If you're a first-year, you've undoubtedly spent much of the past month or so surveying the 12 houses, the whole time angsting over where you want to live the next three years. And surely this past week, you got even more stressed about whether you'll get one of those four hallowed choices you put on your lottery form.

Today you finally found out your fate. Are you one of the lucky winners?

The immediate answer should come as no surprise: maybe, maybe not. But what might surprise you is that even if you didn't get the house you wanted, your three remaining years here still may not be spent in vain.

When you get right down to it, what is a house? It's a room and food. Last time we checked, every house had these accommodations. A house also means friends, which you should be able to find no matter what house you're in. Finally, every house has the nice property of not having to eat in the Union and not having to deal with a proctor ever again.

Remember, if you don't like your house, you can transfer out after one year, so don't panic. But in all likelihood, this probably won't be necessary. If you survived, and perhaps even enjoyed the first-year dorm experience, then you'll probably enjoy the house thing, no matter where you end up.

The following page comes straight from the hearts of upperclass Crimson editors who live in the various houses described. These aren't scientific judgments, and you should take them with a grain of salt. If all goes well, the house you go to will turn out better than we predicted.

Good luck--wherever you end up.

Adams

Okay, so Adams House does look a bit like a mausoleum.

But hey, it has the biggest, most ornate rooms on campus. If you don't like the dark, just buy a lot of lamps. They'll be worth it for the built-in bookshelves, closets the size of a Currier House single, and common rooms the size of a Dunster House triple.

Adams also offers some of the best house-organized social events at Harvard. Aside from the traditional Winter Formal and Spring Waltz, Adams has yearly Halloween and Mardi Gras parties, complete with dancing which would make most people blush--until they learn how to do it. And every Tuesday the house committee sponsers Cafe Mardi, which offers, among other treats, sexpresso.

One of the biggest disadvantages of Adams House is lunch. Not the food--Adams meals are much better that anything you could get from Lowell or the central kitchen of Winthrop, Kirkland and Eliot. It's the lines that can stretch out to Plympton St. that are truly maddening. Of course, you have to feel a bit sorry for the Quadlings who do not have time to go to their own houses for lunch--but you don't have to be nice to them. Hissing at strangers is well within house protocol. But don't fret, if Barbara is checking IDs, she will wave you past the trespassers--because we live there.

Other A-house bonuses: you can leave the house at 10:02 for a 10 a.m. class, there is a change machine in the laundry room, you never have to go outside to get to dinner or the library, and Tommy's Lunch is only three steps away. Who needs light, anyway?

Cabot

Everybody knows how busy and hassled it can get in the Square. But Cabot residents, unlike most undergraduates, have the best of all worlds. After a day amidst the business of the Square, they can head home to the grassy Quad and the peaceful halls of Cabot.