College Life
Your Guide to Blocking
By Lisa Ackerman
March 2009
Ah, blocking period. The time when freshmen frantically try to pick the one to seven people they will head into house life with. If you're worrying about blocking, you're definitely not alone! But don't stress! Freeze has everything you need to know to get through blocking with as little drama as possible. Here's how:
Start planning early. If there are people you know you want to block with, start talking to them now. Don't wait until the last minute; your friends might already have groups set up, plus it can be hard to get everyone together. If you're not sure about who you want to block with though, don't rush too much to put a group together. The last thing you want is to end up blocking with a bunch of people that you can't really live with!
Talk to your roommate(s) now. Whether you want to block with them or not, you should talk to them ASAP, especially if you don't want to block with them but want to stay friends. A good way to start the conversation might be to ask who they're thinking of blocking with, or to mention the group you're thinking of blocking with. Obviously try to avoid starting with, "I don't want to block with you." If you talk to them early enough and you say it tactfully and gently, you should be able to maintain the friendship long-term. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that they will have been waiting to have the same conversation with you! The one thing that could wreck your friendship? Waiting until the last minute to tell your roommate she's not in your group, and forcing her to scramble to find another group. It's a tough conversation, but it'll get much tougher if you wait.
Deal with people you don't want in the group. So you've got a group all set up. But someone thinks they're in, and they're not. As with the roommate issue, this is something you all should deal with ASAP. Avoid talking to the person as a group; you don't want to make them feel like you're ganging up on them. Have the person in the group who knows them the best talk to them separately and let them know that they're not in. Again, try to do this as tactfully as you can, and avoid waiting until the last minute. The sooner you clear up confusion, the easier it will be to keep the friendship. You don't want the person to stake everything on being in your group, and then end up alone.
Have a plan B. You probably have an ideal group you'd like to block with, but make sure you have at least one other group that you can block with just in case. Even if your alternate group isn't your first choice, just knowing you have a backup plan if anything goes wrong will take a lot of stress out of the blocking process.
Don't block with your significant other. Even if you're really, really close and you have a perfect relationship, it's just not a good idea. If you ever break up, the two of you will have to see each other in the dining hall and in the hallways every day, and a bunch of your mutual friends will be in the same house as well. It definitely isn't worth it.
Go co-ed. If you have guy friends you want to block with, go for it! Co-ed blocking groups are actually fairly common, and they can be a great way to avoid all the drama that comes with a huge group of girls. Just be careful and try to keep any romantic stuff out of the equation—as mentioned before, that can get really awkward really fast.
Include at least one person you know you can live with. If you've never roomed with your potential blockmates before, you should start checking out what kind of roommates they would be now. If you're a super neat person and you block with a bunch of messy people, for instance, living together might test your friendship. You don't necessarily need to be able to live with all of your blockmates, but you should have a potential roommate or two among the group, especially since a lot of sophomore housing involves tiny doubles and bunk beds. That being said, you should also know that blocking with people doesn't mean you have to room with them. The rooming process is totally separate from the blocking process in each house. Most people do room with their blockmates, but if there are other people in your house you want to room with, most houses will let you room with them. You can also be a "floater" and let the house assign you roommates.
Know that you don't have to have eight people. Plenty of people block with only one or two other people and end up perfectly happy. If you don't have seven other people you want to block with, don't try to find seven! Block with however many people you want. Also, a lot of rumors fly around this time of year that numbers matter in terms of what house you'll end up in. This is completely untrue. There are tons of blocking groups of seven or eight that ended up in river houses, and there are tons of one to two person groups that got Quad-ed. So don't stress about numbers!
Take advantage of linking. Got too many people? Split up and link! Linking two groups together means that your group and the other group are guaranteed to be placed in houses in the same "neighborhood." (The neighborhoods are Leverett-Dunster-Mather, Adams-Quincy-Lowell, Cabot-Currier-Pfoho, and Eliot-Winthrop-Kirkland.) It's a great option if you have a lot of friends. You can have up to sixteen people all close together! (Just so you know, if you link with another group, the two groups will both be on the same blocking form, and the housing info for all of you will go to the group listed first on the form.)
Consider floating. Being a "floater," or blocking by yourself, is an option. If you don't have friends you really see yourself living with, block by yourself! Plenty of people float every year. The houses all have a bunch of social events at the beginning of the year where you can make friends. And your blocking period is guaranteed to be drama-free!
Remember that it really is random. Everyone likes to think they can figure out how to "win" the housing lottery, but it is random. Really. Any rumor you've heard is untrue. Don't block with certain people just to try to manipulate the system and get the house you want, because you could definitely find yourself in a house you didn't want anyway… and worse, with blockmates you don't really click with! Block with people you like and hope for the best.
RELAX. Seriously. Blocking isn't actually as big a deal as it seems. It's easy to get caught up in all the tension and drama, and feel like you're picking your friends for the next three years somehow, not just your blockmates. Try to keep in mind that even if your friends block with other people, you will definitely be able to stay friends if you're in different houses. It might even be more fun because you can hang out in two or three houses instead of just one! Also, if you don't get the house you want on blocking day, don't panic. Tons of people who were miserable on Housing Day now love their house so much they won't admit they were ever unhappy about it! You will probably end up loving wherever you end up. And if you don't, you can always transfer. So don't stress! Housing Day can be really fun, so enjoy it!
