By Sarah. M. Lightbody
From a tight-knit community to incredible sunset views and the best intramural team, Mather’s got a lot going on. Plus, the guaranteed singles and common rooms give Matherites something to brag about to all their n-1 friends. Getting into Mather is a guaranteed score.
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Singles. For. Life. According to the House Committee chairs, sophomores in Mather are guaranteed a single, most often in a suite with four to six suitemates and connecting bathrooms. Mather has two buildings, the Lowrise and the Tower, with most sophomores housed in the Lowrise. Tower rooms come with one of the best views on campus, either of Boston or the Charles.
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Beyond the large common rooms and abundant singles, Mather has a big TV room, a multimedia room with whiteboards on the walls perfect for getting work done, a gym to help Matherites get swole, and a tranquility room for meditating away the stress. Plus, in the basement there’s both an art room and a darkroom, so Matherites can be super artsy without having to commute. Mather House also has plenty of rooms for parties. Suites come equipped with common rooms big enough for social gatherings, and the Junior Common Room serves as a popular party space.
Mather is a community-first kind of house. “People think it’s kind of out of the way so they don’t want to come, so everyone is really close to each other,” House Committee co-chair Zennie Wey ’20 says about Mather’s community. When asked to describe the house community in one word, both HoCo co-chairs answered “warm.” Harvard University Dining Services worker Johanna Dessalile called the community “amazing,” saying “it’s really welcoming and attachable.”
And that tight-knit community extends into more than just meals and bonding over figuring out the shuttle schedule. Mather also has bi-weekly Happy Hours, group trips for thrifting and skiing, selfie tag games and the famous Mather Lather, a soapy, foamy College-wide party . Plus, Wey says, “We have really great tutors that are really involved in House life.”
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Mather’s dhall also serves as a hangout spot for everybody in the House. HoCo co-chair Bethlehem A. Lulseged ’20 commented that “Everyone in the dhall is somebody who lives in Mather,” meaning Mather students are always guaranteed to see a friendly face over meals. Fellow Matherite Bruno A. Snow ’21 added that the dhall has a “homey feeling,” even if it doesn’t fit with traditional Harvard architecture.
Matherites are also full of Mather spirit. Wey says that when it comes to intramurals, “We crush.” “People buy into house life, and I think that makes it a close-knit community.” Erin D. Ozturk ’19, a two-year intramural participant added, “I’ve done new sports that I’ve never done before. There’s this no-judgment, you can just do whatever you want and try new things, and the tutors and everyone else in the house really support you in what you want to do.”
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We sat down with the HoCo chairs to discuss last-minute bits of information about Mather that freshmen might find helpful going into Housing Day.
Any notable Matherites?
BL: Cori! Cori is a dog that our resident scholar has.
ZW: They do this event called Crosswords with Cori on Sundays, and they have a lot of food, and everybody shows up and does a week’s worth of New York Times crosswords together, and Cori’s there.
BL: Every time Cori enters any space, it’s like “Oh my God, Cori!” There’s an Instagram actually. Cori is an icon.
Most special Mather memories?
ZW: We have this game called selfie tag. You’re given a target and you have to take a selfie with them from within a certain distance. And you have a safety spoon. So for about two weeks during the year, you see people holding spoons in their mouth while they’re working in the dhall.
BL: It’s really intense. So we posted all the photos in the hallway before you get to the dhall, and we’d send out daily updates to say who has fallen.
Advice for freshmen worried about the walk?
Both: It’s not that bad.
ZW: Better than the Quad. Honestly, there’s a shuttle that stops right in front of Mather, so if you do need to get to Widener you can just take the shuttle. It comes every ten minutes in the morning. If you need to get to Maxwell Dworkin, it goes all the way. And so it’s not that big of a distance.
Read our overviews of the other Houses here.
