starburst1191

When (if ever) do we find out what the yield was for this year? Just curious to know!

Moderator Note:On the thread originally started by starburst1191 re yield, a number of questions arose, with ensuing discussion, about housing implications of possible high yields. At the request of some posters, I have created a separate thread to continue that discussion. The original 2012 Yield thread remains. I have done some removal of irrelevant posts on each thread, to try to keep each to its own topic. I hope this is helpful. - Moderator Andale

Jen98

I'm hoping that they either nailed it or overshot. It the yield is higher than expected, then they'll be trying to stick five freshmen in each of the single dorms.

Yeah, I'd prefer that they take a minor blow to yield so that I don't have to share a bed. Does that make me selfish? >.>

guitars101

Jen,

Can you please explain? I'm not sure I understand. My son is a going to be a new freshman next year. We thought that 5 students to a suite was the limit. Can there be more? I'm sure you don't share a bed, maybe a room, but not a bed.

MSMDAD

guitars101, This is kind of off-topic, but you do know that many, if not most, H frosh sleep in bunk beds?

Jen98

Sorry, I didn't mean for that last post to be ambiguous. Also, that post was meant to be read with as much sarcasm as possible. I wasn't serious.

When I said that they'd be trying to stick five freshmen in the single dorms, I really did mean single dorms, as in dorms built for a single person. There have been concerns about a housing crunch at Harvard, which is the reason why they stopped transfer admissions for a few years, so if their yield is higher than they expected it to be, then they'll have to find somewhere to put the extra freshmen. So putting five people in a room meant for one person is obviously exaggerating, but it gets the point across.

(BTW, I'm an incoming freshman as well, so this is all as new to me as to you.)

Edit: Oh, and when I filled out the housing application form, you could request between 0 and 5 roommates, which means that they must have accommodations for up to six people in a suite.

guitars101

msdad,

No, I didn't know about the freshman housing. It wasn't clear when we visited the campus. Can you please explain more.

Thanks

MSMDAD

guitars101, I will use my DD's room as an example: There are a total of 5 people in her room (suite). The suite has three bedrooms, a common area, and the bathroom is outside - down the hall. The bedrooms are fairly small and can only comfortably accommodate bunk beds. Hence, she sleeps on the bottom bunk and her roomie on the top bunk. Of the five roomies, four sleep using this arrangement, and the other one has a room to herself - they decided this at the beginning of the year. Incidentally, each student has a dresser, chest of drawers, desk and bookcase. The arrangement that DD and her roomies use is that the desks and bookcases are situated in the common area, and the drawers and dressers are in the bedrooms. Needless to say, there is not a lot of room left for other things - they did manage, though, to put a futon in the common area. From what I understand, what I have described is not atypical for frosh housing at H.

Contrary to others on CC who rave about frosh housing at H, I have to tell you that I was taken aback by how small the rooms were. Other colleges that we visited have larger rooms. Before I get flamed, I will acknowledge that the dorms have a lot of "character" - nice wooden floors - and history - JFK lived in DD's dorm.

Please let me know if you have any other questions, and congrats on your son's acceptance to H.

mom2319

MSMDAD, thank you for sharing your DD's experience with freshman dorms. Are suites the most common type for freshman housing? What are the other types of housing arrangement? Has your DD commented on the pros and cons of each arrangement? I kind of like the idea of having a 5 person dorm. This way, you will have chance connecting with more people.

DocT

The suites in Canaday also had 5 students in three bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms had bunkbeds and were incredibly small. I was not impressed by the living conditions. It gets a lot better for upperclassmen though.

MSMDAD

mom2319, Good questions! I am going to alert the moderators to see if the part of this thread that deals with housing can be moved to another separate thread. It would be helpful for actual students to respond and I am not sure if they are reading this, given the title of this thread.

In any case, yes, suites are the most common type of housing at H for frosh. There are variations on the number of rooms and people per suite, though. H did a wonderful job at matching DD with her roomies - they have all become very close and will be living together again next year (if everything goes OK with the housing request that they made). She would agree that having five roomies was a good thing - and they are all from different parts of the country/world - for the same reason that you mentioned in your post.

DocT, I have seen the suites in Canaday and I agree that they are shockingly small.

twinmom

My daughter's freshman room was so small that all it could fit was one bunk bed. They had their desks, dressers, and shared closet in the common room.

They were none the worse for wear though, and upperclass housing is indeed much better.

guitars101

msdad and everyone,

Thanks for all your help! I really appreciate it I'm a bit surprised at how small the rooms seem to be. Is there a website with pictures of the rooms? I guess it's a good idea then not to bring much on move-in weekend.

doctordestiny

^From what I gather, bringing on the essentials and not much more is key. Most people can bring additional stuff if they go home for Thanksgiving Break, if they need anything. It doesn't seem to pay to have too much extra clutter.

twinmom

Some of the rooms are quite large! There's just no way to know what your kid will be assigned.

nceph

Here's a link to some information about the freshman dorms. Once you go to this website, if you click on the individual buildings, it will bring you to a page about that dorm, including information about room size and layout.

Frosh Dorms Project: Graphical Map

(if this duplicates something already posted, my apologies)