Accommodation and Meals
An Overview
It is quite difficult to choose a living group without an intimate knowledge of all the available choices. Truth be told, not even a whole year at MIT can give anyone that complete knowledge we all desire before deciding. Hence, this part of the guide serves to provide a (very) general view and flavour of living and dining at MIT, while providing some useful links and hints to guide you.
If someone has tried explaining MIT housing to you before, and you emerged even more confused, don’t worry. Safe to say, the first batch of CMI-ers got away relatively unscathed by the maddening housing system of MIT – with “rush” week when living groups scramble for students, the room swapping and haggling, and the housing lotteries that some living groups do later on; and all this while you live, bags yet-unpacked, in a temporary room.
In fact, you will be treated more as if you were entering your Cambridge college for the first time – you will (or should) know your living group in advance, and if it is a dorm, you will be assigned a permanent room too. In other words, you will not have to do “rush”. But be forewarned, each living group at MIT is run by its own students, and has its own way of doing things, so keep an open mind.
MIT living groups include:
Campus Houses
• Also called dorms, at least 10 of them, with more in construction
Fraternities, Sororities and Independent Living Groups (FSILGs)
• 6 sororities (all-female)
• 28 fraternities (all-male) See page started here:Frat Living
|
|
• 6 independent living groups (mostly co-ed)
Note: Altogether, 35 FSILGs provide accommodation. Some frats and sororities are membership-based, and don’t provide housing.
Your living group assignment will depend on what you write in your accommodation form, the matchmaking skills of the CMI Office, and perhaps your mini-interview with the frat or sorority representative. Whatever it is, you should be hearing about your final accommodation at least a week before departure! If you are looking for further information on individual MIT living groups, go to: http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/campus-life.html#living for a full list of links.
It is tempting to say that each living group has its own distinctive character, but because each person’s social clique is not confined to where he or she lives, the differences are usually not quite so pronounced or at least not so easily felt. Besides, unless you live in a frat or sorority, the “we-all-live-in-a-yellow-submarine” feeling in Cambridge colleges does not apply here. In general, dorms on the East side of campus, e.g. East Campus and Senior House, have a more iconoclastic outlook, whilst some semblance of normalcy occurs towards the west side of campus. Fraternities and sororities consist of smaller groups of people (usually less than 100), and appear as closely-knit communities, with staunch support for their frat “brothers” or sorority “sisters” at social events. Frats and sororities also serve as networking organisations after you graduate.
All dorms, by definition, are situated on campus and many FSILGs are located within a half-mile radius of the campus. There are a few FSILGs slightly further away, across the Charles River in Boston, but travel is made easy by the free Saferide bus (see Travel section).
Rooms and Rents
Firstly, things not to expect. Don’t expect a huge Cambridge size room, much less a suite. Don’t expect bedders – the concept of someone cleaning your room doesn’t exist here! Don’t even expect a desk lamp, although you should have a phone. What you can expect is a neat and tidy room (at least when you first get there), with a bed and mattress, a desk, a chair or two, a cabinet, a drawer, and plain walls. The room will appear small and bare, but liveable for an impoverished student.
Except of course, that even impoverished students have to pay their rents, and the rents at MIT are typically double the accommodation costs in Cambridge. Shocking, but true. Hence, the means-tested bursary. Many rooms are shared, so consider yourself lucky if you're assigned a "single"! But of course, if you wish to share a room with one, two, or up to four others, that is by no means a problem – the housing people will love you, given the current lack of rooms at MIT.
You may do almost anything you want with your room, subject to the general rule that you don’t mess things up permanently. So you can paint your room in rainbow colours (after signing a contract with the house management), and nobody will mind, provided you paint it back to its plain old self before you leave. Plants and posters, blue tack and all, are allowed. Pets are allowed only in certain dorms.
Kitchen, Laundry, Linen
All living groups provide their own facilities for cooking and laundry. Kitchen facilities that are usually provided here include electric stoves, ovens and microwaves. Frying is allowed, mostly – but your living group may have its own rules, so check first! Some dorms, like Senior House and East Campus, have massive kitchens. The ladies’ dorm, McCormick, has good kitchen facilities too. But not all dorms have it so good. Baker, for example, has a single kitchen for the entire dorm – something to think about if you are a big cook! But then Baker also provides catered meals. Cooking in a frat or sorority may be slightly easier, given the small number of people living together. But some FSILGs have their own catering arrangements as well, so the kitchen facilities may not be so important after all.
In most cases, laundry machines are located at the basement of the building. Washing per load costs 75¢, i.e. three quarters, and tumble drying costs 25¢ for something between 10 and 15 minutes. Getting your laundry done is no problem.
Linen? Or rather the lack of. When you first enter your room, expect to be greeted with a bare mattress, and perhaps a bare pillow, if one exists at all. You will need to get your own sheets, blankets, pillowcases, etc. American bed sizes are somewhat larger, but linen from the UK will work, if you get the “flat sheet” kind instead of the “fitted” type. If you feel that you are missing a pillow or even mattress, you might want to check with “desk”, i.e. the reception of your living group, and ask for what you should be getting.
Vacation Storage
You are allowed to keep things in your room over the winter break. In fact, you can stay if you want, for no extra charge. Some people stay over the vacation or return early to participate in the Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January. (See page 13 of the Academics Section for IAP information).
Campus Meals: To Eat, Or…
MIT has several dining halls: Walker Memorial, Baker Dining, Courses and Lobdell. They provide a variety of meals, from salads to burgers, pastas, pizzas and even Chinese hot dishes. As for quality of food, well … it is edible. A typical meal costs between $4 to $8.
A cheaper and more popular alternative is getting lunch boxes from food trucks at MIT. These food trucks, run by restaurants in the area, provide Asian, Mexican, Italian and Greek food. The food trucks usually open at 11am and leave at 3pm, and gather at the following locations: 77 Mass. Ave., Ames Street (close to the Biology Building), Building E50 and Building NE43 (the Computer Science Lab on Main Street). The lunch packs are generally more than you ever need for lunch (in America, everything is BIG), and they cost from $3 to $5. The length of the queues at some trucks may suggest the quality of the food. In general, the food is clean, but there was a time when as a result of dodgy food quality, one of the food trucks was suspended! The trucks, however, remain popular amongst students.
Self-catering
An even cheaper alternative is self-catering. The campus grocer is Laverdes at the Student Centre, although Star Market, behind Random Hall, provides a much greater variety of groceries at a usually lower price. For those who are willing to travel, Haymarket and Chinatown in Boston provide cheap fruits and grocery.
Eating Out
Eating out in Boston is easy with the “T” (the Boston “tube”). Newbury Street across the river has a lot of decent restaurants and bars. Central Square has some curry houses. Chinatown is densely populated with Chinese and other Asian restaurants, while Porter Square has a mall filled with Japanese/Korean cuisine. There are innumerable Italian restaurants in the South End. A favourite CMI haunt last year was Marches at the Prudential Centre.
Drinking (also see next section on Alcohol)
You may be disappointed with the fact that there are only 2 (yes, two!) bars on campus: Thirsty at Ashdown (along Mass. Ave.) and The Muddy Charles at Walker Memorial (opposite East Campus). There are a few more pubs and bars along Mass. Ave., close to Central Square. If you are looking for a comfy dining and/or drinking place, try “Spinaker” of Hyatt Hotel or “Top of the Hub” at Prudential Centre – swanky places not to be missed during your stay in Boston.
For some hints on how to save on dining expenses, refer to the Finance section.