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As a first-year student at Dartmouth, you will fill out a housing form indicating your lifestyle habits and number of roommates preferences. After you fill out this form, Residential Life will sort you into two things:

  1. A first-year dorm
  2. A housing community!

You may wonder what a housing community is, as it is a unique aspect of Dartmouth's residential life. I like to explain housing communities on my campus tours by saying they are like Hogwarts houses. First-year students are sorted into them by residential life (think the sorting hat), students within that housing community will live in that community's dorm buildings throughout their time at Dartmouth (think Gryffindor Tower), and there will be friendly intramural sporting competitions between the different housing communities (think the Triwizard tournament).

I was sorted into School House as a first-year student and have lived in School House dorms throughout my time at Dartmouth. This means that my roommates, past and future, will all be members of School House. The purpose of this program is to encourage students to build community within their first-year dorms and continue living with the same cohort of people throughout their time at Dartmouth.

Outside of housing, School House has (free) weekly dumplings, awesome merchandise, intramural sporting competitions, and trips to Boston or Six Flags. Personally, I have made use of the first three offerings:

  1. Every Wednesday, my roommates and I make an effort to go to the Cube to get dumplings.
  2. If you ever see someone walking around campus wearing a sweatshirt that says "School," now you will know what that represents!
  3. I played intramural ice hockey during my first winter at Dartmouth. It was SO much fun—even though the majority of my floormates (all in School House) had no idea how to ice skate.
    hockey selfie
    After our game against Allen House (we won!)

I hope I have given you a general idea about what housing communities do, and now I want to break down which dorms belong in which housing community—as I found it helpful to visualize the dorms I was (and was not) eligible to live in after getting my housing community assignment. However, please note that sometimes, which dorm belongs to which housing community can change—especially with the renovation of dorms. For instance, my first-year dorm no longer belongs to my housing community—we lost Wheeler Hall to South House (due to the renovation of the Fayerweather Halls—which you may notice are not currently active dorms in any housing community). 

You can also find the current dorms and floorplans for each college dorm on each housing community's page at the Office of Residential Life. 

East Wheelock

East Wheelock dorms highlighted on a campus map

East Wheelock is a clustered housing community, with all of its dorms in one section of campus—down East Wheelock Street. East Wheelock has newly renovated dorms with elevators and A/C.

The current East Wheelock dorms are Zimmerman, Andres, McCulloch, and Morton.  

East Wheelock's current first-year dorms are AndresMorton, and Zimmerman.

North Park

North Park dorms highlighted on a campus map

North Park is the other clustered housing community (referred to as the McLaughlin cluster), with all of its dorms on the northeast end of campus. People refer to this housing community as "the hotel." The majority of the dorm rooms are two-room doubles—and there are elevators and A/C in North Park dorms. 

North Park's current first-year dorms are BerryBildner, and Rauner.

The current North Park dorms are Berry, Bildner, Rauner, Byrne II, Goldstein, and Thomas

School House

School dorms highlighted on a campus map

School House! My totally unbiased favorite housing community. I lived in Wheeler for my first year (lost to South House) and Mid Mass for my second year. I loved both of my dorms; in Wheeler, I had a fireplace in my dorm room and the Masses are so centrally located. 

The current School House dorms are North Massachusetts, Mid Massachusetts, South Massachusetts, Hitchcock, Brown, and Little. North Mass, Mid Mass, and South Mass are considered "the Masses" or "Mass row." Brown and Little are part of "the Choates" cluster (the other two "Choates" are Allen House: Cohen and Bissel).

School House's current first-year dorms are Brown (Choate), Little (Choate), and Mid Massachusetts (Mass).

West House

West House dorms highlighted on a campus map

West House is known for its "River Cluster" which are the two first-year dorms that are on the west end of campus. The older and removed first-year River dorms, however, are thought to be made up for with the upperclassmen dorms Fahey and McClane. Fahey-McClane is a beautiful new dorm building that has 5-person suites, elevators, and A/C. 

West House's current first-year dorms are FrenchJudge, and Russell Sage. French and Judge are known as "the River."

The current West House dorms are Fahey, McLaneButterfieldRussell Sage, French (River), and Judge (River). 

South House

South house

South House has changed a lot since my first year—considering the first-year dorms during my first year were "the Fayes." They have absorbed their current dorms from other housing communities Wheeler (from School) and Richardson (from West). South House is known for its older dorms, which are in ideal locations.

South House first-year dorms are New Hampshire, RichardsonTopliff, and Wheeler. Note: the Fayerweather Halls are normally South House.

The current South House dorms are Topliff, New Hampshire, The LodgeRichardson, and Wheeler.

Allen House

allen house

Allen House is a very parallel housing community to School House. It is not clustered and has first-year housing further from center-campus, and upperclassmen housing is centrally located. 

The current Allen House dorms are GileStreeterLord, Bissell, and Cohen. Gile, Streeter, and Lord are known as the "Gold Coast;" college-sponsored concerts like Green Key and Fallapalooza are hosted here! Brown and Little are part of "the Choates" cluster (the other two "Choates" are School House: Brown and Little).

Allen House's first-year dorms are Bissell (Choate), Cohen (Choate), and Gile (Gold Coast).

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