<p>On the MIT website one of the student bloggers posted pictures of some nearby dorm rooms and corridors; every room and common space was completely trashed, and every hallway was covered with drawings. Overall it looked dirty and prison-like. Is the residential system something to be concerned about?</p>
<p>Housing staff does clean the common areas at least occasionally, but they generally are pretty messy -- after all, a bunch of college students are the people who use them all the time. If this bothers you, you're free to be the common area cleanup person on your floor.</p>
<p>Some dorms have hallway murals, others don't. The people in dorms with hallway murals tend to like their murals and treat them as part of the dorm's history.</p>
<p>MIT's housing choice system makes it possible for you to select a dorm based on any criteria you choose. I think it would be really unfortunate if you chose a dorm based on cleanliness and lack of hallway murals rather than resident culture and dorm personality, but, hey, it's up to you.</p>
<p>It was probably one of the dorms, but some like Simmons look kind of like a hotel, it's pretty nice. Some like Senior House have murals <em>cough</em> graffiti <em>cough</em> on the walls. But yeah, theres variety here :)</p>
<p>Ehh, I was at Simmons for a summer, and I can tell you that it isn't a hotel at all. The walls between the bedrooms are remarkably thin, which means you'd have to resort to other places to do your thang. Like exercise rooms.</p>
<p>At Senior Haus you can have sex in the halls and no one cares.</p>
<p>At Senior House, you can have sex on the murals and no one cares.</p>
<p>At Senior House, people have sex all the time. Lots of illicit sex. On our filthy-floored hallways and ugly-muraled walls.</p>
<p>And we're very loud doing it.</p>
<p>At Senior House.</p>
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On the MIT website one of the student bloggers posted pictures of some nearby dorm rooms and corridors; every room and common space was completely trashed, and every hallway was covered with drawings. Overall it looked dirty and prison-like.
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<p>The main campus buildings are clean and mural free. When I want some of that I go into one of those buildings and just stare at the walls.</p>
<p>No but seriously these murals are jewels of art. You have to come see them to understand why they are so awesome.</p>
<p>Wow, none of you guys are being very reassuring. mcstdnt, don't worry - the pictures you saw were probably from one of the dorms on the east side of campus (East Campus, Senior House, or Random) - there are plenty of people who live there and are perfectly happy there, but if you prefer a cleaner/quieter dorm, there are plenty of choices on West Campus which look nothing like what you described. If you go to the MIT housing website: <a href="http://web.mit.edu/housing/undergrad/residences.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/housing/undergrad/residences.html</a>, you can see pictures of many of the dorms.</p>
<p>And don't worry about getting stuck in a dorm you don't like, either - MIT's housing system virtually guarantee's that you will be placed in one of your top 3 dorm choices (a few people each year might get their 4th or 5th choice, but even that is rare) - so when the housing lottery comes around, just rank the dorms you don't like at the bottom of your list and you'll have nothing to worry about.</p>