It’s a well-known fact that freshmen stand out at any college. At Boston University, there are a couple things you only understand when you’re a student. The freshmen have to adjust and learn all these things, but until then most upperclassmen can spot the new kids on campus. Here are the obvious signs to tell if someone is a freshman at BU that I discovered after making all these mistakes myself.
1. You say CAS instead of C.A.S
BU’s College of Arts and Sciences has been the victim of acronym mispronunciation for a while now. It’s pretty easy to say its letters as one word, CAS, instead of saying it the right way by separately pronouncing each letter, C.A.S. This is a tell-tale sign that you’re a freshman because it takes a couple months at BU to have upperclassmen correct you.
2. You wear your ID and key on a lanyard.
Freshmen usually get free lanyards at an open house or orientation before they move in. It’s become customary to stick your dorm key and BU ID on your lanyard, and even more natural to wear it around your neck when you don’t have space in your hand to hold it. In the first few days of the semester, you can pick out a group of freshmen on campus thanks to their lanyards.
3. You live in Warren Towers.
Ah Warren Towers, the freshman palace. Warren Towers is a dorm at BU housing about 1,800 students. It comprises three big towers each with 18 floors. There’s a dining hall in the building along with a mail room, multiple laundry rooms, and plenty of study lounges. It is located conveniently in the middle of campus, but anyone you ask will tell you that Warren is not all it’s cracked up to be. Its windows are leaky, its rooms and bathrooms haven’t been renovated in forever, and its overall appearance is just dull.
4. Your room is decked out in string lights and printed out Instagram photos.
Chances are if you’re a freshman, you bought string lights with little clips already attached to them to hang pictures up. It’s also safe to assume you printed out most of your Instagram pictures and will continue to switch them out with new pictures you take during your time in Boston. No shame in this though, the freshmen dorms can really use this to brighten up their walls.
5. You’re extremely confused about picking your classes and the housing system.
When you’re a freshman, the deadlines to schedule classes and pick housing for next year seem to sneak up on you. What makes it worse is that you’re not completely familiar with how everything works, especially with the lottery systems where you’re given a number that determines when you can pick your housing for the next year. The housing system is very tricky with all the different places to live and the various kinds of housing that no one understands: same room selection, same room pull-in, internal room selection, community room selection.
6. You think Kilachand is haunted.
It seems like everyone at BU has heard that Kilachand Hall, the major residence for the Kilachand Honors College students, is haunted. The fourth floor definitely has its rumors about ghosts. It’s hard to not consider if this is possible and if there’s any evidence behind this supernatural rumor.
7. It took you a while to get into the habit of calling Marciano Commons “Bay State.”
Similar to the CAS misstep, Marciano Commons has its own nickname for freshmen to learn. This dining hall at BU is located on Bay State Road, giving it the nickname “Bay State.’ It’s way too obvious that you’re a freshman if you ask someone to eat at Marciano Commons instead of “Bay State”.
8. The yearly tuition increase shocked you.
In the middle of the spring semester, BU President Robert Brown announced a 3.6% tuition increase for the 2018-2019 academic year. For the freshmen, this was a topic to angrily discuss for a while after. In reality, this is nothing new since the tuition goes up every year, but when you’re already paying so much for tuition, any increase is bound to scare you.
9. You had to hop on the parka and Bean Boots trends when winter came around.
The go-to winter look for BU students is a long parka with a fur hood and boots from L.L. Bean. Once the colder months come around and everyone breaks these out, freshmen realize they’re out of the loop. Most freshmen can admit they’re followed this trend or at least thought about it.
10. You basically live for the BU Meme page on Facebook.
Let’s be real, BU students live for the meme page. However, getting a post on this Facebook page as a freshman gets you some serious bragging rights. The memes range from jokes about the tuition increase to the unreliable on-campus transportation and the stereotypical accepts of each college at BU. It really never gets old no matter what year you are.
Freshmen might have their quirks, but they add a whole new group of amazing people to every campus. All college students have to go through this phase and even though it may be awkward at times, it’s a whole lot of fun. Besides, college wouldn’t be the experience that it is if you knew everything going in!
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