EAsT camPUS Info 2005

* Welcome * Residence Selection Info * Schedule * FAQ * Links *

Welcome to EAsT camPUS, your temporary assignment for Orientation and Residence Exploration (abbreviated REX, but everyone around here still calls it Dorm Rush, or just Rush). My name is Jimbo (well not really, but people call me that anyway), and I'm the East Campus Room Assignment chair. It was my job to read all your questionnaires and assign you temporary rooms.
Temporary rooms, you may ask? Why yes, yes they are. I hope you're happy with them, but don't get too comfortable! During the first few days you're here, it's imperative that you check out the other dorms and see for yourselves the pros and cons of each one. We believe East Campus is the best place to call home here at MIT, but you may disagree, and that's totally cool with us. After you've had a chance to look around, you'll enter an Adjustment Lottery to either declare your loyalty to East Campus, or try your luck elsewhere. (Hey, nobody said I couldn't be biased).

If you decide to call East Campus home, the fun will continue. You see, we have ten halls, each of them with its own spirit and character. They pretty much span the gamut, and you'll have an evening to check them all out and decide where you'd like to stay. We call that Hall Rush, and I can assure you that it's an exciting night.
The moral of this story is: you will be moving out of your temporary room, whether it be into a different dorm, another hall inside EC, or just down the hall. That, and we don't have elevators, so pack accordingly.
Now to share some ancestral knowledge from Room Assignment Chairs past:

1. Nothing is mandatory. Do what you want to do and have a good time. Make the most of your first days here and acquaint yourself with MIT on your own terms.

2. The biggest decision you will make during Rush/Orientation week is where you decide to live your freshman year. Classes? --Whatever. You have a few days after you move into your permanent assignment to figure out what you're taking and your new hall mates will be glad to help you out with your decisions. But, you are essentially "stuck" in the dorm you pick in the lottery for at least a term, and it's brutal to move mid-year.
3. That I3 Booklet and DVD the dorms sent you over the summer do NOT give you an accurate knowledge of what each dorm is like. You need to meet the residents and experience the culture first hand.
4. Have fun. All the dorms are throwing huge parties and events to amuse you and convince you to live at their dorm; don't let the upperclassmen have all the fun.
5. Eat our free food. It may be the best food you see in a while, take advantage of it.

One last piece of advice: Choose your dorm because the people who live there have something to offer you and embody who you want to be, not because you want a single or a short walk to campus. MacGregor has got the former, while Baker has the latter.
Feel free to contact me, or the rest of the house officers at ec-exec@mit.edu, with any questions, comments, concerns or effusive praise. Oh, and visit http://web.mit.edu/ec/www/ for up-to-date info on all things EC and Rush. Hopefully we'll actually have something useful there.

James Wnorowski
jamwno@mit.edu
EAsT camPUS Room Assignment Chair

Step 1

Freshmen enter the summer housing lottery for TEMPORARY housing when they arrive on campus. Results are announced in early August and freshmen may receive communication from upperclassmen at their temporary dorm.
Housing Lottery Home

Step 2

Freshmen move into their temporary dorm for orientation. If freshmen arrive with more stuff than they need for the weeklong orientation, they may be asked to store it until they are assigned a permanent room. This makes it easier for freshmen to move to a permanent room because their stuff isn't moved into their temporary room.

Step 3

Rush events during orientation week. Freshmen should use designated residence selection times (Wednesday, through Tuesday until 6 pm) to tour each dormitory on campus and to ask upperclassmen questions about the individual cultures of different dorms. This time is also for eating good free food and having fun. Take a look at EC's Rush schedule below to get an idea of the awesome events that will be happening.

Step 4

Freshmen enter final housing lottery (adjustment lottery). By 6 pm on Tuesday, August 30, all freshmen must enter a second housing lottery. They will rank up to 4 dorms in the order of where they would like to live. Rankings should be based on interactions with upperclassmen during residence selection time. Freshmen can include their temporary dorm in their rankings and will not be placed in a dorm that they rank lower than their temporary dorm.

Step 5

Freshmen receive permanent dorm assignments. After all freshmen submit their preferences, the lottery is run and the results are announced Wednesday afternoon.

Step 6

Room assignment within permanent dormitories. After receiving the results of the adjustment lottery, freshmen will gather in their permanent dorm assignments and meet student and faculty leaders of the dorm. Then, each dorm will carry out its own rooming assignment process. These processes are designed by dorm residents and are thus unique to each dorm. At East Campus, freshmen are given time to visit each of our 10 halls and meet upperclassmen on each one. They will then rank the halls in the order of where they would like to live and upperclassmen will work to place each freshmen on a hall where they will be happy. Even freshmen who have a temporary assignment at East Campus and remain here for their permanent assignment will be assigned a new room during after this rooming process. This is to ensure that no student chooses to remain at East Campus or to remain on their temporary assignment hall in order to avoid moving their stuff to a new room.

Step 7

Moving into permanent assignments. On Thursday, September 1st, final room assignments will be posted at each dorm. Upperclassmen will be available to help freshmen move their things from their temporary dorm to their permanent dorm.

Up to Thursday, August 25

If you're here early, come by EC! We'll have lots of things planned for this whole week, so get back on campus as early as possible. If you have any time over these couple of days, drop by EC and take a tour of the dorm, or just come hang out with the residents and other frosh. Upperclassmen at MIT are a great resource, and are more than happy to give you advice (get out while you still can) and talk with you about what life is really like here in beautiful Cambridge. Bring your pals by too.

8/26 - Friday!!

7PM - EAsT camPUS Boot Camp, Part I

Ready to jump in and start kicking ass? Come to EC at 5 and learn how to fix bikes, and rappel down stairwells. Our expert fashion consultants will dye your hair any gaudy color you want. Afterwards, reward yourself for all your hard work with some of our fried morsels. We buy our frying oil in 5-gal jugs. Marvel at the monster fry-vat.

8/27 - Saturday!

5PM - BBQ

Come sneak your first peek at EC's patented Rides of Death (tm), and consume some delicious Portioned Meats (or Portioned Non-Meats).

7PM - EAsT camPUS Boot Camp, Part 2

Continue your journey through the crufty arts to Day 2 of EC's boot camp. Learn how to solder, and participate in Conway's Game of Rush. Learn to use power tools, and make your own guitar. Hold on to it, so you can smash it to pieces at our guitar-smashing contest on Sunday.

8/28 - Sunday!

Sometime During the Day

Housing Adjustment Lottery (Phase 2) opens. Be sure to read up about the Adjustment Lottery and the importance of really looking around at the different living options that MIT has to offer. We have info on all this in the FAQ below, but bottom line is, this place will be stressful enough, so living in a place where you will be happiest is pretty important.

2PM-5PM

Never fear, denizens of MIT, EC is here to rock out your weekend. Free food, great music, rides of death, and much much more. Engage in the time-honored traditional EC sport, watermelon tossing. Enquire in the courtyard for tours of our facilities.

7PM Onwards

Holy Shaking Butt Cheeks, Batman, its a huge party at East Campus! Come see what's going on center-stage at the EC Arena, lit all night so the party doesn't stop. Challenge your friends to a wrestling match in the Mystery Food Substance, while bemused observers chow down on same. Participate in the Freshman Skills Test, to prove that you are the baddest of all '09 badasses.

8/29 - Monday!

All Day

Select your own personal tour guide from our cage of residents in the courtyard! Come help us build crazy things out of lumber. We are the reason that no dorm can build a sixty foot tower during Rush these days, but come help us as we construct things like our patented "Rides of Death," giant board games, and whatever other last minute projects the good denizens of East Campus think up. Who needs blueprints?

Regretting the picture you sent in for the Freshmen Picture Book? Well then, change your identity. We'll dye your hair almost any color of the rainbow. Hell, we'll even give you a haircut if you want. Our hair-gineers specialize in Mullets and Mohawks, but don't let that stop you from getting your dream haircut.

High Noon - 6 pm

Holy Sizzling Ground Chuck, Batman! Meat burgers, veggie burgers, and grilled chicken. Well-trained vegetables, fresh fruit, and more condiments than you can fit on one bun.

9:00 pm - Whenever

Go to the West Side Party. We mean it. Even if you're sure you're staying, it'll be good for you. Afterwards, feel free to come back to the courtyard and chill. There will probably be something interesting going on.

8/30 - Tuesday!

6PM-ish

Housing Adjustment Lottery (Phase 2) Closes. Rank the dorms that you liked the best using the online lottery form.

8/31 - Wednesday

Evening

In-house Rush. We've been telling you that every hall at EC has its own personality and you'll absolutely love at least one of them. If your permanent assignment turns out to be East Campus, now is your chance to see for yourself and to tell us which halls you'd like to live on for one last lottery to assign you your room at EC. Remember, if your temporary housing assignment was at EC, you will be changing rooms after the in-house lottery has run, even if you end up on the same hall you were temped on. In-house Rush is an incredibly fun night, more free food than you can stuff your face with, and crazy things like electric pickles, hall croquet and hockey, more uses for AOL CDs than you could ever know, and other exciting surprises. Come hang out with your new dormmates, and meet the rest of the EC frosh.

What's the point of REX anyway?

REX (Residence selection, formerly called dorm rush) is time set aside during orientation for freshmen to tour dorms, meet upperclassmen and ask them questions about their dorm and to get more information about how MIT's unique housing system works. You should spend this time deciding which dorms you think you would be happy living at. You may not think it matters now, but after a couple of months in a dorm, you may wish you had spent more time thinking about your decision to live there. People who put time into choosing a dorm that is right for them rarely regret it.

What is Dorm Rush?

It's what the cool kids call REX (see above).

What is the Adjustment lottery? Didn't I already enter a lottery?

The second lottery gives freshmen the opportunity to choose their dormitory preferences after actually seeing the dorms and meeting the people. No matter how good an I3 video is, it can't replace actually spending time at a dorm. All freshmen will enter the second housing lottery by Tuesday, 8/30. You will be able to select dorms that you would prefer over the one you are living in temporarily, or to request to stay in your temporary dorm. Based on these requests, you will be placed in a dorm by Saturday afternoon.

Is it possible that the Adjustment lottery will place me somewhere that I've ranked lower than my current dorm?

No.

What's the most important factor in choosing a dorm?

This is obviously different for different people, but in general people who choose a dorm because it has big rooms or nice facilities more often regret their decision than those that choose a dorm because they feel comfortable around the people already living there. Spend time talking to upperclassmen during REX and you'll get a sense of who you want to live with.

How do I get assigned a room?

After MIT assigns you to a dorm, it is up to the house government in your dorm to assign you to a room. At East Campus, we have an in-house rush Wednesday evening (8/31). If you're assigned to live here, you'll get to go around to every hall and get a feel for whether you'd like to live there. Every hall at EC has its own personality, so it's important that we give you a chance to choose which ones you like. Some other dorms have similar in house rushes, some have other systems of assigning rooms. This is a good question to ask your tour guide at each dorm.

Also, keep in mind that at East Campus, even freshmen who live here during orientation and decide to stay will have to move to a new room after in house rush.

Why do you tell us not to unpack right away when we get here?

Odds are, you'll be moving in between your temp assignment and your final assignment. If you end up living at EC, you definitely will. We think that it's best if everyone picks the dorm that they feel they fit the best at, rather than the dorm they unpacked their collection of vintage Spiderman comics at.

Why doesn't MIT just randomly assign people, like every other college? I want to know who my roommate is.

Trusting freshman with the ability to select their own dorms produces a system in which very close-knit, diverse communities form. Living with a group of people you feel comfortable around can be invaluable, especially at a tough place like MIT. The system may be a bit inconvenient at first, but trust us, it pays dividends in the end. The same goes for roommates; the system is optimized for giving you someone you'll be happy living with for a year, not someone that you can phone in July.