Simmons Hall
Welcome to Simmons Hall
About
A Note from Current Residents:
Welcome to the Sponge!
Known for its porous architecture, lighthearted and supportive culture, and fantastic facilities, our dorm is home to students of various cultures, interests, and backgrounds. Within our curvy concrete walls, you will find artists, gamers, musicians, theater nerds, varsity athletes, American Ninja Warriors, MLB recruits, Grand Integrators, National Yo Yo Champions, and more importantly, family.
Our home is interspersed with spacious lounge areas that come equipped with beanbags, couches, floor to ceiling windows, video game consoles, and even more curvy walls! They are often the sites of chalk wall drawings, smash tournaments, pset parties, and all sorts of resident-inspired craziness. You can also work out in the gym, get artsy in the crafts room, build a trebuchet in the woodshop, or prototype some circuits in the EE lab!
Because the building is architecturally discontinuous, Simmons has developed unique ways of fostering friendships and community among residents. Any resident can join up with friends throughout the building to create a “Lounge”, which Simmons funds to do awesome things like eating out or purchasing copious amounts of video games! Additionally, Simmons has a unique town-hall style government in which any resident can propose and vote on whatever they want. In the past, we’ve bought massage chairs, created a ball pit, ordered thousands of buffalo wings on a whim, and had all sorts of crazy fun!
The Simmons Hall House team is a group of dedicated people who are here to ensure your health and happiness throughout your MIT career. You can think of them as your parents in this home away from home, and they’re here for you 100%. Our Heads of House make the rounds at their famous study breaks, and our graduate resident assistants host activities that might include eating yummy treats, popping bubble wrap, getting advice from upperclassmen, or going out to see plays.
We hope you will come to live and love the Sponge as we all have in this fantastic and welcoming community!
Dining Info
Simmons Hall is one of six in-house dining communities and residents are required to enroll in a minimum meal plan based upon class year. MIT Dining partners with Bon Appétit to provide an all-you-care-to-eat option within the residential dining hall. Please see the MIT Dining website for additional details. All students are encouraged to consider their meal plan options when choosing their housing preferences.
Our state-of-the-art dining hall includes a fresh-to-order stir-fry station, grill, salad bar, and many other amenities. There are a variety of vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, and kosher items at every meal. Additionally, Simmons Hall operates a late night café for students who either missed regular dinner or simply crave a late night snack.
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.
At Simmons, first-year students are matched with roommates and placed in rooms based on a holistic overview of their responses to a thorough room preference form. This matching process occurs in two phases: once over the summer for temporary assignments and once after REX for permanent assignments.
You may opt out of the second phase by indicating so on the room preference form.
Contact
Simmons Hall
Building W79
229-243 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
(617) 253-5107
Visit the resident-managed website for more information about Simmons Hall. You can also check out the community's Instagram social media account. Questions about the community may be directed to resident leaders by emailing simmons-exec@mit.edu.
