The World Outside of Lamont Café: New Places to Study for Finals

Hate to break it to you, girls, but finals are just around the corner. If you’re an upperclassman, then you are well aware of the horrors of Lamont during reading period. The florescent lighting, overcrowding and the sparsely showered, caffeinated stressed out messes that many of our classmates will become do not provide the most enjoyable environment for studying. But don’t fear! There is hope. Clean up your campsite in Lamont Café and check out these more enjoyable (or at least as enjoyable as studying can be) places to hit the books this reading period.

The Penthouse Café at the SOCH
The Café may have reached its end last year but the great space remains. Situated on the top floor of the SOCH with windows stretching the lengths of the wall and filled with cute coffee shop style tables and couches, the penthouse is the hidden treasure close to home for quadlings. However, the Penthouse is still well worth the trek for river and yard dwellers.

Ticknor Lounge
Have time between classes? Check out Ticknor lounge in Boylston Hall. Full of comfy couches and chairs, the lounge is the prime territory of foreign language students, TFs and quadlings during the day. Check out the second floor mezzanine for more space if necessary.

Cabot Group Study Rooms
Planning a study group? Cabot Library (located inside the Science Center) has lots of nearly noise-proof stud rooms on the second floor. Complete with tables and chalkboards, this is a great area to work out those tough math or physics problem sets with your friends.

Locker Commons
Venture beneath Annenburg to the Loker Commons and Queenshead Pub. The home of many fly-byers during lunch hours, the commons is open for studying and hanging out all day (you can haunt the the pub until around 4pm). Plus, you can conveniently take a break from studying to shoot a game of pool or catch the score of the game on TV.

Harvard Square Cafes
Venture out the yard and hit up one of Harvard Square’s many quaint cafes and coffee shops. Choices include Starbucks, Café Pomploma, Crema Café, Tealuxe and Peet’s among others.

House and Dorm Common Rooms
When it’s just too cold to venture out, there are lots of common spaces located within the houses and dorms. Each house has at least one reading room (check your house website if you have yet to discover this hidden gem). Freshman will also find great spaces in Thayer, Canaday, Weld, and Matthews for group studying.