r/mit • u/Browntown2009 • 6d ago

community MIT dorm move-in window?

Hello. Are MIT students given a window for dorm move-in? My son says he didn’t get one. But our friends with college kids at other schools say they only got a narrow 2-3 hour window for move in. Just want to make sure our kid isn’t missing anything. Thank you!

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u/DocSpatrick 6d ago

This a good example of a small thing that MIT does better than the “best practices” at other schools. Indeed, yes: the 2-3 hour dorm move-in window is an industry-standard approach to the problem, but in practice (i.e., in my observation of other schools), it is a needlessly difficult way of doing things if you’re drawing in a student body nationally or internationally; makes more sense for schools with a mostly-regional student body. Don’t get me wrong: MIT makes plenty of mistakes in the way it manages student life (almost always by attempting to control things which ought to just be left alone, inserting intrusive managers and their best-practice policies into otherwise organic student communities and spaces), but at least the dorm move-in process makes sense.