Starting your freshman year can be a bit overwhelming, especially when you don’t know what to expect. While it can be a little intimidating entering a new environment, your freshman year should be something to get excited about. We’ve compiled a list of things to help you start your year the right way:
1. No one calls the dorms by their RLC names. Orientation facilitates RLC pride, which is great, but a lot of freshmen come onto campus in the fall clueless as to what the dorms are actually called. Nothing screams freshman like telling someone at a welcome weekend party that you live in Communitas.
2. Don’t wear your lanyard around your neck. It’s convenient. Trust me, I know. But bending over to unlock your door with your lanyard still hanging from your neck is a habit worth breaking early.
3. No need to brag about your high school. Everyone comes into college thinking they went to the greatest high school ever. Even if you did, there is no need to talk about it constantly, although a little is permissible. High school life and stories are part of natural conversation and getting to know your classmates considering that’s where you spent the last 4 years of your life. Just don’t let your stories turn into boasting.
4. No need to brag about your home state. Same story.
5. Enjoy Welcome Week to the fullest. There is absolutely nothing like Welcome Week of freshman year. Everyone is on the same boat, and everyone wants to make friends. People are at their friendliest and most open. Get everyone’s names and numbers and don’t be shy.
6. Don’t be THAT girl at the party. This one speaks for itself. Know your limits.
7. Don’t stress out if you don’t make your best friends right away. Chances are the people you hang out with the first couple weeks of school won’t be your life long friends. Some may be, most won’t. But the point is, don’t freak out if you don’t meet people you click with right away. You will continuously meet people, not just through fall quarter, not just through freshman year, but through your entire time at Santa Clara. That’s part of the beauty of the quarter system. You have an automatic in to get to know a new crowd three times a year.
8. Don’t feel obligated to hang out with your roommate. Yes, it is obviously nice to go out with each other for the first few nights; however, you don’t have to become immediate best friends. You’re just living together, not living the same life! That being said, the first few days are crucial to creating a good relationship with your roommate. You will be living together ALL year.
9. Cut your roommate some slack. Most of us haven’t lived with someone else other than maybe a sibling before. We are all figuring it out. No one is the perfect roommate.
10. Establish rules with your roommate from the beginning. It’s a lot easier to figure out what each of you is comfortable with right from the start. The roommate agreement form you have to turn in to your CF is a great way to initiate this conversation, so don’t blow it off and fill in easy responses. This form exists for a reason.
11. You will get homesick at some point during the first few weeks. After the first hazy weeks of fall quarter, you will realize that college is actually real life, and that school/homework still exist. It will come time to do your first load of laundry, and you will realize how good you had it at home. DON’T WORRY! This feeling will pass! The weekend will come soon.
12. People do homework in the library. See our complete guide to the library for all the tips on where to sit and how to behave. In short: there’s the basement, 2nd floor (social floor), and 3rd floor (quiet floor). Work does not get done in the dorms. Especially if you live in Swig.
13. Meal points are actually real money, and will run out. Nobody likes the people who start begging to use their friends’ meal points by the 3rd week of the quarter. Stay somewhat on track with your points.
14. Everyone gets hangovers. We know you probably feel like a train drove straight into your head and you have battery acid in your stomach, but boasting about how horrible you feel after a wild night out gets old really quickly and isn’t cool. Make yourself look somewhat presentable and fight through the day. You can do it.
15. The walk of shame is real. While you have undoubtedly heard about the college tale that is the walk of shame, it’s important to remember that Santa Clara’s campus is small and it’s pretty obvious what’s happening when you stroll home in your jersey from last night’s date and a fifth. Our advice: get up early and get out. After 8 AM you are practically walking on a runway.
16. You’ll most likely get locked out of your room at some point. Go to the housing office on the 2nd floor of Benson for a new key, or call campus safety if it’s after hours. That being said, try not to get locked out.
17. Come up with a system for your stuff when you go out. Phone, keys, access card—that’s all you need. Whether it’s a crossbody purse or stuffing your keys and access card in your bra, figure out what works best for you. The likelihood of losing things only increases when you bring more stuff out with you. Also, PROTECT YOUR PHONE.
18. “Midterms” are just a fancy word for tests, and they don’t actually come mid-quarter. You typically have more than one midterm in a class, and they can occur anywhere between week 3 and week 9.
19. Off campus houses all have names. When someone says they’re going to “Hooters,” they’re not talking about the restaurant.
20. Older girls don’t hate you. If you’re thinking about rushing a sorority, for the first few weeks older girls in the Greek system are not allowed to “dirty rush” potential new members of their sorority. This means that they cannot engage with you past a smile and a quick hello. After recruitment you will finally be allowed to scream and hug them all you want.
21. Everyone else wishes they were you. Take advantage of every new experience, and live it up to the fullest during fall quarter of freshman year. It won’t be long until you are an old and withering senior!
Photo Credit: Th3 Clara