<p>What are the best/worst houses at Harvard?</p>
<p>Adams House is the best. By far.</p>
<p>(Cough)...I'll have to respectfully disagree on that one just<em>forget</em>me...(cough...)
Lowell...cough...</p>
<p>With that said, Adams ain't shabby....certainly better than (cough) Dumpster...um...Dunster...but don't tell that to our Crimson-in-chief...</p>
<p>I remember KMM bashing on Dumpster over newstalk not too long ago.</p>
<p>Anyway, Lowell is a great house too, Bacchanalia was a lot of fun!</p>
<p>Each house differs in terms of what's good about it. Here's a few descriptions of some of my favorites and their pro's and cons (the 'used to be' descriptions refer to pre-randomization). </p>
<p>Adams is nice, has a great location, and pretty cool tradition, but the sophomore housing is sort of shabby, they don't do stein clubs, and the architecture (gothic) is sort of depressing to some people. Used to be the artsy house.</p>
<p>Kirkland is small with nice housing, another great location (right down the street from Nochs and Felipes), nice bright dining hall, and great house spirit, but again sophomore housing can be so-so and the house is mildly incestuous (winter formal is known as IncestFest). Used to be the jock house.</p>
<p>Eliot has great river views in some of the rooms and a very convenient gate right onto the JFK bridge, along with one of the best spring formals (Fete) and pretty sweet stein clubs. Along the same lines, there's relatively no house spirit (they don't even field teams for most IMs), sophomore and junior housing can be awful, and many entryways smell funky and have a pest problem b/c of the proximity to the river. Eliot used to be the preppy old-money house.</p>
<p>Mather is kind of a dark-horse cool house in my book. There's so many things wrong with them (they're located as far out on the river as you can get, they have an AWFUL looking building, etc, etc) but they also have some of the best house spirit on campus, their Masters are awesome, they throw really good parties (but stay away from Mather Lather) and they get singles all 3 years. That being said, the culture is a little fratty.</p>
<p>Those are just my tops, feel free to disagree. But as always; Dunster sucks.</p>
<p>can you pick which house you want to be in? or is it just assigned to you?</p>
<p>Obviously, Leverett is the best, whatever propaganda you may hear from other Houses. They just don't know how cool our Masters are (not to mention the river views).</p>
<p>Any comments, h-bomber style, on the Quad houses?</p>
<p>I got in as a transfer, but I won't be able to visit before I get there, and I was hoping they would let me have some influence over what house I am placed in. Thus, I am hoping for a House with a lot of socialization, tight-knit, looks nice overall, etc.</p>
<p>No...you have no choice. No one does. Just prey and hope you don't end up in Dunster.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Thus, I am hoping for a House with a lot of socialization, tight-knit, looks nice overall, etc.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>That would be Winthrop. And it's a nice river House to boot.</p>
<p>what are the names of all the residential colleges at Harvard?</p>
<p>They're called houses; not residential colleges. Only that ghetto school doesn in New Haven school does that.</p>
<p>Eliot, Winthrop, Kirkland, Lowell, Adams, Quincy, Leverett, Dunster, Mather, Pforzheimer, Cabot, Currier</p>
<p>D's new home ....</p>
<p>
[quote]
Although living in Jordan, Pfoho's overflow housing, can be isolating, I see it as the Ritz of Harvard. Its kitchenettes, cable TV, hardwood floors, and big singles make it well worth the walk to the house.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Is house allotment based on first come first serve basis? If not so, then does H College compile the whole pull and then distribute according to a lottery system. Does college make efforts to distribute students on the basis of the equal distribution among the houses? And try to match students on the basis of their interest?</p>
<p>For freshmen:</p>
<p>The Freshman Dean assigns students to Yard dorms (not called Houses) on the basis of their answers to questionnaires. My S was in a 5-person suite which had its own common room and shared a bathroom with a similar set up across the hallway. Six of the 10 decided to form a blocking group (maximum is 8) and entered the Housing Lottery together in March (?). They'll be together for the rest of their time at Harvard. You do not get to choose which House you will end up being at. Students used to be able to choose, but this led to self-segregation and typecasting (jocks in Eliot, artsy types in Adams, etc...). Each House has its own cafeteria, which means somewhat better food than at Annenberg, the freshman cafeteria.</p>
<p>Whats Pforzheimer house like?</p>
<p>The most likely place to get a single as a sophmore...</p>