1. You basically need a car. Most students will have to take ubers if they want to get off campus. However, if you don’t bring a car, make sure to fill out the parking fee waiver because Chapman automatically charges you for a parking pass.
2. Don’t buy your textbooks before you get to Chapman. Some professors will change the edition of the book they want you to have, some you can find from upperclassmen for cheap. Save your money until after you go over the syllabus or email your professors in advance so you know you buy the right books (and make sure you sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime with free 2-day shipping).
3. Chapman does accept most AP (scores of 4 and higher) and IB (scores of 5 or higher) credits for general education credit, so definitely study up for those tests. If you come in with more credits, then you will have an earlier class registration date than the rest of your peers who don’t have college credits and can take more classes for your major sooner.
4. Taking a class over interterm is included in your tuition, so you might as well take a class (and this gives you extra credits which help your registration date!). The campus is a lot emptier, and Doy’s isn’t open, but it’s fun because you only have class four days a week and a ton of free time to explore California and bond with your friends.
5. Consider buying a printer for your room. It can be kind of a pain to walk to the library at 10pm or get up extra early to print your paper. Save yourself some conflict and don’t split this cost among your roommates because then you’re going to have to figure out who gets to keep the printer at the end of the year, just have the other roommates pay for other supplies for the room to make up for it.
6.”Chapman Admit Class of 20__ ” Facebook pages will be created. Feel free to join, but don’t go crazy with your posts in them, you will most likely meet your friends during Orientation Week, not over Facebook.
7. Each dorm has specific majors assigned to them, and they change every year. Each dorm has its own pros and cons, so don’t be too upset over the one you get, with a little decoration it will feel like home! Pralle people have to share a bathroom between 5 people, but have walk-in closets. There are only 2 people per room in North and South Morlan, but they’re the furthest from main campus. Henley has a gym, Doy’s, and other amenities in its basement, but the rooms can be pretty small. Glass is closest to the parking lot, but there aren’t that many study rooms.
8. Greek recruitment is moving to the spring semester, so incoming freshmen won’t be able to join social sororities or fraternities until spring 2017. They may say that like 30% of the student population is affiliated, but it can feel more like 60%.
9. The caf: on weekends, it’s only open for 2 meals, and brunch doesn’t start until 10:30AM, so keep snacks in your room if you’re an early riser. Your meals reset every week, so if you only use 10 swipes in a week and you have the 14 swipe/week caf plan, then those extra 4 meals are lost and you start over with 14 meals at the beginning of the week. Also, you can’t swipe a friend into the caf, you have to use Panther Bucks.
10. The weekend starts on Thursday. Definitely try to schedule your classes on Mon/Wed and Tues/Thurs to avoid having class on Friday if you can.