“You’re not doing yourself a favor if you don’t go a little out of your comfort zone,” says Sherbany. “I think we were successful with that.”

Sheema Golbaba ’14 and Tyler J. Ott ’14, who are a couple, have also maintained separate lives at Harvard. Golbaba and Ott, who started dating at the end of eighth grade, were never “that couple that was always together,” Golbaba says.

Now in college, they say they make an effort to see each other twice during the week and at least once during the weekend.

This distance is beneficial to their relationship, according to Golbaba.

“Not that I wouldn’t want to have dinner with you every night, but I feel like that would create problems,” she says affectionately to Ott.

THE BLOCKING QUESTION

For best friends and couples who are separated into different dorms their freshman year, the blocking process provides a potential way to reunite.

Dingman says he thinks the decision to block with a significant other or best friend is “very case-specific.” For example, he warns that it can be “potentially risky” for romantic couples to block together in case the relationship turns sour.

Although Bradbury and Maasdorp decided to block together, they made the conscious decision to choose different roommates within their blocking group.

“We know we work together,” says Maasdorp. “We wanted to spread around and see how we work with other people.”

When asked if they planned to block together, Ott and Golbaba started laughing.

“I don’t think that would work,” says Golbaba. “Our friends are very different.”

While Golbaba says she associates with the “artsy kids,” Ott says he spends his free time with members of the football team.

“It would make for a very disparate group,” Ott says delicately.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER?