Harvard has a unique residential housing system. Starting sophomore year, students are sorted into one of 12 upperclassmen houses (our term for what are essentially dorm buildings), each with their own unique style and community. Because the vast majority of students live on campus all four years, these houses become a central part of most people’s Harvard identity; everyone believes their house is the best house and will probably fight you if you say otherwise.
Freshmen are assigned to houses in mid-March on a day known as Housing Day. On this day, upperclassmen from each house storm the dorm rooms of freshmen who have been assigned to their house to deliver the news. It’s a really exciting day and one of the times when Harvard Yard (where the freshmen live) is at its liveliest. This year’s Housing Day takes place tomorrow, March 14.
My house getting ready for Housing Day 2018. Our mascot is the polar bear, hence all the people dressed in polar bear suits.
But for as much fun and excitement as there is on Housing Day, every year there is also a small subset of freshmen who come out of the day upset and crying. These are usually the freshmen who get sorted into one of three houses that are located in a part of campus called the Quad, which is a bit farther away from the Yard and Harvard Square than the other houses. For freshmen who are used to living in a Harvard Yard dorm two minutes away from most of their classes and activities, being assigned to the Quad can feel like a bit of a downgrade…
… Except, that it’s really not! My own friends and I live in one of the Quad houses and we wouldn’t trade our experience so far for living in any other house. Freshmen and upperclassmen alike often get so caught up in how far the Quad seemingly is from the rest of campus that they ignore the many benefits of this unique community.
My friends and I were part of the small minority of first year students who actually kind of wanted to live in the Quad, even before we were sorted into a Quad house. In the week leading up to Housing Day, Harvard’s newspaper, the Crimson, releases a series of articles about each house. I remember sitting in my common room with my friends reading about each house and deciding that, though it was in the Quad, my favorite house was actually Pforzheimer House (or Pfoho, for short). Little did I know, later that week my friends and I would end up being sorted into Pfoho.
Pforzheimer House, with its iconic bell tower in the back.
What I really liked about Pfoho—and what I continue to appreciate, two years into living in the house—are all the house-specific traditions. Each house is led by faculty deans, Harvard faculty members who live in the house alongside students to provide advising and help plan house-wide events. Our faculty deans plan really cool programming for us: every year, the house offers opportunities to go horseback riding, white water rafting, and hiking. They even have an annual dog sledding camping trip to Maine every January. Last year, I took a cheese-tasting class at a local deli through my house (if you know me, you know just how much I love cheese and how huge this event was for me!). Pfoho’s faculty deans are innovative. They started a program called Lunch on the House to provide funding for students to take professors out for lunch to get to know them better. After seeing initial success in Pfoho, this program was expanded into a well-known College-wide initiative called Classroom to Table, which provides similar funding, but for all undergrads.
In addition to fun excursions, there’s also many amazing things to do inside the house itself. Pfoho has eight pet guinea pigs that students are allowed to visit and play with whenever they want. We also have a spa room (called the Pfoho Spfa, because we love “Pf”-themed puns) with massage chairs and heated blankets. The house parties are pretty great, too: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan first met at a party in Pfoho’s bell-tower suite, one of the largest rooms in the house.
The guinea p(f)ig room in Pfoho. Many of the guinea pigs have cute “pf” names, such as Pfiona and Pfoebe.
The rooms in Pfoho, as well as the other two Quad houses, are a lot bigger than those in most other houses. All students are pretty much guaranteed their own single bedroom if they want one. For the past two years, my roommates and I have had a duplex-style suite, with a common room on one floor and bedrooms on the second floor. Each bedroom has lots of room in it and no one’s ever had to share a bedroom. We also have an in-suite bathroom.
Pfoho and the Quad have a really interesting history, too. Dating to as early as 1901 in certain parts, the Quad houses originally belonged to Radcliffe College, Harvard’s sister college for female undergrad students. In 1971, Pfoho and Cabot House were the first houses to integrate men and women into a coed living system, though Radcliffe College would not fully merge with Harvard College until 1999, almost 30 years later. Currier House, the third Quad house, is the only house named specifically after a woman, Audrey Bruce Currier ’56, and each of its halls are named for distinguished female alumnae, as well.
The Pfoho house shield. Red represents Harvard College, while black represents Radcliffe. The four squares represent each of the four main halls of the house. The shield looks really nice on house swag, like our hats, because it is fairly neutral and looks like it could be its own hipster brand.
Admittedly, the Quad houses don’t have the same historic look that the other houses do—there are no dark wooden walls and ornate dining hall tables, as there in houses like Adams or Dunster. Still, it bothers me when people say they don’t want to live in the Quad because it doesn’t have the same “historic Harvard feel” of the other houses. The Quad houses may not reflect the mainstream history of the rich white men who made up the majority of the Harvard student body until relatively very recently, but they do reflect Harvard history nonetheless. When I contrast the history of the Quad houses with, say, the history of Adams House, that had an entire wing called the Gold Coast built in the late 1800s specifically for affluent students to live in more luxurious conditions, or the history of Lowell House, which was named for the family of the Harvard President who instituted a quota in the 1930s on the number of Jewish students who could be admitted to any class year, I feel especially proud to live in a house with a history centered on equality and inclusion.
As much as people claim the location of the Quad—right between Harvard Square and Porter Square—is its worst feature, I actually think the Quad is in the perfect spot. For one, it’s far from all the hustle and bustle of Harvard Square, so going back to your room at the end of a long day actually feels relaxing. Having lived in a suburb my whole life, the Quad feels a lot more like home to me than the Yard or the Square.
The walk from the Quad to Harvard Yard and back is a great time for reflection—not to mention great exercise. In the morning, I like to listen to music that energizes me during this walk as I set goals for the day ahead. In the evening, I use the walk as a time to reflect on my day. Because the Quad is so far from the main campus, you pretty much always have an excuse for being late, especially if it’s cold, raining, or snowing, because deep down, everyone is just glad that you were the one making the trek to them instead of vice versa. And ultimately, if we’re really being honest here, the Quad isn’t even that far from Harvard Yard: on Google Maps, it’s only a 0.8 mile walk.
It’s NOT. THAT. FAR. And by the way, I can make this walk in 10 minutes, just sayin’.
If you’re into food (I mean, who isn’t), the Quad is the place to be. There’s tons of amazing restaurants along Mass Ave near the Quad and even more in Porter Square. Don’t want to leave your building? No problem! Pfoho has its own student-run grill, called the Quad Grill, while Cabot House has a really popular student-run café.
A lot of freshmen worry about living in the Quad because they fear they’ll never see their friends who live in the River houses again. In my experience, however, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I made a meal plan with someone who didn’t at least offer to come eat with me in a Quad house dining hall. If your friends truly care about you, they’ll make the walk over to the Quad to see you. Now sure, a lot of parties and bigger events tend to happen in the River houses, but that just means that if you live in the Quad, you never have to worry about hosting (and, more importantly, cleaning up after your friends trash your room). Instead, at the end of the night, you can just retreat back to the quiet peacefulness of your cozy Quad single.
Tomorrow is Housing Day and I’m really excited for the roughly 500 students who will be sorted into a Quad house. They may not believe it yet, but they are the true winners of the randomized Housing lottery.
On Ariel's Mind 