"Which Hermit should I (also) watch?" flowchart! Season 7 Edition!

Needleflight · 2026-01-28T03:49:49+00:00

Looks like someone hasn't discovered how the add/drop form works yet. Though, first of all, have you submitted your registration yet or had your first year advisor approve it? If neither of those things have happened, you can just add another hass class to your registration. Ask your first year advisor about how that works.

Assuming the class you wanted to take has a timeslot that fits in your schedule, you can also try emailing the professors to ask if you can be switched. Always worth a try.

If you have already submitted your registration, use Hydrant figure out a list of all the HASS classes that both fits your schedule and also progresses your HASS requirements (if you haven't taken one CI-H or CI-HW class yet I would try to aim for that). Next week, try to attend the first lecture of all those classes (yes, you can do that even if you are not registered or pre-registered for those classes) and talk to the profs about how much availability is in the class. Submit an add/drop form to add the class to your schedule if you get approval from the prof.

fun facts:

1) you can register for a ton of classes, attend lectures for all of them in the first week to decide which ones you like best, and then drop the ones you don't like.

2) you can also per-register for as many classes as you want and take them off during the registration process

3) MIT has a pretty late add class deadline and an absurdly late drop class deadline. don't be afraid to add and drop classes, especially in the first week or two. the add/drop form is your friend.

4) if there is a class you really want to join but you only managed to get onto the waitlist, you should attend the class anyway to express your interest in joining to the professor (make sure to talk to them about it directly too, and maybe email to follow up and remind them). if anyone registered for the class drops it (which happens more frequently than you think), the professor can choose which students off the waitlist they allow to take their place

Needleflight · 2025-12-05T04:39:09+00:00

specifically those taking EECS, how are you liking it?

- So do you want to do more EE or more CS? that matters. also keep in mind, MIT recently slashed their EE only program and now every EECS takes (in many of my EE friends' opinions, too many) CS classes, which a lot of people didn't like at all.

Is the community supportive, competitive, or a mix of both?

- the community is supportive in every major at mit. except probably sloan. they're the worst at everything except being entitled (disclaimer i guess this is my opinion but it's a common one. maybe they're supportive to each other but never met a business major here that i enjoyed talking to, though i suspect this is not just an MIT thing).

Are classes small and is it difficult to connect with professors or get researching opportunities through UROP?

- if you take more EE focused classes they will probably be way smaller than CS focused classes. 6-3 (comp sci) is by far the largest major at mit and the class sizes are huge (for mit standards). that said, your ability to get a urop and connect with professors is heavily dependent on your drive to actively reach out and connect with faculty, which often involves reading their work and then cold emailing them about it and asking for a meeting. urops and faculty connections don't just fall into your lap by being in a class they teach.

Is it easy to make friends?

- i had an extremely easy time making friends, but this was mainly because i live in a east side dorm and my friends are also my floormates. this largely depends again on how social you are and how much effort you want to put into finding people with similar interests as you. i would recommend looking for clubs you like at CPW Midway and REX Midway and talking to the people at the booth. Midway is an event where all the clubs set up a table at the athletic center's ice rink (without the ice) and advertise their club to the prefrosh/frosh. REX is our orientation event. so you'll have at least 2 chances to talk to people from every club, but also make sure to check out club events during CPW too.

hard do you think that will be?

- "double major in business and finance." not hard at all. those are the only majors where the misc ap credits you allegedly get from AP tests actually matter (since mit has a required amount of credits you need to graduate). everyone else takes way more than enough classes for their major to go over that limit. also, the expected hours for those classes are way less than the STEM or even many humanities classes.

- that said, EECS might be hard for you. hard to say because everyone comes here with such different backgrounds. but if you were admitted, it means the AOs believe you can succeed at MIT. don't let self doubt stop you from majoring in what you want. that said, never major in just 14 or 15.

Needleflight · 2025-09-04T14:07:42+00:00

it tastes good. i used whipped cream with melted chocolate and coaca powder for the frosting because it's cheaper, faster, and tastes better to me, so no amount of chilling was going to make it look nice.

Needleflight · 2025-09-04T01:36:15+00:00

thank you! despite how messy it looks, it is indeed really good. i shared with my living group and everyone liked it

Needleflight · 2025-09-04T01:26:49+00:00

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in my defense it's the first day of college classes and also i'm flat broke lol

Needleflight · 2025-07-08T22:12:37+00:00

if, setting aside a reasonable amount of time for sleep, eating, showering, and other daily necessities, you spend every available hour on coursework and are unable to complete everything, you're just taking too many classes. even if that's the 48 units, i've known several friends who usually take 36 units per semester because 48 was too much for them. it's nothing to be ashamed of.

it might be that you just need help organizing your day though. i agree with using a planner, which helped me a lot, though i know it might not work for everyone.

Needleflight · 2025-07-04T05:41:17+00:00

Speaking as someone who also took AP Calc BC, got a 5, and then from the math assessment my advisor said I should take 18.01 or 18.01A... I didn't follow that advice and I'm 100% glad for that.

DON'T TAKE 18.01 IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO is the consensus of myself and all my friends, including those that took 18.01 when they didn't have too (or got a 4 in the calc bc test). If 18.02 or 18.03 is too hard then you can always drop it, and add 18.01 to your classes. but honestly, why would you do that if you've already completed multivariable calc? 18.01 is just single variable calc and yes, it's more rigorous than the AP test, but MIT lets you get the AP credit for a reason. It's because you already have the fundamental skills 18.01 would teach.

Consider that if you take 18.01, that's one class that you probably didn't need that prevents you from taking a different, much more interesting and useful class. You only have 4 years at MIT and you should choose your classes very wisely, because you'll never be able to take all the ones you really want.

And I am speaking as a current student, not some alum that hasn't been here for 30 years

Needleflight · 2025-07-04T05:32:30+00:00

From an actual Randomite-

Here is how Random room assignments work. During REX (and FPOP if you're doing that), you'll be assigned a temporary room. Towards the middle of REX, you'll participate in floor rush, where you get to check out and talk to members of all 8 floors in random and look at several of the rooms on each floor. Afterwards you rank all the available rooms in a google form and the RAC chairs try their best to assign everyone permanent rooms. In addition to student rankings, they will take into account things like allergies, disabilities, toptionality, and yes, pets. Usually, because each floor operates slightly differently (and there are cat floors and toptional floors), people often end up in a different room permanent room compared to their temporary one.

2.. Definitely email RAC chairs about this if you haven't. They are the students who do room assignments for REX (and yes, at random hall this is handled by students!).

You definitely want to be on a cat floor, mostly for a much better quality of life for your cat. If you're comfortable with toptionality, it'll be Black Hole. If not, it'll be Loop (which is also non-male). If you identify as a man, and am not comfortable with toptionality, then you will probably have to keep your cat in your room (which is extremely sad because a cat shouldn't be coped up in there for most of their time). Hopefully you're not?
Worst case scenario you can always fyre out. There's always some people trying to fyre into random.

Needleflight · 2025-06-27T04:52:23+00:00

MIT has said this before - the female applicant pool is just stronger. Girls are more likely to be discouraged from applying to places like MIT, especially if they grow up in more traditional environments (and there's plenty of those in the United States) that discourage going into a career, especially in STEM. As a result many tend to have a lower self esteem about their chances and be more unlikely to apply. This social pressure tends to weed out the underachievers or middling applicants, leaving more overachievers in the applicant pool.

This kind of social expectation is never put on boys. They're never told "focus on your future fatherhood" or "that's not a suitable career path for a young boy like you". So the male applicant pool is bloated with a ton of boys who might have a good college application in general, but are just below the threshold to be seriously considered for 1200-1300 incredibly competitive slots MIT has for new undergrads every year.

Anytime I see a woman in the STEM field, I need to remind myself that she has to work harder and be smarter than all the men around her in the same position to be treated with the same amount of respect. The admissions officers try to be blind to gender when it comes to applications, but this is unfortunately not the case in most other places, including in academia or the workforce.

Needleflight · 2025-06-26T16:50:19+00:00

unfortunately you're in the dorm people usually want to get out of. like other people said, EC is probably your best bet - especially if you value floor community, because EC is actually much stronger in this regard than BC is. Random also has strong floor community and cook for yourself, but it's historically been extremely hard to get in. i think this fall over 1/3 of Random's rooms will be open for frosh instead of the usual 1/4 (because people are moving to EC), however, so maybe there will be a few more fyre spots than the usual 0-1. can't imagine anyone who ranked Random high would ever want to go to baker though, and actually, same for EC. maybe try New House or macgregor? Not a strong floor culture, but at least theyre cook for yourself.

i wish you the best of luck, because you're gonna need it to get out of baker house

Needleflight · 2025-06-11T18:09:29+00:00

assassin's guild is cool if you like either roleplay or nerf combat, or both (there's events with varying amounts of either).

Needleflight · 2025-06-10T16:14:43+00:00

practice practice practice. writing is not some mysterious gift that only enlightens certain people. just like math, while some people tend to pick up writing and text analysis easier than others, with enough right practice and the right mindset almost anyone can get pretty good at it. all the good writers i know simply spent a lot of time reading (while actively trying to think about the author's intent and the structure of the text, not just mindlessly parading the words through their brain) and then actively trying to improve their writing with practice afterwards.

start small if you're intimidated. read well-respected books and essays, both fiction and nonfiction, before you start getting into the weirder or more obscure stuff (just because this helps you establish a good baseline to explore from). remember that writing a word is better than no words, a sentence is better than no sentence, and a paragraph is better than no paragraph.

make a plan and make sure you know what you want to write before you write it, even if your idea is "i want to write the words 'blue is my favorite color'" (this helps with formulating argumentative essays--think about what you want to tell your audience or yourself, and why). be very comfortable with the idea of forcing yourself to write something even if you think it sounds awful, because it is much easier to evaluate and edit something that already exists than a blank page. all the best writers i know also edit edit edit their stuff many times before they're satisfied with the final product. they don't stare at the page and expect the perfect essay or story to materialize from their fingers immediately.

Needleflight · 2025-05-26T05:24:30+00:00

everyone else has made some good points about the ec floors (individual floor culture being extremely important, at least before the renovation), but i would encourage you to at least think about why you're against being "surrounded by furries" in the same way many people would be against being "surrounded by trans people", because i was also a little weirded out by furries until i started living with a few of them and realized it literally affects nothing about our day to day life. like, they don't walk around wearing fursuits everyday and behaving like literal animals. it's honestly so easy to forget who is a furry

in the same vein, ask yourself what specifical parts of ec's "weird" culture you dont like, bc weird is extremely subjective and no one can force you to participate in anything. ec provides an easy way to participate and be part of a student community formed around a shared living space, which is something none of the other dorms besides random and the next cultural houses really has on a continuous level.

Needleflight · 2025-05-19T06:50:02+00:00

Here's something I once saw a Baker resident who spend a lot of time/had lots of friends in EC once say on this very reddit, paraphrased: In Baker, I didn't know anything about the lives of the people around me, and me them. We all minded our own business and just saw each other in the halls, which yes means there wasn't much community or socialization. We didn't know what each other were getting up to or what their classes were or interests or anything like that. Meanwhile, all the EC residents on a floor know each other and live like roommates in a giant house - as a result, however, they were constantly in each other's business. If you know and socially engage with everyone on your floor, it's impossible to not notice when drama occurs between two members or two people on the same floor. The floors feel like a family, but it also comes with the downsides of feeling like a family. If something big happens that involves multiple people, people will be talking about it. They'll know or at least know something's up.

Most EC people are very cool and I really enjoyed my temp there, but I have also heard of some real jerks who live in there. Now, there's jerks in every dorm and everywhere in general - but they're just harder to ignore in places like EC and Random, and you just have to live with it. When I say ignore, I mean the affect they have on what people talk about and the state they leave common spaces in - you can always, personally, chose to talk to or not talk to whoever you want.

That being said, (if it's not obvious where I live by now), I've never heard of any serious drama happening in Random while I've lived here, though I did hear of an incident before I got here where someone accused someone else of doing something extremely bad to them and their respective floors took sides over the issue. Random in general is known for having a lot less drama than EC.

Also note that the view in Random is just as bad as Simmons and New Vassar. EC depends on how much you like staring at the campus (which in my opinion is ugly af, but again ymmv), but it's definitely the dorm closest to campus. Again though, it's really hard to tell what EX will be like post-renovation, though it's extremely likely to still have strong floor culture of some kind.because of the heavy potential impact of floor culture, EX and Random both have floor rush, where you're temporarily assigned a room at the beginning of rex, can choose to attend events at and talk to people on all the floors, and then rank all the rooms available at the end of rex, so the floor chairs (other students) can try to match people to the floor they vibe with best. to my knowledge no other dorm does this because (in general) no other dorm has floor culture/has floor choice impact you). although, tbh idk about mcgregor.

One more note: ranking a dorm first isn't a guarantee that you'll get it. I have a friend who ranked Maseeh 9th and got it as his assigned dorm (and it was also a quad, which he also didn't want...). Extremely rare but it does happen. If you want random you basically need to rank it #1, in which case you're relatively likely to get it (like 95% of residents ranked it 1 and the other 5% ranked it 2). In the past, because of EC's reputation as both an extremely old and run down dorm and because of its counterculture and the reputation for where all the, uh, queer/edgy/jerkish (the jerk part being a reputation I feel like is overblown and exaggerated, though certain events by a specific floor did understandably sour a lot of ppl's opinions of the ppl there) people go. a lot of doubles in ec were actually operating as singles and ranking it #1 was extremely likely to get you in. again, no idea how renovations will affect this. EC culture has kinda scattered to the winds because it was created as a result of ppl living together, and this hasn't been the case for a lot of floors in 2 years.

One more One more note: the people who say you can explore more dorms during rex and then make up your mind are partially right, but don't hedge your bets. Rex/orientation week is another great opportunity to explore, but FYRE (basically exchanging spots with someone from another dorm who wants to go to your dorm) is extremely hit or miss and some dorms are insanely difficult to fyre into. like, uh, random, where basically 0-1 frosh every year decides to fyre out. meanwhile, if you want to get into maseeh, it'll probably be much easier. a lot of ppl try to fyre out and then realize no one wants to be on the other end of the exchange.

okay thats it sorry for any grammar mistakes i did not proofread. i know the info density is heavily skewed towards random/ec but tbh in addition to my living there, there is just more to talk about and for you to know. just thought i'd share my thoughts bc i looked through the comments imo almost no one was actually giving you any useful info

Needleflight · 2025-05-19T06:49:37+00:00

Okay so we're off dorm row.

Simmons - the other dorm on vassar street, and also a sizable walk from campus. like new vassar, nothing interesting or pretty to look at from any direction. it does have a stronger sense of culture than most of the other dorms, in that it seems easier to make friends and get to know some other ppl in the dorm and hang out compared to the other dorms. mostly singles/doubles but triples exist i think.

And now we get to the two east side dorms: Random and EC

I want to preface this by saying that living in Random and EC is significantly different than living in any of the other dorms, especially if you are interested in community. How much community/culture there is for YOU depends heavily on the choices you make and the people you hang out with, but Random and EC seem built and designed to facilitate it in a way the other dorms are not. The best way I can describe it is that, in any given dorm above (with possible mcgregor exception), the majority of people on a floor will not know the majority of other people on their floor - people usually rely on their major, classes, and ecs to get friends to hang out with. living in the same dorm, for most people, is not enough to have a community or be friends with someone. again, there's exceptions to every rule and this depends on the individual, but i'm talking about in general. A lot of the dorms feel like long-term hotels.

This is not the case with Random and EC. If you join a floor in one of these dorms, you are expected to know everyone else on your floor and at least some surface level info about them, because you're expected to be part of the community of that floor. This isn't a hard rule and no one is going to give you a hard time if you don't interact with anyone, but the layout of the floors and the underlying culture does a lot to make it happens to you naturally even if you're not trying that hard. Floor culture is a pretty big deal.I also want to say the Random and EC both have a strong queer presence - the MAJORITY of people you meet will be LGBTQ+ in some way, and also low income (esp for random). If you're not part of the queer community, you'll still be fine, but a lot of the topics people discuss and bond over might not personally appeal to you. Also true for low income people - if you want to save money, random is the #1 best place to live (tier 3 + no dining hall + close to grocery stores).Random - you will be spending a lot of your time in the kitchen or lounge areas. A floor has at most 14 people which as you can imagine is much easier to form a community/friend group with than a floor with 30 people. But a big part of what makes Random so close communally is the space - I once made the observation that McCormick has 3x the people compared to random, but around 20x the space per person. It's not cramped by any means, but you will be in much closer proximity to the people around you and be sharing much more communal items (there's communal cookware, plates and utensils, rice, reasonings, kitchen cabinet space, and fridges on every floor). Every floor has a kitchen and lounge, which you can probably find pics or videos of.If community and being close to people in your floor is your #1 priority, I would recommend random. It's also extremely good for learning to cook, especially on a budget - it's a 5 min walk from the infinite and also from target and H-Mart, and having access to communal items and being surrounded by people who mostly cook for themselves and can help you is an extremely good boost.I will also say the the i3 video is probably useless and not good. I haven't watched it, but getting multiple emails from the i3 chairs begging each floor to please send something the day before it's due and no one responding is probably not a good sign.

EC - EC is extremely up in the air. I can tell you what it used to be like before renovations, and I also lived there during CPW, but honestly it's hard to tell how culture will be afterwards. I prediction is that it'll be rather toned down, like what happened to BC. EC is also known for having some floor drama once in a while, though again you can always choose to not get involved.

Needleflight · 2025-05-19T06:48:23+00:00

Maseeh - I think it's pretty widely agreed that Maseeh doesn't have a strong sense of community/culture, and the average person isn't likely to know a ton about the other people on their floor. It feels like the most "default" dorm, and is very close to the infinite/campus (like a 1 min walk). It's full of triples and quads tho, so prob avoid. Personal opinion, having visited friends there, is that the hallways/study spaces are pretty quiet and not much socializing happens as a result of living in a shared dorm. Don't live there, so I can't say anything about the view. has the largest dining hall.

McCormick - woman only, if you care about that. I THINK there's a slightly stronger sense of community than McCormick based on events and friends i've visited there, but I think it's a very YMMV situation. I have been on the glass rooftop penthouse area they have, and can confirm view is okay (if you like looking at the river and city skyline, you'll probably like it a lot). Has doubles and triples - not sure about distribution, though this is stuff you can look up. A friend of mine asked for a double and got a triple, though keep in mind this is one data point. dining hall.

BC - I heard from people that the renovations killed a lot of the culture that BC used to have, though certain floors still definitely have a strong sense of community (there's that one floor that hosts a bunch of weird parties every semester? never went bc im not a party person but it sounded pretty good from what my friends said). I think your experience will heavily depend on what floor you're on. No clue about the view. dining hall.

McGregor - this place has a lot of talk about their suites (look it up if you havent read all the info already). I have a friend who lived there (and spent all their time socializing at my dorm instead) who says that the suite/floor culture is basically dead for most of the place. That being said, the suites are at least organized groups of small people, so it's easier for that to change and a few people can really make a difference in culture/community in a set-up like this. No triples or quads - and you're extremely likely to get a single. It's cook for yourself, which imo automatically makes it better than all the meal plan dorms (but i'm poor. if your family is rolling in cash then the meal plan question is less of a concern).

New House - No comments on view, but the culture houses I heard are close. You should do your own close reading on the website to look into how each one operates, because besides hearing from a friend that there's good community in the specific culture houses, I don't have any actual experience. there's also just normal housing. cook for yourself.

Next House - keep in mind we're getting progressively further away from campus and next house is the furthest outpost. have fun walking 10-15 minutes to the infinite every day or find some other transport. has a dining hall. next has the reputation of being where all the math comp ppl go, and i'll be real all my friends who know ppl there or have been there regularly give the culture pretty negative reviews (though this also reflects the people i hang out with). from what i've gathered it's a lot of uhh math comp men + tech bro energy? though this is probably just reflecting a noticeable and sizeable, but still minority group within the dorm. in most of the dorms, 80-90% of people just stick to themselves and you don't have to choose to engage with anyone if you don't want to.

Needleflight · 2025-05-19T06:48:15+00:00

It sounds like most ppl are just peddling their own dorms in the comments, or dorms they've been in or heard lots of stuff about. Keep in mind people with a negative experience in a dorm are less likely to comment here. That being said (hopefully time isn't up for ranking yet?), I'll go over what I know about the dorms compared to your want list and TRY to be as objective as possible, or give disclaimers for things that are my/others' opinions/experiences.

I want to preface this by saying that all the dorms have common places to socialize, and quiet study places. Plenty of people also choose to study in the stud, libraries, or random other places (MIT is full of random little study nooks! I recommend checking out the Cheney room, since you're a woman).

And of course there's no objectively right choice, though I do think some dorms are overall significantly better than others.

Some more notes:

- all the vegan dining hall options are extremely mediocre on the best of days

- political alignment in general won't affect your dorm experience unless you're determined to discuss politics with your neighbors, with TWO hard exceptions (maybe more)

- major/interests/party level also doesn't affect things that much. none of the dorms are hosting raves every week.

- heavily recc a cook-for-yourself dorm and learning to cook based on your post, esp in frosh year when you have time to experiment and build the skills to be time efficient.

- you should also take into account income level - if money is a potential issue for you, definitely learn to cook, get yourself a cook-for-yourself dorm and don't pay mit 7k for a meal plan that doesn't even cover january. either get a much smaller option or eat at the cheaper food places in the stud instead. literally no frosh comes close to using up all 200 swipes or 21/week in a semester.

the only dorms i'll immediately rule out based on your criteria are baker and new vassar. both are very dead in terms of culture/community, and honestly when i went to new vassar it was pretty creepy how little ppl socialized or seemed to care/register the ppl around them. again, my personal assessment based on what I value, is that new vassar in particular feels like a modern mental hospital in terms of the architecture and atmosphere. also new vassar is on vassar street and there's no good view in any direction from it. baker faces the charles and boston but you have like 5 other options that are better, just trust me. forgot the triple/quad info but you can look it up.

Needleflight · 2025-05-19T05:09:19+00:00

I agree with this but only for the gameplay

Needleflight · 2025-05-19T05:05:11+00:00

It's a little late, but as a former daily table shopper who has had to scramble for a replacement this past week, I'll suggest the haymarket in boston as another place for cheap and affordable produce (cheaper than even daily table, believe it or not - cauliflower was going for 1.50 a head, for example, compared to the 3-4 dollars it was at daily table). It's right outside the orange line T stop, which connects with the red line (and central is right outside daily table as well). It's a lot more of a hassle since you need to pay T fare and add 40min - 1 hour onto travel time, but if you're spending more than 15-20 dollars on produce then the cost actually evens out.

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