Dear Incoming Freshmen,
On behalf of Her Campus Tufts, welcome to the Hill! We’re so excited to meet you. If you’re anything like I was last August, you’re experiencing a lot of different emotions just days before you finally set-off to begin your big college adventure. You’ve waited all summer for this day to come, and we thought you might like some tips and advice on what to expect during your first week on campus: Orientation Week.
Some of you will love this week and leave knowing the core group of people that you will spend the next four years eating with, living with and spending all of your free time with. Others of you, however, will look around and think, I made a huge mistake, what am I doing here? Don’t worry! Not everyone’s Orientation Week is perfect (mine definitely wasn’t), and you’ll be so busy that you won’t have time to worry.
So what will you be doing? You’ll be in groups of about 30 students and participate in various activities. You’ll meet with your advisor to talk about classes, get to know the kids in your halls, attend lectures given by various departments on campus and go to fun, bonding activities such as food fairs and the illumination ceremony.
Should you find yourself having some free time, you should definitely reach out to people and see if they want to head into Davis or Harvard Square and explore/eat/shop, etc.. Maybe even venture into downtown and hit up Newbury Street! You can also check out more Tufts resources such as TuftsLife, a super helpful site where students post about different things, and you can learn about all the events happening around campus on a given day. You’ll learn about iSis—the site where you look and register for classes—with your O groups, but the more you check it out yourself, the less you’ll feel overwhelmed by it.
And, of course, if you’re looking for something fun to read, be sure to dive into HC Tufts – we have tons of articles on campus life from Campus Cuties, to Celebs, News and more!
Here’s some quick advice:
1) Don’t be afraid to be super ou
tgoing. You only meet people if you make an effort, and the girl you introduce yourself to might end up being your besT friend (or introducing you to your best friend). You won’t know unless you say hi.
2) I know it seems annoying, but go to all of the mandatory meetings during O-Week. You’re only a Freshman once, and they do a good job organizing different lectures and activities to help you get more accustomed to Tufts.
3) And finally, Tufts is a small school. Regardless of how cool you are now that you go to college, you really don’t want to be that girl that gets TEMS-ed on your first night out- BE SMART!
Have fun, and go into O-week with an open mind! Remember that if you asked a lot of Upper Classmen, they would say that wanted to be back in your position.
HCXO