Future first-years who find it hard to get out of bed on a cold March morning to learn their House assignment could be in for an even earlier start—in August.

Faculty and students involved with the curricular review say that a shift to a housing system similar to that of Yale, where first-years are assigned to their permanent upperclass dorm before entering in the fall, is on the table.

“It is something that we are taking seriously,” said Currier House Assistant Senior Tutor Martin R. West, a member of the curricular review’s working group on students’ overall academic experience.

But West emphasized that the working group, which is examining the first-year academic experience and student advising, is “nowhere near making a final decision” on whether to recommend the change to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“Treat it as very serious, but preliminary in terms of actually evaluating the proposal,” he said of discussion on the topic.

Under Yale’s system, students are affiliated with one of 12 residential colleges when they receive their first-year housing assignments. Most first-years live on Old Campus, Yale’s equivalent to Harvard Yard, in a dorm specific to their residential college but adjacent to the other first-year dormitories. First-years are allowed full access to the resources of their upperclass housing, including dining and advising.

As sophomores, they move into the residential college itself.

Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies Jay M. Harris, who co-chairs the curricular review working group looking into this issue, said shifting to such a system would enable Harvard first-years to use advising opportunities available in the Houses.

“It’s certainly not anything that anyone is prepared to recommend at this point,” Harris added.

Associate Dean of the College Jeffrey Wolcowitz confirmed that the change to Harvard’s housing system—which currently assigns first-years to a House in March after they form blocking groups—has been proposed, but he emphasized that discussions were very preliminary and no decision has yet been made.

Wolcowitz and Harris declined to say whether they favored the proposal.

In addition to improving first-year advising, Wolcowitz said that affiliating first-year students with a House could potentially ease their integration into House life.

Harris, who is also Master of Cabot House, said that while advising and integration were benefits of a Yale-like system, a shift might strain an already heavily-burdened House system.

“It is clear to me that the House resources are stretched now in terms of doing all the stuff that tutors are asked to do, and to bring this on would certainly require additional staffing and funding,” he said.

Harris said that before the idea progresses into policy, the leaders of the curricular review will need to make a lengthier investigation into the Yale system’s successes and failures.