Here at MacGregor, you can build communities at three distinct levels:

On the most intimate level, you form close friendships with the 5-7 other people living beside you in your suite. Each entry consists of 5-6 suites. Suites are mostly single-sex, but some are co-ed. It is amazing how well you get to know each other when you get to sing in the bathroom together, play darts in your suite hallway, set off the fire alarms with your cooking experiments (don’t do that!), and yell at each other to turn the music down. Your suitemates are like roommates - only better - since you get to have fun with them when you want to, but you don’t have to listen to them snore at night or be disturbed by them waking up at odd hours to play on the computer (AIM is the devil!).

Entry Communities

Entry Chairs and House Rooming Chairs work hard to maintain an even mix of genders and to keep a fair ratio of upperclassmen and underclassmen, ensuring a diverse and well-balanced community. Every entry except for F-Entry (all-male) is co-ed.

The main lounge is the heart of the entry community. Each entry boasts a large common lounge, commonly stocked with amenities such as a pool table, ping pong table, TVs, DVD player, and some couches and tables. People usually congregate in the main lounge around dinnertime to eat some home-cooked (or MacGregor kitchen-cooked) meals, play some pool, or watch TV together. Entries receive money each term to purchase amenities that suit their own personalities. Entries frequently host study breaks, providing lots and lots of food. For example, on special nights, we’ll bake cakes for each other’s birthdays, and then attempt to sing “Happy Birthday”.

Each entry has a GRT (Graduate Resident Tutor) living with the residents. The GRT is a MIT graduate student who is mainly there if residents need assistance with personal or inter-personal issues. The GRTs also help Entry Chairs to plan study breaks, entry trips, and other activities. It is fairly common to have entry hiking and apple picking trips in the fall, ski trips in the winter, and maybe even paintball or white-water rafting trips in the spring!

Study breaks - food, fun, and more food!

Thompson Island boat cruise and island trip

Lots of food at the Thompson Island clambake

The MacGregor Community

As mentioned earlier, MacGregor has all of the amenities of an active undergraduate dorm while maintaining a comfortable, homely living environment. HouseComm hosts dorm-wide brunches every few weeks or so on Sunday mornings. The whole dorm gathers downstairs and for free cereal, juice, homemade pancakes, omelets, and crepes. It's a great time to take a break from work to socialize with people from all over MacGregor. When the weather gets warmer in the spring, entries will host dorm-wide barbeques outside in our private barbeque pit area - more of a chance for food and fun!

For those of you who like to perform on stage and/or embarrass yourself in front of your friends, you’ll have your chance in our annual Entry Acts competition. Almost every entry puts on a 15-minute skit and competes for prizes. The stage footage on the i3 video was taken from our 2003 Entry Acts.

If you want to get away from MIT, HouseComm hosts a series of outings and trips throughout the year. This past fall, we took a boat cruise to Thompson Island and spent a day on the island eating lobster, playing volleyball, and hanging out on the beach. The student government also sponsors an annual ski trip to New Hampshire in the winter, along with various trips and parties in the spring. HouseComm heavily subsidizes trips for MacGregor residents, so you can have lots of fun even on a shoestring college budget!

Individual entries host several small scale parties throughout the year. In addition, HouseComm sponsors campus wide parties such as the Get Sprung Hip Hop Conference. Just like every other MacGregor event, these are completely student-run. There are always resources available to suit your interests. If you like to organize parties or trips, then join our House Committee!

Annual Halloween pumpkin carving contest

MacGregor Sunday Brunch

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