New House
Welcome to New House
About
New House is home to The Numbered Houses and Cultural Houses. Please see the specific sub-pages for more information.
Cultural House Assignment Process
This process applies to only those interested in living in the cultural houses within New House, which include: Chocolate City, French House, German House, iHouse and Spanish House.
- Rank it among your top 5 choices during the summer application process (May 26 - June 9).
- Between June 3 - June 16, a member of the cultural house will contact you to give you a sense of what it's like to live there.
- After speaking (or emailing) with a member of the cultural house, if you decide you would like to live in the cultural house, you MUST email us at residence@mit.edu to confirm your interest by June 16.
- The cultural house will provide information to Housing & Residential Services about the students who participated in the information sharing process.
- If you and the cultural house agree, you will be assigned to the cultural house in the lottery.
Dining Info
New House is a Cook-for-Yourself Community, which means that a meal plan is not required to live within the building. Residents cook meals using shared kitchen areas and specific cultural houses within New House may handle cooking differently. Please see the specific sub-pages for each cultural house for more information.
Residents of the building may still opt to enroll within any meal plan available through MIT Dining. In-house dining areas are located throughout the campus and are open to the entire MIT community. They provide a broad range of diverse and healthy options prepared from fresh quality ingredients. Please see the MIT Dining website for additional details.
Room Assignments
A unique feature of MIT’s residential system is that student Room Assignment Chairs or "RACs" coordinate individual room assignments in each building along with members of their House Team. Each house approaches room assignments a bit differently but all follow these principles:
- New student preferences will be used to make room assignments.
- Upper-level students will not preference or select students to live on their floors/entry/community.
- First-year students may opt out of exploration and are not required to move.
Cultural Houses assignments are made during the building preference process. During REX, a first-year can choose to move to a different numbered house through the Polar Bear Rumble. This process allows first-year students to explore the cultures of the numbered houses. From there, they can choose to stay in their house or move to a different house (space permitting).
First-years may opt out by informing the Area Director and House President in person or via email before the end of the Polar Bear Rumble.
Contact
New House
471-476 Memorial Drive
Building W70
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel. (617) 253-6561
Facility Information
New House Living Groups
New House is divided into two types of living groups: the six cultural houses (listed below) and the three numbered houses, House 3, House 4, and Desmond (House 5).
Due to its long history of unique living groups, the organization of New House can initially seem strange as each “house” of New House takes up a selection of a floor. For example, Chocolate City (a cultural house) occupies the western half of the fifth floor, while House 4 (a numbered house) occupies the eastern half of the fifth floor. Each house has its own kitchen and study space for residents, as well as a shared country kitchen and other amenities on the first floor. Click on a cultural house below to learn more about it!
