We all know BU is totally tech-savvy (Two of our own university Twitter accounts are even up for a Shorty Award! BU COM is #4, Dean Elmore is #8- vote now!), and chances are you‘ve heard of a ton of the resources BU has for you to take advantage of on campus.
But what about those you can access right from the comfort of your dorm?
1. Twitter
It’s no secret that Twitter is one of the greatest and simplest databases when it comes to people and music- have a question? Just tweet it, and get your answer almost immediately. But did you know BU has some of the most active twitters in the collegiate twittersphere?
For example,
Have an issue with dinner or see something weird in the dining hall? Tweet or DM @BUDiningServices and let them know! They generally respond within an hour or two to student’s tweets, and are very responsive to constructive feedback.
Dean Elmore and school specific twitters
Each school at BU has a master twitter account (At least, COM, CAS, and SMG do). If you have a question about anything administrative or otherwise, tweet at your school from the comfort of your bed (or wherever you happen to be) and get your answer within minutes.
2. Rhetty-to-go meals
As someone who is super busy, this is one of my favorite resources BU has online. You can actually order meals TO GO from the dining hall. Go to their website the night before you need your meal (before 8 PM though) and pick from breakfast, lunch, or dinner meals. Then go to the dining hall when your meal is “rhetty” to go, tell them you have a meal, flash your ID, and walk off with your meal. Also really awesome for those of us with unlimited, you can use this to (legally) take food from the dining hall and always have snacks in your room!
3. BU Shuttle app (“BU Mobile” app)
As we know, the shuttle is absolutely never on the schedule that it says it’ll be on, on paper. Luckily, there are markers inside each shuttle used to track the shuttles that we have access to through the Boston University app. This shuttle app (for iPhones only as far as I know) has a live view of the shuttle that shows you where each shuttle is at all times. Super helpful in these freezing cold winter months!
4. Laundry Web
I hate going down to the laundry room, then seeing that there are awkwardly no open machines. But, you can actually go on the Studentlink and check how many washers and dryers are open. Super useful, it even tells you the wait times for the machines closest to being done and lets you arrange a text alert the second it’s done. The only thing it doesn’t do is force the jerk who lets his stuff sit in the machine for an hour after it’s done to remove it. But hey, you can’t have everything.
5. BU RoomSwap
Take it from someone who works in the Housing office: switching rooms can be a bitch. I’ve seen tons of people try to switch using the outdated paper card system we have in the offices, but it seldom yields a good result. Luckily for us, two BU students created this site, BU Room Swap. If you plug in your name, where you live, and where you want to move to, it’ll automatically match you up with people who want to switch with you. Contact them, and bing bang boom- Room Swap.
6. Facebook Groups
Again, use the social media of the world to your advantage. If you’re still using amazon and the BU Bookstore to buy your books, you are seriously mistaken (and wasting money! Ain’t nobody got time fo that). Go on Facebook and join groups like “BU Class of 2014/2015/2016” and “BU students selling books for BU courses”. You can post which books you’re selling from old courses, and shop around for the cheapest book in your newest courses. Start utilizing the university greatest resources- other students!