I’ve heard that freshmen are sorted into houses/yards for their first year at Harvard. Is the housing random, or is it based off of a survey? Also, I’ve heard that Harvard has themed housing like the jock house, the technology house, the LGBT house, etc. Are those open to sophomores, or just upperclassmen?
Harvard freshman are “sorted” into dorms on a completely random basis by the Freshman Dean’s Office. Incoming freshman fill out housing questionnaires, which the FDO uses to match student’s together as freshman roommates. Sometimes the FDO’s office assigns roommates by random things. For example, freshman year my daughter and her roommates found out they had initially been grouped together because they all lived on different streets having something to do with water – Beach Street, Seagate Lane, Ocean View etc. See: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/8/12/freshman-roommates-meet-your-makers-it/?page=single
FWIW: Harvard does NOT have themed housing like “The jock house, the technology house, the LGBT house etc” – you heard wrong. Every freshman dorm – and the uppercases houses – contains an assortment of athletes, techno geeks and members of the LGBT community and are also randomly assigned. For an explanation of how freshman get sorted into their houses for sophomores year, see: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/hear-our-students/student-blog/housing-day-explained
I think the only “random” process is dividing the students into the 4 yards - Crimson, Em, Ivy, & Oak. After that, the Freshman dean for each yard matches up the suitemates. It generally won;t be obvious why particular groups were put together, but it makes for some fun the first night or two trying to guess.
Back in the day before the magma cooled, and before the upperclass house selection process was randomized, each house did have a “reputation.” Kirkland was the jock house, Adams was the artsy house, etc. Now each house just has its own little subset of “quirks” which will vary year-on-year.
Harvard absolutely does not have “themed” housing, whether for freshmen or anyone else. However, this isn’t a complete fiction, because it used to. Many years ago, there were distinct differences between many of the houses. Eliot was the “preppy” house, Dunster was the “artsy” house, etc. However, Harvard now uses a combination of questionnaires and randomization to ensure this never happens.
The House populations can develop a certain character – usually based upon the vocal or visible block within that house. But it changes year to year. Kind of like in your HS where the Junior class might be generalized as X whereas the Sophomores are Y and the Seniors are Z.
They’re only generalizations and the houses do a great job of mixing in everyone whether they fit the generalization or not. This isn’t Hogwarts – hahaha