<p>eisen, my post was probably more driven by frustration with the culture, not with you. It is unfortunate that you found yourself in an environment you were uncomfortable with. Incidentally, I was in the same house you were in (I’m guessing) for my rotation when I was a prefrosh, and I hated that house at the time (but for different reasons). Now I don’t mind it at all. </p>
<p>As for your comment regarding the rotation rules, I totally sympathize. It would not be a violation of rotation rules to say something like “I think that drinking is a more prevalent part of this house’s culture” but it can run very close to being one. For example, if you said this without personally knowing it to be true, you could be perpetuating a stereotype, which wouldn’t be fair to the house in question. For most people, it’s easier to say less than to stress about actually making sure their statements are either a) completely factual or b) clearly stated opinion. There’s also the idea that we want you to discover the houses on your own. That’s why during prefrosh weekend there were numerous different events hosted by all of the different houses. </p>
<p>Finally, you said, “Keep in mind that a negative reaction to one house can turn a student off to the entire school, so they may never come back and discover that there were many houses they could have enjoyed.” Yes, but we have found that the flip side is worse. If you discover yourself that you don’t like an environment, you’re most likely going to leave it and search for a different environment. We do our best doing prefrosh weekend to expose you to all our different environments (although this is very hard given the time requirements). In other words, this is often (as in your case) self correcting.</p>
<p>Now, if rotation rules are not in effect, we could easily bias some students against a house so strongly that you might avoid that house for years after rotation. I’ve seen it happen even WITH rotation rules in effect (not everyone follows them 100%, but most of us try to). In other words, it’s not nearly as self-correcting as the other case.</p>