<p>Housing Day is also the largest outpouring of school spirit you will see at Harvard this side of a Yale football game. That morning all of Houses send delegations with signs, costumes, banners, bullhorns, and painted faces to Annenberg to loudly and energetically welcome in the freshmen to their new Houses.</p>
<p>So weird a River House was my first choice back in the dayā¦ The difference in distance is negligibleā¦</p>
<p>^ ^ All depends which house youāre in!</p>
<p>My daughter loved first semester. She is planning on blocking with 2 of her 5 roommates and two other girls in the same building. They would like to block with a couple guy friends, but the guys are much less sure of what they want to do. They have heard all groups end up liking where they live even if they are in the dorms further out, so that doesnāt appear to be an issue. Yes rush is going on now, but the girls donāt live in sororities they just belong to them, so it doesnāt affect blocking at all. Given the friends my daughter has made this semester, it doesnāt appear belonging to a sorority is necessary and the fees can be expensive to join.</p>
<p>Are any freshman doing summer programs this year? If so, what are you thinnking about?</p>
<p>I didnāt realize what drama was going on with blocking until I spoke with my daughter today. Apparently the boys are going through the most angst. Some of them want to dictate who lives with them and thatās preventing other friends from blocking at least with one other guy they like. Daughter seems happy with her four friends but apparently they are all staying up late at night talking about all the drama others are going through. Who would think? Ha ha.</p>
<p>I was just looking on this thread out of curiosity, butā¦</p>
<p>How does myohmy have a 99 post count in three different posts?</p>
<p>ā¦</p>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>As Twinmom explained, itās important to remind the students that they will not necessarily be rooming with their blocking groups. The dorm configurations are all so different, that some people are placed in rooms far away but in the same House as blocking mates. They will at least see each other often in the dining hall.</p>
<p>The Houses offer outings in the September for all the new sophomores in each House, the first week back. These one day trips are a great way for them to interact with the other new residents, I would encourage your Ds & Ss to sign up.</p>
<p>^^They will be rooming with SOME of their blockmates, but it is unlikely that they will be rooming with ALL of their blockmates. Barring some oddball circumstance, you wonāt normally be rooming with someone you didnāt even block with. A typical scenario would be a blocking group of say 8 kids ends up assigned to two different suites of four roommates each.</p>
<p>Parents - Please allow me to take a moment out of the blocking group discussion to introduce the prolific Collegehopefull who is a regular contributor to other threads on the H board, and is fully aware that hopeful ordinarily has one āLā. He has a very entertaining capacity to look at things that other people see and notice not only the āthingsā but the gaps between them - post counts, for instance. I noticed a while back that oneās post counts continually change on their posts to reflect not the count at the time they posted, but their current count. Thatās sort of a shame, because Iād like to be able to look back and see something that Iād posted when I had a low post count and say āGee, what a noob I was back then!ā But, I guess thatās what the dates are for on posts. So, this post will be # 2,161 for me, but it will keep increasing as I post on this thread and others.</p>
<p>Just thought I would change the subject to MOVING OUT at the end of the year. I understand students can store some of their belongings at their houses next year so they donāt have to move everything home over the summer. Is this true? If so what are the limits on what can stay and how do you go about arranging this? Thanks.</p>
<p>^ Thanks GAdad.</p>
<p>Moving out is of interest to me too, actually. My brother has had to move everything out of his dorm at the end of each year (not at Harvard)ā¦</p>
<p>my brother had kept his stuff in the squash courts in the basement of his house (at harvard). which they allow for everyone in that respective house ā iām sure they have something like that in other houses.</p>
<p>You can store things and Iām sure thereās a limit, but I donāt know what that limit is. Since the houses donāt have identical designs, Iād guess that itās different for each house.</p>
<p>thatās truth.</p>
<p>DS and his suite-mates have been storing some furniture in addition to boxes of personal stuff, so I would guess the limits are fairly generous.</p>
<p>Back to the housing for upperclassmen (and women) ā¦ every house does it differently once the blocking groups have been assigned. Some have you fill out roommate request forms. Some (if not all) do not let sophs request specific suites. It all works out though ā¦ not to worry!</p>
<p>Does the size of the blocking group have an impact on house assignments? How does linking affect this? As you may suspect, rumors are flying. </p>
<p>On a positive note, as other parents have mentioned, the hardest part of this process seems to be choosing blocking mates and linking groups from the large number of close friends our kids have made in less than a year. </p>
<p>As another testimony to the great work of the FDO/Residence Life in selecting freshman roommates, my son and his roommates are the core of his blocking group for next year. All are making sure that the additions and linking groups are fine all four.</p>
<p>reflectivemom - No one really knows the answer to this. Linking guarantees that the linked group is in the āneighborhoodā ā¦ (As I recall, three houses make a neighborhood) but the linked group wonāt be in the same house. The kids should just block and link with their friends and theyāll wind up happy that they are nearby one another, wherever they are.</p>