The first time I heard about Housing Day, I immediately imagined the sorting hat scenes from Harry Potter.

Needless to say, that is not how it actually happens. Prior to arriving at Harvard for your first year, you fill out a housing survey that highlights your living preferences and habits. Through this survey, you’re randomly matched with people who have similar preferences. I was lucky enough to be placed in Weld Hall with five amazing roommates.

The best part about applying for upperclassmen housing is that you get to choose your block mates, which is a group of eight people with whom you are guaranteed to be in the same house. The catch is that you are randomly assigned to one of twelve upperclassmen houses: Adams House, Cabot House, Currier House, Dunster House, Eliot House, Kirkland House, Leverett House, Lowell House, Mather House, Pforzheimer House, Quincy House, and, last but not the least, Winthrop House. On top of blocking, you can also have what is called a linking group*, which simply means that you are linking to another blocking group. This guarantees that both groups will be end up in houses near each other, that way, you’ll always be near friends!

Each house has their own crest, own their own personalities, and their own pros and cons! Some houses are closer than others to the main part of campus. The dining halls in some of them are said to provide better food than others.

Each House is different in their own respects but all of them have one thing in common: they all have amazing communities full of incredible people.

Housing Day this year is on March 14th and happens between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The procedure that all first-years follow is that you and your blocking group will gather and wait for a group of upperclassmen to come by to inform you of the house that you got placed into. Up until this point, you have no idea what house you’ve been sorted into. From what I hear, these two hours are quite suspenseful. Despite the suspense, Harvard Yard is full of cheer as upperclassmen from all twelve houses gather with banners and mascots that represent their houses and express their house pride! 

*Linking was discontinued after the 22-23 academic year