantages is still correct. </p>
<p>What is changing most notably is the administration’s official line on what REX and the adjustment lottery actually <em>are for,</em> and more bizarrely, their notion of history in terms of what REX was in the past (despite zillions of Tech articles, MITadmissions.org blog posts, etc. to the contrary). They are trying to convince people that “Residence Exploration and Selection”, aka REX, has always been “Residence Exploration” only, and that they are returning REX to its ‘original goals’ of ‘exploration,’ ‘community building,’ and ‘welcoming’ students to campus - i.e. exactly what you wrote in your comment. </p>
<p>But, the MIT community does not have to go along with changes in verbiage and revision of history according to the administration line simply because they would prefer us to. Dorm rush has existed for decades - I believe since the 40’s. The administration has realized that if they do away with REX directly, they will face significant backlash from alumni and students who love it (it has been continually shown through surveys to be extremely popular and students’ favorite part of orientation). So instead they are slowly changing various minor details and trying to dilute/change what people perceive REX to be.</p>
<p>But, if students choose to continue to emphasize the importance of strong living groups and communities, it will help forestall the death of a tradition that has been instrumental in creating one of the most vital, exciting, and innovative geek cultures on the planet.</p>
<p>This is all very confusing to me as someone who doesn’t have any experience with either “rushing” or MIT and its history. Don’t students just want to find a dorm that’s a good fit and a roommate that’s a good fit? I thought that’s why they filled out the questionnaire. Or, doesn’t MIT really listen to what they say is important to them?</p>
<p>In my very limited dorm experience, I didn’t have any choice of a roommate and it was not a good fit. Once I moved off campus with a friend, we roommates until I got married. We had a lot in common and respected our differences. It was win-win. So, I guess as a parent who didn’t have a good dorm experience, I’m cautious about this whole process.</p>
<p>The disconnect between students and the administration is that students want to retain the ability to choose their dorms and roommates, and to shape unique dorm cultures in each dorm. The administration would like nothing better than to have randomized housing, where there is no unique culture in any dorm and roommates are randomly assorted. There are several reasons for this, among them 1) that MIT’s housing system is unusual among top schools, and therefore immediately suspect as weird and anachronistic, 2) that admins read “unique culture” as “self-segregation” and want to force diversity/tolerance, and 3) that MIT alums routinely report stronger loyalties to their living groups than to, e.g., their graduating classes, and admins see this as somehow dangerous.</p>
<p>This is a long-standing battle between students and the administration, and it’s one on which students are slowly but surely losing ground. For a bit more history, my class (2006) was the first required to live on campus freshman year, and thus the first to experience “REX”. Prior to my year, rush was campus-wide – freshmen could choose to live in any of the dorms, or to rush a fraternity/sorority, or to join an independent living group. The administration used the 1997 death of a freshman fraternity pledge, Scott Kreuger, to end campus-wide rush and require freshmen to live in the dorms, ostensibly because the fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups were too far outside MIT control.</p>
<p>Sorry if this is more history than you wanted. This is an incredibly deep issue for most MIT students and alums.</p>
<p>Mollie, this was <em>not</em> more history than I wanted; on the contrary, you explained things very clearly and concisely and helped me to understand what the issue is.</p>
<p>One question: who are “the administration”? I’m very sorry to hear students are losing ground. From where I sit with my particular child, I can easily see MIT wanting to force diversity/tolerance for fear of “self-segregation”, but if they would step back a bit, they would see that what makes many top students want to come to MIT is the ability to be with “your kind”, whatever that means to you, but <em>not</em> to the exclusion of others.</p>
<p>My son defies stereotypes in so many ways and I am sure he has very strong opinions about where he wants to live, who he wants to live with, and why he wants to live there. We, as parents, certainly support his choices since we are helping to fund his education. He chose to attend MIT over lots of other good options and we want to be happy about his choice.</p>
This is an incredibly deep issue for most MIT students and alums.</p>