Accommodation

The first year in Harvard Yard: All first-year students live in or adjacent to Harvard Yard, the University's historic central quad, where newly renovated classrooms and dormitories sit in a space reminiscent of a large British garden square. The Freshman Dean's Office carefully crafts rooming groups of two or more first-year students who live together in suites in historic Harvard Yard. Numerous proctors (adult residential advisers) and deans live among first-year students and are available to discuss Harvard's broad academic and extracurricular opportunities.

Upperclass years in the Houses: Patterned after the Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the House System provides a communal residential experience for undergraduates and faculty. The twelve Houses provide smaller academic and social communities of 350 to 500 students within the larger context of the College.

Harvard guarantees College housing to every student for four years, and nearly all students choose to live on campus throughout their undergraduate careers. At the end of the first year, students form their own groups from among their friends to go into the lottery for a suite at one of the 12 upperclass Houses. Each House has its own dining hall, common rooms and facilities for academic, recreational and cultural activities. A broad mix of students and faculty makes each house a microcosm of the College.

For example, here is a typical first year rooming group: five students (from the UK, Boston, western Massachusetts, Louisiana and Finland) who share a three bedroom (two doubles, one single) suite with a large common room and en-suite bathroom. The common room holds four desks and 2 sofas; the single bedroom is rotated among the students during the course of the year.