Housing Day. The day that all Harvard College first-year students find out which of the 12 Upperclassmen houses they will be living in for the next three years.
Nine of the twelve Upperclassmen houses are “river houses” located closer to campus and along the Charles River including: Quincy, Adams, Dunster, Mather, Leverett, Winthrop, Eliot, Lowell, and Kirkland, while the remaining three are “quad houses” located about a mile away from Harvard Yard including: Currier, Pforzheimer, and Cabot. Each house has its own unique community and traditions that all upperclassmen would say make their house “the best house”.
While we don’t get to choose our house or are guaranteed our preferred roommates, we do get to choose a “blocking group” of up to eight people that we are guaranteed to be put in the same house with. In the months, weeks, and days leading up to Housing Day, first-years are filled with so many emotions when hearing about the upperclassmen's experiences in their houses and thinking of which one they want to call home for the next three years.
I am in a blocking group with five other people and we anxiously awaited the excitement of Housing Day as we stayed up late eating candy, watching each of the houses “Housing Day” videos, and talking on Housing Day eve (the day before Housing Day). Housing Day eve is a similar feeling to Christmas Eve, as all first-years anxiously wait in their Harvard Yard dorms for upperclassmen from our future houses to storm our rooms early in the morning on Housing Day and welcome us to our new community. We were woken up by chanting from upperclassmen from each of the twelve houses as they gathered in Harvard Yard to storm our dorms to tell us which house community we would belong to for the next three years.
My blockmates and I anxiously waited by the door as we heard, “C-A-B-O-T! Cabot is the place to be!” repeatedly said as a large group of people made their way upstairs to the door we were waiting behind. As the chanting grew louder so did our feelings of excitement and anticipation when finally the chanting subsided and there were loud pounds on the door. I quickly reached out my trembling hand, video recording with my phone in the other, to open the door as we were greeted with a large group of people rushing into the room chanting, “Q-U-I-N-C-Y! Quincy till the day I die!” repeatedly as they all rushed into our room, screaming and cheering. My blockmates and I celebrated together and as it sunk in, we quickly rushed out into Harvard Yard to hear what houses our peers had gotten and celebrate with each other!
The rest of the day was accompanied with even more excitement as we were given apparel and merchandise from our houses, an amazing lunch in the first-year dining hall, Annenberg, and a welcome into our houses later in the evening with dinner, meeting the house deans, and upperclassmen! My blockmates and I are extremely excited to be in Quincy House for the next three years and can’t wait to join the community and traditions that make Quincy House the best house!
