Harvard College

Alert: Housing Day Challenge

The Housing Day Challenge is this Friday, March 27. Learn more about how to support your Harvard house directly!

Last Updated: March 23, 10:26am

A Tradition Like No Other

Discover Your House and Community

Housing Day Has Arrived!

When Houses Become Homes

Housing Day
Friday, March 27, 2026

Start Your Journey

Bronze seated statue wearing a colorful scarf overlooks a large crowd of students holding college house banners and flags.

Housing Day Spirit Week

The excitement builds all week long! The Dean of Students Office, residential staff, House Committees, and student groups celebrate Housing Day with a week full of activities leading up to Friday morning.

All About Housing Day

Life in the Houses

Life in the Houses is at the heart of the Harvard College experience. Each House is a close-knit community where students live, gather, celebrate traditions, and build lasting friendships.

The Houses

Photobook

Students march through campus holding signs, including one that reads “WELCOME QUOME,” during a festive outdoor event.

Students gathered outside on a campus lawn, hugging and cheering in a crowded celebration.

Five students in Harvard gear pose together outdoors, one holding a “Winthrop” house sign.

Young woman in a red hoodie and reindeer antlers cheering with her fist raised in a festive crowd outdoors.

Group of students in green and white shirts cheer indoors, holding handmade tree-themed signs.

Two students in winter coats laugh and hold hands while celebrating outside on campus.

Crowd of students in blue clothing and face paint cheer, holding a vertical “LOWELL” sign.

Students laugh and high-five a lion mascot holding a “Dudley” sign in a campus yard.

Excited students crowd a hallway, smiling and cheering around an “Adams” House sign.

Student Stories

Housing Day 2024: First-Year POV

We were woken up by chanting from upperclassmen from each of the twelve houses as they gathered in Harvard Yard to storm our dorms.

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Housing Day! Pros & Cons of Overflow Housing

One of the biggest traditions at Harvard is Housing Day - the day you get placed into the upperclass house during your last years at Harvard.

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The Introvert's Guide to Harvard: Housing Day

For most students here at the College, Housing Day is the pinnacle of their first year. For me, it was the day I was dreading the most.

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Harvard Housing Day

As a first year in the vibrant Harvard community, your Housing Day experience will be nothing short of magical, filled with anticipation, excitement, and the thrill of discovering your new home.

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What is a "liberal arts & sciences" education?

The liberal arts & sciences offer a broad intellectual foundation for the tools to think critically, reason analytically and write clearly. These proficiencies will prepare students to navigate the world’s most complex issues, and address future innovations with unforeseen challenges. Shaped by ideas encountered and created, these new modes of thinking will prepare students for leading meaningful lives, with conscientious global citizenship, to enhance the greater good.

How many courses does Harvard offer?

Harvard offers more than 3,700 courses. For a complete copy of the course catalog, please visit registrar.fas.harvard.edu.

How large are classes?

Some introductory courses as well as several other popular courses have large enrollments. Yet, the median class size at Harvard is 12. Of the nearly 1,300 courses offered last fall, for example, more than 1,000 of them enrolled 20 or fewer students.

What is Harvard's graduation rate?

The College's graduation rate is normally 98 percent, among the highest at American colleges and universities. Everyone admitted to Harvard has the ability to complete all academic requirements successfully.

Is on-campus housing guaranteed?

Harvard guarantees housing for all four years. First-year students live in one of the 17 dormitories in or adjacent to historic Harvard Yard. Self-selected groups of students are assigned to one of 12 residential Houses for the final three years of undergraduate study. About 350 to 500 students live in a House, each of which includes its own dining hall, library, advising staff, and many other resources. Read more about residential life.

Where will I take my meals?

First-year students all eat together in Annenberg Hall. During sophomore through senior year, students typically eat in the dining hall located within their Houses, although students can choose to eat at other House dining halls as well. See more about dining.