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Survey Results Out!

The following are 8 Categories included in our Upperclassmen Survey about Housing.

For the first four questions, members of Harvard Houses were asked to rank 4 categories. 1. Their excitement about their Housing Day assignment, 2. How often they participate in house events, 3. The quality of their dining hall and food, and 3. Their room. The rankings are below.

Housing Day Excitement

Interesting that Kirkland takes first here. None of us can really explain it. Even our Kirklander can't make this one out, but he sure is grinning. Go ahead K-House, revel in your spotlight. Eliot at #2 is to be be expected as well as the quad babies bringing up the rear. Still, it's surprising to see Currier dead last.

Kirkland 94%
Eliot 90.8%
Lowell 89.4%
Quincy 86%
Adams 82%
Mather 79%
Winthrop 79%
Leverett 73%
Pfoho 73%
Dunster 70%
Cabot 65%
Currier 65%

House Events

This one isn't too much of a surprise. Kirkland is pretty well known for its close knit community (incest). Cabot? ouch.

Survey sneak peak

We sent out a survey to Upperclassmen about their housing experience and over 2000 students responded!!! We're releasing the results of that survey later tonight, and you won't wanna miss it. You'll find out some pretty interesting stuff like:

-Who's the Most Hated House at Harvard (It's a pretty huge margin)
-Who's the most adored?
-Which house has the most singles (the datable variety)
-Best DHall

Stay tuned for the results.

Stein Club!!!

FAQ:
Can I come to stein club if I'm underage?

Answer:
Definitely! All stein clubs (called happy hours in some houses) have non-alcoholic beverages and plenty of free food! Most are on a bi-weekly basis, but check your house open list. Often HoCos have special themes for holidays or random costume parties!

Q: Is the dining hall food really better in the Houses?

A: YES.

At least, that’s our humble opinion here at HarvardHousingDay.com. The fact is that all dining halls operate on the same system, more or less—you’ll find the same menu items, with only slight variations, in the House dining halls and in Annenberg. However, because Annenberg serves about 4,000 meals a day (according to the HUDS website), and the House dining halls many many fewer, the dining experience is generally less frenzied and ready-made-feeling than in the ‘Berg. Plus, you get to know your wonderful dining hall staff much better in the House environment-- and they are totally awesome. And the freedom gleaned from not mass-producing thousands of meals a day, makes the dining halls a much more pleasant option for most upperclassmen. As for the food itself being better, it really depends (on the dining hall, on the menu item, on the day)... you’ll just have to come try it for yourself!

Legacy Housing

We've received a few questions lately about whether housing assignments are affected by whether a person's parents lived in a particular house.

Question:

"It has been said that if the person entering information for your blocking group has a parent or parent(s) who were in a certain house, it is likely that the blocking group will end up in said house. Although this seems silly, I personally know at least a few examples of this. Assuming the people in these blocking groups had no other needs, can you say for sure that this was completely random? Thanks!"

Housing Day at the Noise

Our friends over at the Noise have been posting this year about housing day! See what they have to say at http://verynoice.com/tag/housing-day.

A Few Words About Floating

We got a few questions over the weekend about floating and thought we would try and answer them.

"Floating" is a sort of silly term that simply means you are entering the Housing Lottery as a single. Because the blocking process is only associated with house assignment and not rooming assignment, the chances of getting into a specific house are equal, whether you're with seven other people or by yourself. Freshmen entering the Housing Lottery by themselves may not Link with another blocking group (i.e. you can't "float" to solve a 9-person blocking conundrum). Individual rooming situations will not occur until after the Housing Lottery, and vary by house, year, and rooming configurations available within a given house. For example, in Leverett House a group could enter the sophomore lottery with a group of five, but not six or seven...but seniors can have groups of up to seven. Freshmen will hear from their individual house administrators after Housing Day as to how rooming works.

Five Simple Ways to Avoid Blocking Drama

1. Talk early... Got issues with your blockies? Talk about them before they get to be huge problems. This means using all those confrontation-management skills you learned in middle school wellness—“I-statements,” deep breaths, and all. Talk about the problem privately, calmly, and rationally—and don’t be afraid to compromise.

10 Things to Do Before the End of Freshman Year

As Housing Day nears and people start referring to you as a “rising sophomore,” you might be thinking about all the things you should have done during freshman year. No worries, you still have until June to complete your freshman year bucket list. HarvardHousingday suggests the following:

1) Meet Drew Faust at one of the freshman only study breaks in Annenberg during reading period. Nothing says awesome like a myspace style photo with Harvard’s president.
2) Complete two of the three things to do before you graduate. When else are you close enough to desecrate the college’s namesake?

Best-Worst House Debate

Housing day … the rite of spring that marks the ultimate coming of age; the Harvard tradition that inspires more pride, prejudice and tomfoolery than any other; the seminal moment of young Harvard students’ careers – the moment boys become men, girls become women, and the answer to the millennia-old question finally becomes known:

Oh crap, have I been quadded?

The Quad Versus the River

We shook in our boots on housing day when we heard the Cabot delegation stop outside our freshman entryway. “River Run” is not called “Upperclassmen House Run” for a reason. Yet inevitably, some of you will end up in the quad. Before you panic and cry (or while you are panicking and crying) take a look at the following list. There are advantages and disadvantages to both the river and the quad, something you’ll realize if you take a step back and think critically about both.