Does anyone want to share their impressions of various dorms? The CD was not as helpful for ranking the dorms as one might hope. Even stereotypes and sweeping generalizations would be helpful.
I'll start.... I have no personal knowledge of any of the dorms. But my son knows a bunch of people in Random, and I attended the housemaster's reception for parents during CPW. Some sweeping generalizations about Random would be that it has a reputation as a nerd dorm, in part because of a very high concentration of math majors. Many of them were involved in very high levels of math or science competitions in high school (like olympiads), or attended special math summer prgrams, and already know each other when they arrive. A number of freshmen choose Random every year specifically to be with other people they already know from those activities, which makes it kind of self-perpetuating. Obviously there are freshmen who choose Random for more general reasons, also (like rooms, location, etc.). But I know that at least some choose it for this particular reason (perhaps contributing to the "nerd" reputation). I am guessing that it is probably also a pretty straight crowd in terms of recreational substances.
There's no food service there, which could be either a plus or a minus. There are kitchens on the floor, and Randomites do their own cooking. There's a grocery store on the next block.
I'll share some general impressions/stereotypes, but keep in mind that they are indeed just general impressions/stereotypes.
The above description of Random is pretty true. People at Random take lots of classes, speak sort of weird (this is somewhat true of all the east side dorms), don't really party or do lots of extracurriculars.
EC is run down and isn't physically great, but this means that students can basically do whatever they want to their living quarters (paint, build stuff, etc). It's a very high energy place and people are up at all hours of the day.
Senior Haus is newly renovated, and it has a rather alternative atmosphere. It's very much a do-your-own-thing type place. It's also pretty big on drugs. And it's next to the president's house.
Those are the east side dorms (excluding Bexley, which is debatable), and I'll write about the rest some other time. Overall, the east campus dorms are more stereotypically "nerdy" and are less involved in formal student activities, more involved in doing random stuff on their own.
You might want to read this article in the May 10 edition of The Tech. It's on the bottom right of page 1. It's about upperclassmen wanting to change dorms. http://www-tech.mit.edu/
did anyone else get nauseous watching the baker + bc videos? i didn't even watch them in a row - bexley's in between the two alphabetically, and i don't consider myself to have a weak stomach... but something about the sped-up bouncing of the walking cameraman was just ugh
With regard to EC, it's supposedly very different depending on the floor you live on. I don't actually know which floor is what except that 5E isn't "normal".
i feel like it would be unfair to only mention some of the dorms. general stereotypes of the others -
mccormick - all girls, nice facilities, really convenient.
baker - more "social" (I don't really know what that means either). They have really good stirfry at Baker Dining.
BC, New, Next - they're similar enough to each other to be mentioned simultaneously - people are very friendly in general, people like to complain about far Next/New house is.
MacGregor - all singles, thus supposedly more "antisocial" although it again depends on the floor.
Simmons - quiet, new, more isolating.
Bexley - they have a little "antirush" at the beginning of the year to scare off freshmen. Bexley is supposedly east campus in terms of culture, but the people I know there wouldn't fit the stereotype.
and please also consider the FSILGs because they are certainly another viable option and are probably not what you expect.
someone help - why's it that when I try to get to websites like applying for FAS and the HASS lottery, it keeps saying "your client is forbidden to this server" when I've tried getting stuff like my ID and personal certificates already?
