<p>I hear New House is horrible (just kidding, my D wants it too, and the less people that want it, the easier for her to get in).</p>
<p>Hey there! I’m a current student living in New House – I saw this thread and wanted to add some of my experiences. It’s really awesome here – well of course everyone will have different things they look for in/find awesome about a dorm – but some perks about New House:</p>
<p>-No dining plan
-Huge rooms (for a while, I lived in a 170+ sq foot room – and this was a single!) nice views too.
-Lots of kitchens, each with multiple stoves and ovens and a big fridge, so you’ll never have to wait in line to cook
-almost “suite-style” zig-zaggy room arrangement, so people living in a floor can get really tight if they want
-Almost all singles, so you’re almost guaranteed a single if you want one. MacGregor boasts their 99% singles, but we have nearly as many!</p>
<p>I live in Desmond (House 5). I really like it here. Specific things I find really nice about Desmond is that I can study and sleep on a quiet floor and in 15 seconds walk downstairs to the big lounge where people are always hanging out most hours of the day and just talk or chill. We have lots of video games, for people who like video games, and we have karaoke for people who like singing and we have study breaks each week and finals dinners and lots of times people will try to host get-togethers/outings to restaurants or other fun places. People form cooking groups and help each other with psets all the time – as long as you want to be a part of the community, you can find a place here. </p>
<p>If you have any specific questions about New House, feel free to ask me here or by PM. And if you’re an entering freshman, definitely feel free to visit come pre-orientation! I’ll be back pretty early and plan to be around REX as much as possible.</p>
<p>a22623 - I sure hope you chose MIT because your post sounds like it’s what you really want. I know it’s after the fact but my daughter is a current MIT sophomore and was just offered an internship for the summer in Silicon Valley. It happens.</p>
<p>high school junior here. not your targeted audience but.
just a shout out to those MIT students/alums who are so down to earth and willing to talk to me about all kinds of random stuff when I visited/stayed overnight! 
Everybody is so welcoming.
It’s awesome when I realized those seemingly/stereotypically “MIT math nerds” were funny and genuine. I would probably never forget my time spent at MacGregor cooking, Random Hall and EC cuddling with cats lol</p>
<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>Although I’ve already decided I’ll be attending, I thought I’d use this thread to ask a few questions about housing. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is there any correlation between residence hall and major? Would there be any way to find out which house hosts a plurality of computer science majors, or at least a ratio that is higher than the campus-wide ratio?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there any particular residence hall that is known to have a comparatively stronger culture of collaboration and entrepreneurship among its residents?</p></li>
<li><p>Does that fact that East Campus is closer to classes necessarily imply that it hosts students who are more academically focused?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would like collaboration (both curricular and extra-curricular) with other students to be a big part of my experience at MIT. I’m also pretty certain I would like to buy a meal plan.</p>
<p>So far I have my eyes on Simmons, Next House, and East Campus, but for all I know I could be way off base in picking these, so I’m hoping someone may be able to provide some insight that could help me out. Thanks ahead of time!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I think EC and Random might have more math majors than average and those dorms along with Senior Haus probably have less business and econ majors than average. EECS is such a popular major that every dorm will have lots of other EECS majors though.</p></li>
<li><p>Not sure.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t think so. All of the dorms are close enough to campus that it doesn’t really matter although living in the very furthest dorms may be slightly inconvenient.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>East Campus is pretty far from any of the dining halls so that may not be the most convenient choice if you are sure that you want a meal plan. You might want to also consider Baker which is pretty social.</p>
<p>
Oh okay, I somehow thought that the dining halls were in each house. Or is that just the case for houses with mandatory meal plans?</p>
<p>
Thanks, I’ll check them out too.</p>
<p>Yeah there are only dining halls in the dorms with mandatory meal plans (Maseeh, Baker, McCormick, Simmons, Next). Some of the other dorms like Macgregor may have rooms called dining halls but those are non-operational. The other West Campus dorms are all reasonably close to a dining hall as well.</p>
<p>^^ Thanks for your input. Now that I think about it, Maseeh is pretty appealing, too.</p>
<p>What advice can you offer for an incoming non-traditional transfer student who will be living off-campus? How can I maximize the MIT experience despite being older, living elsewhere, and not starting as a freshman?</p>
<p>All non-dining dorms however have passable kitchens, so it’s not like you’re going to starve.</p>
<p>(~Randomite who fled the dining plan after a semester)</p>