Welcome to Senior Haus by Keri G. '10
According to Joel '10 from New House, we eat your babies.
Some of you asked for pictures of a Senior House dorm room, and I decided to do you one better and give you a bit of a dorm tour! So here are a few glimpses of the Haus. (The Haus/House spelling used to be an indicator of whether or not you were a resident of Senior House – from what I know, people living here or in EC used “Haus” as an inside joke-like thing. Now, however, the two are used somewhat interchangeably, but most MIT administratrivia still uses “House” rather than “Haus.” But I digress.)
As you’re walking from the main buildings over to the east side of campus, you see this:
which is the side of the Haus. This used to be where the front desk was until renovations in 1996, when it was moved to a more central area of the building. Want a picture with a view from the front? Yeah. Don’t have it. Maybe when I stop being lazy, or when I happen to be walking to the Haus from MIT Medical with my camera. (Senior Haus is right across the street from MIT Medical. We’re also the closest dorm to the Kendall Square T station on the Red Line.)
By the way, right now this picture is entirely misleading for a couple of reasons:
a) it was taken in September, back when it was still warm and sunny out and leaves were still on trees.
b) IT SNOWED TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING. Which then became sleet, which in turn became this freezing rain that mixed with the dirty melting snow and created a million deep puddles everywhere which are now all frozen over causing Amy ’10 and I to try unsuccessfully to slide on them and this is a run-on sentence if ever I saw one. Even so. SNOW. AWESOME SNOW.
Want a look at said awesome snow? Here’s one, taken this morning from a 4th floor balcony before I went to 24.900:
The rain from last night turned the snow on the balcony into ice, causing me to slip and nearly fall off just as I was climbing back through the window into the hallway. Oh, the things I do for MITBlogs. ^_^
Enough about outside, though.
I’ve mentioned before that Senior Haus residents are allowed to paint their rooms. They’re also allowed to put murals on the walls. Every mural is from 1996 on, since the Haus renovations required tearing down many of the walls to change the internal layout of the building. Even so, the murals are usually pretty cool and never really get painted over.
An example of the contrary, however, is this wall directly outside of my room. According to my hallmate Sari ’09, there was what she would only describe as a “really, really bad” mural there before she painted the entire thing over with white in a fit of frustration with it. The 4th HNC is still thinking of things to paint up there instead of leaving the blank stretch of white; I’ll let you know what happens with that.
Anyway, here are a couple of our murals:
And for you Invader Zim fans out there:
More pictures will be added over the next couple of days.
Moving on to rooms: I’ve been living in a single since I moved in here, and I just moved into a larger one last week:
I now have room for a small couch, which is definitely going in the space between the drawers and my lamp.
No commenting on the unfinished corner of a wall. I know. Neha ’10 wants me to write “ON PURPOSE” in Sharpie along the corner, since that apparently makes up for my laziness. It’s not painted because I’m exhausted and hoping for tall guy support, since that’s as high as I can reach while standing on my bed (for the record, I’m 5’6″). Of course, right after I typed this Sari ’09 passed by my room and asked me if I’d ever finish that corner. “You’re not too short! You can just climb up on the bed with a roller and keep jumping up and down until you’re done!”
This seems like so much fun that it just might be what happens. (What, you wouldn’t do it?)
If you ever visit MIT, check us out. If you’re admitted, definitely come over during CPW – Hanna ’10 and I are CPW chairs for the Haus, so we’ll be planning all of the dorm’s events. We stayed up until 2 AM on Monday night wokring out the logistics of some of the larger events, and they will be awesome. Visit Senior Haus: we have the only bathroom on campus painted hot pink and covered with robots.
Okay, hard to beat the robots in the bathroom, yes.
Christina, you live in Baker. Your opinion isn’t important. ^_^
Also, you’ve been over here what, twice?
the murals and the robots in he bathroom are so cooool
It’s so awesome that you can paint your walls! How unique for a college dorm!!
Senior Haus is beauty.
Though the “I’d wash your hands if I were you” sign does sort of take away from the effect of the pretty-in-pink robot bathroom.
(Dear Jess, will you marry me? YOU QUOTED THE FLAMING LIPS FOR GOD’S SAKE. Love, Nana.)
I definitely showered with the pink robots today. Take that, Yoshimi.
Thanks Keri, I am considering Senior Haus and Simmons but in case I gain admission I will see whether my interests would change during dorm rush.
TOO BAD SENIOR HAUS SUCKS.
I really don’t know why I just said that.
lolol. Crappppp I can’t remember what I wanted to say.
yeah nope. no idea. BYE.
OOOhhhhhh! I want to go so badly! What do you mean, “If you ever visit MIT, check us out. If you’re admitted, definitely come over during CPW?” Honestly, as if I haven’t visited, and as if I wouldn’t take every opportunity to do so, including CPW, if I got admitted? *sigh* MIT…
According to the “Thrive” housing options page, its a pretty diverse community at Senior Haus. I am gay, and I was admitted early action. Does MIT have a gay community? Is there really a gay community at Senior Haus?
Says the girl who put Baker as her first choice!!!!
Grat entry! Senior Haus is totally the best dorm. I know if I were an incoming freshman, I’d be sure to check it out during CPW so as to avoid being really afraid of the east side of campus during Orientation and having to find out that it’s actually really cool and then move everything across campus from New House. That probably never happens for real, though.
Christina –
I came to my senses. You cannot say the same. Christina –
I came to my senses. You cannot say the same. <3
Colin –
No. Of course not. Especially not to four people at once. Right?
’10-er –
E-mail me at keri-lee at mit dot edu; I’ve got quite a bit to say about this one.
LOL. I love you, Colin.
In response to 10′-er: There is a gay community at MIT, as in, an active organization for homosexual students.
That being said, don’t come to Senior House expecting to find one. I mean, we probably have more gay students than the rest of MIT combined, but they aren’t defined by their homosexuality.
The whole point of Senior House is accepting people for who they are. This means that if you’re gay, you’re gay, and we don’t really care. Just like if you’re straight, or black, or white, or whatever. That’s good for you.
.
Other communities that have a higher ratio of openly gay students (from what I’ve garnered/been told), include East Campus and Simmons.
Hope this helped!
yay first post!interesting entry, nice pics!
I think it would’ve been funnier if simmons were an all girl dorm
Aaron, you just reminded of me of CPW last year, when my friend Kris took an unsolicited tour of McCormick not realizing that it was an all-female dorm. He’s never getting off the hook for that one.
Fun fact: Simmons college, nearby, is an all-women’s college.
DOOMCom, imo.
http://doomcom.org/
http://doomcom.org/phpbb/index.php
Thanks to everyone that responded to my question, and thanks Keri for taking the time to respond to my email. I think that I might just accept my place at MIT next semester. Its sounds like a pretty awesome place, thanks. -Tenora (10′-er)
hey, I have a question about dorms: there is one all-wome dorm @mit, but are the other dorms completely gender-neutral? i mean, aren’t the men/women sides seperated at all (like floors, building wings, etc)? thanx in advance for your answer..
ow, and a few more things!
1)do singles for freshmen cost extra money?
2)and are there rooms with more ppl than 2?
Thanks in advance!