Every year, on the final Thursday before spring recess, Harvard first-years symbolically don the College’s “Sorting Hat” as they are randomly assigned to one of the 12 undergraduate Houses, where they will live for the rest of their time at Harvard. Appropriately named Housing Day, the tradition will take place this year on March 13. Starting with the “dorm storm,” upperclassmen in each house enter first-year rooms and reveal to blocking groups their anticipated assignment. The day is filled with festivities, excitement, and, most importantly, House pride. It begins with welcome events at Annenberg, followed by House dinners and celebrations that continue late into the night.
The nine River Houses lining the Charles River and the three Quad Houses located in the Radcliffe Quadrangle each boast a unique environment and culture. In the spirit of this fateful day, the Independent sat down with residents of many of the Houses to hear a variety of perspectives and opinions on what makes their House a home.
RIVER EAST
Situated between Leverett and Mather, Dunster is one of the nine River Houses and is beloved by its residents—including Rhiannon Steward ’26.
“It’s got the No. 1 grill, it’s got the No. 1 location, and No. 1 people, most importantly,” she said. “I think anyone who gets Dunster House should be super excited and feel super lucky.”
According to Stewart, Dunster’s defining trait is its House pride. She and her fellow Dunster residents have a high appreciation of its features—from its architecture, being one of the more recently renovated Houses, to its staff and her fellow residents. Stewart most appreciates Dunster’s dining hall hours, being the only house that extends to 8:30 p.m. for dinner. “8:30 is just what you need, especially as an athlete,” she continued. “It’s so good.”
As for traditions, Stewart said Faculty Dean study breaks are popular within the Dunster community as well as the annual Goat Roast celebration. “They have goat-themed things and a bouncy castle,” she explained. “It’s wholesome and brings the House together.”
“Con-crete. Crete. Crete. Crete. Con-crete.”
This opening, featured in Mather’s 2024 Housing Day Video, embraces this River House’s brutalist architecture and infamous dormitory tower. Apart from its distinct architecture, Mather, the furthest River House from Harvard Yard, features a large courtyard and a multitude of common spaces home to many events, from lounges and common rooms to a pottery studio.
Mather’s most well-known tradition is Mather Lather. With music blasting and the dining hall filled with soap and foam, this bash occurs each spring, attracting over 1,000 students for a night of glee. Other Mather traditions include Happy Hours, Faculty Dean Open Houses, and watch parties for screenings from the Super Bowl to the Oscars.
Next up on the River, adjacent to Winthrop House, is Leverett, one of the two College Houses featuring dormitory towers. With its main McKinlock Hall and two additional buildings (Towers G and F), Leverett is the largest upperclassmen House both by size and population—but Leverett resident Erin Keita ’27 assures any incoming first-years that this is a positive thing. “You can meet a lot of people,” she said. “I met so many of my friends in Leverett.”
Keita also is quite fond of the devoted House’s faculty and staff. According to her, the Faculty Deans frequently participate in food drops and provide home-cooked meals and snacks to residents. She also appreciates the recurrent seasonal community dinners hosted by Leverett.
Alongside these feasts, the House is home to several other traditions, such as the annual River East formal, which Leverett hosts with its neighbors Mather and Dunster. Although Keita did concede that Leverett is a bit distant from Harvard Yard, she pointed out that several other River Houses are just as far or even farther.
RIVER CENTRAL
The River House located closest to Harvard Yard, Adams House is distinguished by its marble floors and mahogany wood accents. As this House is still being renovated, it does not yet have an in-House dining hall, but these renovations are set to be complete in time for the next academic year. Currently, Adams residents primarily dine at the Inn, a renovated hotel that also houses overflow students when construction is underway. Nonetheless, frequent community events allow for resident bonding.
Annual traditions such as Faculty Dean’s Teas, the black-tie reading of Winnie the Pooh at the annual Winter Feast, House Formals, and the Chocoholica Valentine’s Day fest are key features of life in Adams. Adams also hosts the weekly Carpe Noctem on Thursdays in the Lower Common Room, where students socialize over drinks, music, and pizza. A more popular tradition is Drag Night, which was first organized in 1980 in response to a hate crime against an Adams resident who identified as gay; it is a testament to Adams’ place in queer history.
“This isn’t what you would imagine when you imagine Harvard,” 2017 Adams Drag emcee, Joel E. Kwartler ’18 commented in an interview with the Harvard Crimson on this highly-anticipated event. ”And I think that’s a good thing for the spirit of the House.”
The most recently renovated and conveniently located house, Lowell is arguably the House coveted by most first-years. Featuring two central courtyards, spacious dorms, and its trademark bell tower, architecture is a hallmark of Lowell.
Behruz Mahmudov ’26, co-chair of the Lowell House Committee, characterized life in Lowell as vibrant. “We have so many things going on and everyone in the house is super invested in it, which makes it a really nice space,” he said. He believes what defines the House is its abundance of traditions: Lowell speeches, the Lowell Opera, formal senior-faculty dinners called High Tables, Thursday Teas, Coffeehouse, Trivia Night, Steins, and annual parties from Glowell to Bacchanalia, to name a few.
According to Mahmudov, the only true downside of Lowell lies in its infamy. Because of Lowell’s frequent recognition as the “best” house, Lowellians must know when it is appropriate to disclose their residence to those in other Houses, for fear of incurring jealousy or envy.
“For as long as I’ve been here, I’ve never felt like there has not been a place [in Quincy] that I would be welcome at any moment,” said Jacquline Metzger ’27, a passionate resident of Quincy House.
Adjacent to Lowell and conveniently close to other River Houses, Quincy is comprised of two buildings: Stone Hall and New Quincy.
Enthusiastic about the plethora of features Quincy boasts, Metzger called attention to the House’s highly active emailing list Q-Open, the Quinski Après-themed party, and weekly social gatherings called Festa. From the ping-pong table right at the entrance of New Quincy to the House’s expansive dining hall, Metzger views Quincy as a particularly collaborative and open environment.
However, above all, she emphasized that it is truly the people who keep Quincy alive. The only House to serve hot breakfast daily, Quincy possesses a tight-knit community of residents constantly enriched by students from other Houses, River, and Quad alike.
The only true con, in Metzger’s eyes, is the fact that migrating between Stone Hall and New Quincy requires leaving the house.
RIVER WEST
Kirkland, affectionately known as “Kirk,” is one of the College’s smallest Houses. Nevertheless, its size only deepens the level of connection Kirkland residents experience with each other, according to Kirkland resident Aslaug Gunnlaugsdottir ’25. She treasures its customs—including community nights, food drops, study breaks, the Choosening, and routinely updated decorations for holidays and cultural celebrations.
As an athlete, Gunnlaugsdottir also appreciates the House’s proximity to Harvard’s sports facilities. Moreover, similar to Eliot, Kirkland’s dining hall experiences a flux of residents from other Houses. She emphasized this as one of the House’s best traits, as it has allowed her to form strong connections not only with staff and fellow residents but also with unexpected visitors.
“If you get Kirkland on your envelope, it’s a good thing,” Gunnlaugsdottir said.
Another one of the College’s River Houses, Eliot is home to numerous beloved amenities. For instance, Gunnhildur F. Hallgrímsdóttir ’25 was extremely fond of the dining hall—the center of the House’s community—dubbing it “the Dining Hall of the People.” With few inter-House restrictions (thus making it a frequent destination for many Quad students), welcoming staff, and beautiful architecture, it is Eliot’s crown jewel in Hallgrímsdóttir’s eyes.
She has also found that Eliot’s residents and faculty are committed to cultivating a dynamic community atmosphere through recurring House gatherings. These include Fête, an annual formal celebration in the first week of May, and enhanced Thursday community dinners with performances and speeches by faculty and students alike. Other Eliot traditions include Stein—a biweekly social event with beer, sangria, and pizza—community nights, and intramural sports.
The only downside to Eliot, according to Hallgrímsdóttir, is the fact that the House is set for renovations from the fall of 2025 to the fall of 2027, which is a bit of an inconvenience for those who are forced into overflow housing at its expense.
Located right on the Charles River next to Leverett, Winthrop is the last River House on this list. “Winthrop is kind of the ideally renovated house. All of the spaces are really good,” resident Ben Fortuin ’27 said. He finds great appeal in Winthrop’s signature facilities, such as the House library, various rooming options, Grille, music practice rooms, dining hall, and main courtyard.
Fortuin does admit that there is a minor recurring problem with sewage smells seeping into the House; however, attempts to eliminate it are actively being made. “It’s there, but it’s not our fault,” he explained.
In contrast, Fortuin recognized several social aspects of Winthrop that are popular among the residential community—Steins, intramurals, and community nights. He also finds the House faculty to be highly accepting of students’ unique ideas. “My friend actually started the Winthrop crossword,” he noted.
THE QUAD
Sitting at just under a mile from the river, Cabot House is one of the three Quad Houses. Although “quadded” students are often pitied by their River House peers due to their Houses’ distance from Harvard Yard, many Quad students find that the benefits of life in these Houses trump the negative stereotypes—including Connor Buchheit ’25.
As a proud Cabot resident, Buchheit commends the House’s dorm quality, with essentially guaranteed spacious singles and superior dining hall food. In addition, he believes the Cabot community, filled with beautiful friendships and cherished traditions, is unmatched. A favorite Cabot custom of his is Festivus. “We get a veritable feast of Thai food, Indian food, Chinese food, and more, we have feats of strength (a push-up contest), people sing, we laugh, and we write down and burn our grievances in a bonfire,” he said. Buchheit also enjoys the annual Quad Formal, a joint tradition with the other two Quad houses.
He did, nevertheless, bring to attention one drawback all Quad Houses are well-known for: their distance from Harvard Square. But other than on Sundays, he finds the shuttle service to be generally reliable.
Currier is often recognized as the “best” Quad House by many Harvard undergraduates. Similar to Cabot, most residents are offered roomy singles. Currier’s trademark is its dining hall, with fish tanks and a central fountain: Currier’s 2024 Housing Day Video tells you to “take a look at this dining hall, it’s a life of blessings, can’t just stare.”
Additionally, like the other Houses, Currier is home to a tight-knit and lively community. Traditions and events in Currier are plentiful, including House outings regularly scheduled by Tutors, the Heaven and Hell Halloween Party, Game Nights, Currier Coffee House (open mic nights), Spring and Winter Formals, and bi-weekly Open House socials open to all Harvard students.
The final Quad and undergraduate House is Pforzheimer, informally known as “Pfoho” by undergraduates. Pforzheimer is divided into Halls based on location: Comstock Hall, Holmes Hall, The Jordans, Moors Hall, and Wolbach. Each is composed of almost entirely singles. However, this living situation is not the only thing appreciated by residents.
“The community is actually unmatched compared to any other House, and there’s a real sense of home and community that I think is unique to Pfoho,” Sylvie Wurmser ’27 said.
Another resident, Idalis McZeal ’27, echoed this sentiment. “I’ve made a lot of friends who are also in Pfoho and it’s been really awesome getting close to people I didn’t know well before,” she said. McZeal also enjoys bonding with her fellow peers at House events, such as the recent Mardi Gras-themed dinner, and even has a special place in her heart for the scenic (but long) walks to and from the Quad.
Both residents acknowledged the negative stigma of being “quadded,” but asserted that this placed no damper on their love for Pforzheimer.
The Big Day
With Housing Day finally here, both the exhilaration of nearing House life and the fear of being sorted into a “bad” House consume the first-year population. However, upon speaking with House residents, one characteristic was of high importance in every House, River, or Quad: community. Ultimately, no matter the House into which a Harvard first-year is sorted, the general consensus is that it is the people who make it a place to call home.
Britney Ampadu ’28 (britneyampadu@college.harvard.edu) anxiously awaits her Housing Day placement.