Nearing the end of Winter Term, housing plans for the 2024-2025 academic year are beginning to take form. Rising Uppers and Seniors are given the option to “stack,” in which they live in a small dorm with a self-selected group of peers. Students and house counselors alike view stacking as an opportunity to find a home on campus through curated relationships amongst adults and students.
Aya Murata, Assistant Dean of Students and Residential Life, described the process behind getting a stack for rising upperclassmen. She touched on the importance of student initiative and organization.
“[Currently], we’ve listed out the stacks that are available, and kids have these next couple of weeks [to apply], so the house counselors of the stacks are having open houses. Students are responsible for making appointments and going to visit the dorm, and [deciding] who’s willing to be roommates together… You need some level of cooperation amongst the group. [Students] turn in their applications on the 16th, that’s next Friday, and then the adults will review.” said Murata.
Many students look forward to stacking in their upperclassmen years, attracted by the opportunity of living with friends. Emily Wu ’25, a current member of a stack, talked about how a small dorm environment enables students to form deeper connections with both dormmates and house counselors, transforming Andover into an authentic home.
“[Stacking] is the opportunity to be with your friends, really. And it just feels more close to home than a big dorm for me because of a smaller building. I got closer to the house counselors than I would before since it feels more like a house than a dorm. Especially because of my dorm’s location in Abbot, it just makes me feel like ‘I am at home’ instead of ‘I’m going to school,’ which is really special to me,” said Wu.
Wu also brought up the benefits stacking had on her current relationships, speaking of her perspective from previously living in a larger dorm.
“One thing is that I think stacking is a really good opportunity to deepen your friendships with your close friends right now. And since, coming from a big dorm, I think the one thing I enjoyed the most about my dorm community was the fact that we cared and we are a really tight close-knit community and that’s really important for feeling at home on campus. Especially since I’m an international student and a lot of us in Morton are also international, it means a lot to find a strong community on campus abroad,” said Wu.
Yasmine Tazi ’24 discussed her experience stacking during both her Upper and Senior years, speaking about the benefits of living with fewer students. Tazi expressed appreciation toward the concept of stacks themselves, and how they elevated the experience of living in a dorm.
“As an Upper, I wanted to foster a tight-knit community, and live with my friends… I found the experience of stacking to be so wonderful that I wanted to do it again Senior year. Also, holding people accountable [is] easier when you’re [in a] smaller group than… a whole dorm, and [sometimes in large dorms] things have to be shut down because other people are not doing their job or… just not being really decent with respecting this space. Whereas, with [stacks], you can choose who you live with. You know you’re here with all these people, and you have a great time,” said Tazi.
Murata recalled her own experience as a house counselor in the stack Smith House, and her time spent in highschool living in a smaller dorm. She pointed out how living in a small dorm fostered close lifelong connections, calling upon the relationships from her past stack experiences and their presence in her life today.
“Having been a house counselor in both small and large dorms in my time at PA, and having been a student at a boarding school and lived in small dorms, I just have a little bit of a bias. You have a different kind of relationship with your peers and with your House Counselors [in a stack] because it is sort of this homey atmosphere and you’re living with your friends, your chosen people. There are still girls from the Smith House era, 2001… girls who are in their 40s now, that I still keep in touch with. They were my kids’ first babysitters, you know, that kind of thing. So you create these opportunities for real building bonds that last forever,” said Murata.
