As a first-year student, you'll live in one of five
residential neighborhoods called Yards, which are located at the geographic and historic center of College life.
Fall 2021 First-Year Student Housing
First-year students are required to live on campus, and the College and the First-Year Experience Office share the goal of ensuring that every first-year student will be able to live in Harvard-affiliated housing. We also recognize the importance of the first year in building a sense of class identity.
For the 2021-22 academic year, we anticipate using 1201 Mass Ave and a series of apartments on Prescott Street adjacent to the Yard for first-year students. Both have been used in the past for Harvard-affiliated swing housing. These spaces will form a fifth yard named Maple and have dedicated staffing, including a Resident Dean and Proctors.
Community
One of the most rewarding experiences for first-year students is the opportunity to be a part of a close-knit residential community. Your dorm's entryway will be made up of between 20 and 40 students who will share your floor or another designated area within a building.
Accommodations
Accommodations range from eighteenth-century buildings, which housed the earliest Harvard students as well as George Washington's troops, to our newest twentieth-century accommodations in Canaday Hall, DeWolfe, and The Inn. Most dorms have suites with two to four bedrooms and a common room and house between three and six students. A few have private bathrooms, but most share bathrooms with other suites. We assign students to suites rather than to specific bedrooms. In almost any suite, you should expect to share a bedroom for at least part of the year. Some dorms contain doubles, usually one fairly large room with a shared bath. Very few singles are available. All dorms and Harvard Yard are smoke-free.
Housing Assignments
You will receive an email with your housing assignment at the end of July or the first week of August.
Amenities
Several dorms feature amenities like printing, laundry rooms, kitchens, common rooms, and music practice rooms. All first-year students are welcome to use these spaces, even if they don’t reside in that particular dorm. You can view this interactive map to see each dorm’s resources. All dorms are a short walk to Annenberg Dining Hall, the Harvard Yard Mail Center, classrooms, libraries, and the Malkin Athletic Center.
Common Rooms
You may reserve yard common rooms for your own social events, but not for events hosted by student organizations. Learn more about hosting events in the dorms.
Kitchens
Some first-year dorms have kitchens for student use, but all first-year students may access them. To find the kitchen nearest you, use this interactive map. Kitchens are equipped with stoves, sinks, and ovens. Students may borrow kitchenware from the First-Year Experience Office, free of charge, for three days at a time.
