Advice for incoming freshmen

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

<p>Alright so I just finished forum-whoring the U of I section, which I havnt really visited since being an applicant.</p>

<p>I figure I'll try to think up as much stuff as possible that I wish I had known before coming here.</p>

<p>1) Take your math gen-eds over the summer before showing up. The Math department at this school sucks. I Aced AP Calc (then got a 3 on the AP test, so had to take calc again) then was doing well in Calc I here, thought i did fine on the first exam, got a D+ on it, dropped the class, am taking it a community college this summer. The prof was an a-hole and the TA didnt really speak clear english. I'm not alone in wishing I had taken it at a JC before showing up.</p>

<p>2) Come with an open mind. There are lots of people here, so try not to treat it like high school. Don't dismiss certain groups of people/activities without even exploring them. As soon as you're moved in, your roommate and you should go around introducing yourselves to the other people in your dorm. these people will probably be the people you party with during rush. guys, make sure you make some female friends too, so you aren't a big sausage mob looking to throw off the ratio at a decent party. </p>

<p>3) Rush the fraternities/sororities. Ask the front desk at your dorm for a campus map, so you dont sound like a freshman when you're drunk and asking for directions to the six pack. Way too many people show up with their mind determined that greek life "isn't for me." Yeah I'm lookin at you Allen Hall :-P . That is kinda the attitude I had coming here, but my roommate was rushing and I kinda tagged along and ate food at a bunch of different frat houses, ended up having some fun at the parties, met lots of great people, got a bid to a house, accepted, survived pledgeship, and am verrrry glad I decided to rush. ISNT for everybody, but dont decide that till you go check out whats up. Make sure you stay ahead with your coursework during rush and dont get into the wrong mindset about college. After rush, if you don't join a house, the partying severely dies down unless you go to the bars. If you do join a house, you will have no time to party because you will be so busy with pledgeship, which will still have it's fun times. </p>

<p>4) Figure out what you want to accomplish, and write up a 4 year plan for what classes you need to take. I just finished mine. Don't count on your advisor to get you out of here in 4 years, or get you the right classes. Try to take gen ed classes that overlap (historical perspectives and western/nonwestern studies) so that you have more time for getting your major classes done. Take registration seriously, because classes DO fill up and you can get stuck with crappy profs or crappy times or even not being able to take a class you need. The decent econ profs were all filled up by the time I got a chance to register, so I am taking Gottheil at 8AM for macroeconomics. that deserves 5 sad faces.. :( :( :( :( :(</p>

<p>5) Get involved. Join a club or something, there are a million of them, and you will meet other people with stuff in common, and maybe some upperclassmen that have better advice than me (not likely ;) ).</p>

<p>6) Bring a snack stockpile. Try to make it healthy so you dont lose your 6-pack like this hotty did. Full Throttles are good to have in the back of the fridge for those long nights every once in a while. Don't be scared to wrap muffins and food from the dining hall in napkins and bring it back to the room. As far as what meal plan to choose, I got by just perfect with the 12 meal 1500 credit plan. any more credits than that and you will be looking for stupid ways to waste them, like buying packs of 20 powerades. I just bring a gatorade bottle into the dining hall at any meal and fill it up at the powerade pump, and dont have to pay 125 credits (thats a dollar and 25 cents). It seems like housing isnt too upfront with the fact that the meal plans all cost a different price, and it seems the more pricey ones are the ones that are heavy on cafe credits, which are a ripoff but you better have some when somebody asks if you wanna go to late-night with them.</p>

<p>7) avoid 8AM classes... this isnt high school. 8AM in high school translates to 6AM in college. people dont seem to go to bed till like 2AM usually. I havn't taken this many naps since preschool.</p>

<p>I'm not done... Ill think up more stuff later. Any other students are welcomed to rebut me or contribute more. donations accepted cash/check/credit.</p>

2

<p>i'll stress rule #7. Even 9 is too early for me. Don't be afraid to take classes during the afternoon and early evening. You're really not gonna be missing out on any fun with your friends or anything. When i was a freshman i took three 7:45's (wisconsin, not uofi, don't think they even have 7:45 here) a week and thought it would be nice to get done early and hang out the rest of the day. Wrong. Everyone is in class. Eventually you'll work out a schedule that lets you wake up after 9 each day and allows you to take friday off. It's pretty amazing.</p>

3

<p>"any more credits than that and you will be looking for stupid ways to waste them, like buying packs of 20 powerades. I just bring a gatorade bottle into the dining hall at any meal and fill it up at the powerade pump, and dont have to pay 125 credits (thats a dollar and 25 cents)."</p>

<p>See, these are the things that I like to know that no one ever tells you. Thanks so much for all the info, it's pretty likely I'm going to U of I this fall. </p>

<p>One thing I'm worried about is finding the "good professors" - how do people find out about them? Do you just have to make friends with upperclassmen, is there a certain website or posting to use, or is it all some big secret? For example you took the general core classes right, so would you remember what their names are and let us know? Also, I'm in the Engineering school, so hopefully the Math department wouldn't be as retarded or something.</p>

4

<p><a href="http://www.ratemyprofessors.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.ratemyprofessors.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

5

<ol>
<li>I kind of had the opposite problem with Calc. I took AP Calc last year(senior year of high school), sucked on it, got a C both semesters, got a 1 on the AP Exam. </li>
</ol>

<p>So, I re-take it this year, Math 234(Calc for Business) and get A's on 3 of the 4 exams, and end up with an A- in a Math Class in a semester for only the 2nd time in the last 4.5 years. </p>

<p>The thing was it was a lot easier b/c they went through strictly the book, they didn't use outside sources and material like in my school. </p>

<p>There was a weekly quiz and 3 midterm exams+ the final exam. </p>

<p>You study, you make sure you do the homework, you should get at least a B in the class. Considerably easier than my high school AP Calc class.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Sometimes you get stuck with 8AM classes. I got stuck with them 3 days of the week last semester and same thing this semester b/c of the ****ty priority I got. Oh well, it's not like I'm a late waker upper. Probably the latest I'll wake up is 10 AM, maybe 11 if I go to sleep late. Sometimes you can't help it. Especially for Freshman with bad priority.</p></li>
<li><p>I try to go to bed around 11-11:30 pm on days that I have 8 AM classes. I've had a tough time fallin asleep a lot of nights(maybe partly due to my roomie, partly due to the new environment), but that's what I try to do. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Then days when I've got classes that start at 9 or 10 AM, I'll go to bed after 12. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Separate out your classes, don't take several in a row. I got stuck with 2 classes this semester that are back-to-back, both 2 hr. classes. Thankfully it's only once a week, but it does suck. Kinda didn't have a choice b/c of my ****ty priority. </p></li>
<li><p>Like taffy said, bring the snacks and snacks and snacks. I have a ton from the start of the year and haven't finished half of my stuff yet. It's all sitting in my closet. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>But I do got a question about the frats. Does it take up a lot of your time, I mean rush and pledge, if you do get pledgeship. Did you feel like you were really time-deprived? Also, how many hrs. per day did it consume you?</p>

6

<p>Hmmm, can you change your major after being admitted, considering that you have yet to matriculate?</p>

7

<p>I agree with pretty much all the advice of the guy who started this thread. Especially the meal plan thing--get the 12 meal/1500 credit plan, because any more than that and you'll be obsessing over how to use all your credits and getting way too much food.</p>

<p>Try to do well on your ACT b/c if you get a 31 on English you don't have to take Rahet 105 with all the rest of the freshmen and they automatically give you the 4 credit hrs for rhet 105. </p>

<p>I swear by ratemyprofessors.com. Most of the ratings are honest and very useful, so use it before you sign up for classes and try if you can to get good professors so your life isn't hell.</p>

<p>i came in with all kinds of preconceived notions about the Greek system. While it is true that the obscenely large greek system at U of I does have many frats and sororities that fit the media stereotypes, there are many more that do not, if you really look more them. There's plenty of groups that allow you to make friends for life, have actual networking activities, and do service projects, as opposed to just constant date parties and drunkenness all the time. </p>

<p>Oh, if you're a girl, when you're picking dorms, DONT pick LAR or Busey-Evans. Everyone I know who has lived there hated them. Try to get in a six-pck dorm because most people there are very social and you'll meet a lot of different, interesting people.</p>

8

<p>thanks for all the info. Any more is much appreciated</p>

9

<p>when it comes down to it, really no dorm is totally better than the rest. if you wanna party, there are good dorms and bad dorms for that. if you wanna study, there are good dorms and bad dorms for that. I'm trying very hard to maintain an objective presentation, though my personal opinion is very skewed in one direction. there are people who love and hate each and every dorm. living in a "social" dorm won't keep you from being studious, and living in a "study" dorm won't keep you from being social. you don't have to know just the people in your dorm, though it's more convenient. you're likely going to meet a couple of people in your dorm that you really like and will become friends with; and then you'll meet and befriend a lot more people as you get involved in groups and activities. i'll abstain from commenting on the greek system since i'm not involved with it, though i will say i've met both good and bad examples of fraternity and sorority members. that's just gotta be your own decision to make.</p>

<p>one can survive on the 12 meal/1500 credit plan. i've done so the last two semesters. the only problem is that if you wish to frequent late night often, you'll run out of credits rather quickly. you can easily add credits if you need them. this semester my schedule will often make me miss meals, so I'll be a little dependent on late night for sandwiches and such and i'm switching to the 10 meal/4500 credit plan for the semester. the first 6 weeks of fall semester, you can change your meal plan, so you could try out both plans and see which you like better. you can change your meal plan at the start of spring semester as well.</p>

<p>quad day is when pretty much every student and otherwise organization is on and around the quad. put down your email for anything that looks interesting to you. don't hesitate to put your name down for a lot. you can sort out which ones you really want to get involved in later. go early, lots of booths hand out free stuff that is gone by the afternoon. </p>

<p>the best way to learn the bus routes is to ride them, so just get on a bus and ride around on it til you get back to where you got on.</p>

10

<p>"But I do got a question about the frats. Does it take up a lot of your time, I mean rush and pledge, if you do get pledgeship. Did you feel like you were really time-deprived? Also, how many hrs. per day did it consume you?"</p>

<p>pledgeship really depends on the frat you want to join. the crap frats might take a couple hours a week, and the best frats might take up to 30. THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU THE TRUTH during rush about how much time it takes. The frats have to go by what the nationals say and so if they decide to go around nationals (common but needed otherwise frats would suck), they keep it underground. keep in mind that it isnt just time lost, and a major part of those 30 hours can be considered social time. Rushing frats doesnt really take up much time at all. The events are like "Open House 7-9pm Papa Dels Pizza" and you can stick around for as long as you want, probably between 30 mins and an hour. You can go to as many rush events as you want or as few. </p>

<p>I definitely felt like i was time deprived, but I didnt regret it, and I believe it will make me a better student for the next 7 semesters. I remember writing down on piece of binder paper all the stuff i had to do, how long it all would take, what needed to be done first, and then I scheduled together my week. That kind of organization is something I never had before the pressure cooker of pledgeship. I spent about 5 hours a day for pledgeship, but if I hadn't pledged, what would I have done instead for those 5 hours? play videogames, sleep, sit around? I've made some awesome friends, had a great time, and have some memories I will never forget when im old balls.</p>

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<p>Hey Taffy! Long time no see. I remember the days of "whoring" over the service academy forums. Looks like we both ended up here! Hopefully I will see you at chambana and we can catch up.</p>