Undergraduate Residential Life
201 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617)-253-2404
Who’s Who in the Houses?
The residential houses at MIT are vibrant communities that play a large role in your life at MIT. Faculty, professional staff, graduate students, and house government collaborate to enhance the sense of community and help students make the most of their MIT experience.
Residential Community Members Include:
- Heads of House
Who: Faculty and their spouses or partners
Where: All undergraduate and most graduate residence halls
What: A Head of House is the leader of a House Team who lives in a residence hall, supervises the GRAs, and takes a lead role in building community and supporting and advocating for students.
- Associate Heads of House
Who: Faculty and their spouses or partners
Where: Currently, Ashdown House, East Campus, MacGregor House, Maseeh Hall, Sidney-Pacific and Simmons Hall.
What: Some of the larger residence halls have Associate Heads of House to assist the Heads of House in leading the House Team.
- Associate Director/Area Directors (ADs)
Who: Professional staff
Where: Baker House, Burton Conner, East Campus, MacGregor House, McCormick Hall, Maseeh Hall, New House, Next House, Random Hall and Simmons Hall
What: An Area Director (AD) is a full-time professional employee of the Undergraduate Residential Life office. As a live-in member of the House Team, the AD provides individual assistance to students through personal advising, counseling and crisis intervention.
To contact the entire Area Director team, email url-ad@mit.edu.
- House Managers
Who: Professional Staff
Where: All undergraduate and graduate residence halls
What: A House Manager is a full-time employee of the Housing office who is responsible for the operations and facilities of a residence. They supervise the front desk, cleaning, and maintenance staff.
- Graduate Resident Advisors
Who: Graduate student staff
Where: All undergraduate houses and Ashdown, Sidney-Pacific, and Tang
What: Graduate Resident Advisors (GRAs) are MIT graduate students who serve as live-in mentors to the undergraduate community. Typically, a GRA is assigned to a particular area within a residence hall, such as a floor or entry, and provides study breaks, community-building, and issues-oriented programs.
- Resident Peer Mentors
Who: Upper-level undergraduate students
Where: Maseeh, Baker, McCormick, Burton-Connor, MacGregor, Next, New, Simmons, Random
What: Resident Peer Mentors are student leaders on the floors of their building who work specifically with first-year students to help them adjust to life at MIT and connect to the community and resouces on campus.
- Summer Resident Assistants
Who: Undergraduate students
Where: Designated Summer Houses
What: Summer Resident Assistants (RAs) help create a community within a residence hall that is open for the summer by planning events and serving as liason to various MIT departments.