Athena Kolli

Depending on the house and style of room that you choose, rooms can look pretty different at Caltech. Generally, the south houses (Blacker, Dabney, Fleming, Ricketts) have similar options, and the north houses (Lloyd, Page, Venerable) are similar in their room styles as well. Rooms in Bechtel and Avery tend to look different from the north and south house rooms as well. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing an example of what a Fleming (south house) single generally looks like, and how I’ve chosen to decorate mine.

As someone who listens to lots of music, many songs on my playlists remind me of specific memories from my past year at Caltech. Here are a few, in no particular order:

One of the unique things that Caltech students experience in their first year (if they opt in, of course) is a process called rotation. During rotation, over the course of their first two weeks on campus, first year students get to visit each of the eight houses, attend dinners and speak to current house members to decide which residences they like best. Students can also choose to live in unaffiliated housing, such as Marks, Braun, or Bechtel. Overall, Rotation is a really great way to get to know fellow Techers and the houses themselves, to help you make your ranking of the houses! However, you may have noticed that there aren’t too many blogs describing what the houses are like, and what traits they generally have. This is because we have something called ‘Rotation Rules’ in which students ‘may speak freely about direct, personal experiences within the residential system at Caltech’ but are encouraged not to share any rumors or stereotypes they may have heard about houses. This is to ensure that first year students get to experience the houses without bias and make decisions based on their own experiences. All that being said, you may be curious of what the houses look like, especially since COVID has prevented a lot of students from visiting, or going inside the houses. So, I went around the houses and took pictures of all of the residential courtyards on campus. Perhaps they will give you a feel for the houses, and where we as students hang out!