You might be wondering how students actually get around to having fun. While some students do stay home on weekend nights to be students, Harvard has its share of debauchery.

Social life begins at home, first in randomly assigned entryways freshmen year and Annenberg, where all first-years eat. Blocking is a term to describe the horrendous and socially stressful process whereby students must select a maximum of eight students with whom they are randomly assigned to one of the upperclass Houses.

Each weekend features some sort of club-organized dance or House activity. Among the more famous are the Adams House Masquerade on Halloween and Winthrop House’s Debauchery, where students can use fake money in exchange for sexual favors.

Harvard is also home to more formals than most schools. With 12 separate spring and fall House formals, benefit functions and opening night for student theater, don’t leave the short black dress or tux at home. The Eliot House Fete, with its swing dancing and chocolate-covered strawberries, offers a taste of Harvard’s elite pretensions.

Room parties can be fun or loud and sweaty, but with 1 a.m. cop shutdowns the norm, the quest for inebriation moves elsewhere. A recent crackdown on fake IDs at the Crimson Sports Grille has left first-years wandering. And Grafton Street’s closure last weekend is limiting bar social life.

Not so hidden away are the single-sex social organizations. Final clubs, Harvard’s elite take on fraternities, tend to dominate the after-hours scene. But Greek life is slowly growing, with three fraternities and two sororities becoming a more visible presence. The Seneca, an all-female organization, has made strides toward creating a more gender balanced social scene.

Staying in on a weekend night happens to every Harvard student, but there’s no need to make a habit of it.

The Great Outdoors