<p>haha oh no, i know everyone's entitled to their own opinion. And believe me, there are TONS of kids who found soulmates in their wilderness or IO groups, and are perfectly happy going back and forth up and down the hill. I just feel bad for the kids who are like, "all my friends live uphill and it sucks." I have friends in my dorm, friends I met walking around, friends from choir and other activities. Also some kids who did pre-or, though they LOVED it at the time, now lament not staying home an extra few days with their HS friends. They were like "...yeah, I could have waited a week to make the friends I'd live with for four years."</p>
<p>But, to each his own! I'm sure the trips were fun, I'm just glad my core group is in my dorm.</p>
<p>i mean, there are some people who met online and are still best friends that hang out all the time today. but there were too many people i met in person and was like "........" I'm a pretty social, friendly person, but I think it works better when you actually meet someone in person to understand the dynamic you have, rather than attempt to transfer an online friendship to real life. Plus it's just plain weird that you can know so much about a person without ever having spoken to them. It's better to have a FRESH START instead of awkward semi-ties :-D</p>
<p>BUT if you're bored and want to meet some Jumbos, fine.</p>
<p>Yeah Renee is totally right about not doing the myspace thing. It's kinda creepy. Although renee and i had a pretty sweet meeting in real life. </p>
<p>Lots of my friends who dont drink or go to the frats go out alot. There's always things to do.</p>
<p>OH and if you guys are interested in doing student government, there are many options open! Theres TCU Senate (TCU stands for Tufts Community Union) as ELBO (Elections Board), TCUJ (Judiciary), CSL (Committee On Student Life) and alot more! Senate is probably the big thing, they have 7 spots reserved for each class and sometimes more. Their responsibility is to manage the 1.2 million that Tufts recieves from student activity fees. </p>
<p>There's also the Class Councils, which fall under the Programming Board. Programming Board is responsible for all of the programming (events) that occur at Tufts. Ususally Senate and Programming Board work together to put on events, such as Fall Ball and Winter Bash, which are huge dances. Other groups that fall under the umbrella of the Programming Board are, Lecture Series, Film Series, Entertainment Board, Concert Board, and TUSC (Tufts University Spirit Coalition), aside from each respective Class Council. Each class council has 5 spots, (President, Vice President of Academic Programming, Vice President of Social Programming, Secretary, Treasurer)</p>
<p>I'm a freshman at Tufts this year and I'm a non-drinker. In my opinion Tufts is a great school for non-drinkers. While on campus parties do revolve around Frats if you're creative you can find PLENTY of ways to entertain yourself. As was mentioned...BOSTON!!! The cool thing about Tufts is that it's not completely isolated so people drink because there's nothing else to do. There IS plenty to do. The other nice thing about having Frats is that most of the partying goes on there NOT so much in the dorms. Really it's like anywhere you go... if you don't want to drink you don't have to.</p>
<p>LOL Tim Li I love you. The way Tim and I met is so contrived, though. He and I talked online all the time over the summer, and when we got here like a few weeks went by when I didn't meet him ONCE, even though we lived in the same dorm. Finally one day I IMed him and was like, that's it, Tim Li, I ahve to meet you, you're the only one I talked to online whom I haven't met yet. I ran into him standing in my hall the next day and was like TIM LI! and he was like RENEE?!?!? (i'm...really easily identifiable b/c i'm like 4'11, lol) and we hugged and were like FINALLY. Still friends, too, but that's because he's friends with everyone in my group as well. I only say hi to most of the people I talked to on myspace on the rare occasion that I run into them on campus (mostly b/c they live uphill, haha).</p>
<p>I guess myspace thing is not pretty bad for International studetns. Bcoz, intl studnts like me dont really get a chance to see the college or feel around until they actually come. SO, it woould be good to see people in myspace, even talk with some of them just to calm the anxiety and increase knowledge.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman at Tufts and I honestly don't see anything wrong with Myspace, LiveJournal, etc for meeting people before arriving on the hill. I met my original roommate on the Connection2009 Forums (they're forums that Tufts sets up for the admitted students in June, the summer before they matriculate) and we hit it off so much that we requested each other to be roommates and it was a fantastic fit! I also met one of my closest friends here at Tufts via CC! I have to admit that the rest of the people I talked to, I did not clique with when I met in person and seldom even run into on campus. But so what? I think there's no harm in meeting people and bonding over a common excitement for Tufts, college, interests, etc. It's just important to be realistic about these relationships and not have your expectations set too high regarding continued friendships with these online friends. As long as you don't get too carried away, envisioning your online friends as friends for life, etc, I see no problem with having them, for the several months leading up to September. </p>
<p>As for the pre-orientation programs, I completely disagree with Renee. I did IO (I'm not an international student but I was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to LA when I was 5 so I'm still kind of international, heh) and I had a blast. It's true, I'm not close friends with most of the people I met there, but it's still nice to get to know people. It definitely eased me into Tufts, allowing me learn some names and get to know some people in a smallish group (300 I think) before the rest of the class arrived. It was also nice to get to move in and set up my dorm room early.</p>
<p>Renee, what's this about 90% of the lesson fee being waved if you major in Music? I'm a music major and have never heard anything about that. I think what you're talking about is the ensemble scholarship, which, if you get it (it's not hard to get) covers about 90% of your lesson fees if you're concurrently enrolled in an ensemble (like Chamber Singers, Chorale, Gospel Choir, Orchestra, etc.) -- but this can only be done for a max of TWO semesters by each person. Is that what you're talking about? Or is this something different?</p>
<p>no Julia, that's actually true. I know about the ensemble scholarship, I'm applying for it next semester haha. If you look at the music department webpage they talk about paying 90% of the fee if you declare a music major/minor.</p>
<p>I get what you're saying about bonding w/people about shared excitement for Tufts, but pretty much everyone I met here was like "Oh god...myspace". I know plenty of people who struck up realllllly strong online friendships, talking for hours and hours online and even on the phone. When they got here, they didn't speak at all. Maybe because they lived too far away, or something, but it left them kinda bitter. </p>
<p>Here's another thing. I have a good friend here who's the only other guy from my town to come to Tufts. He and i were pretty close in HS, hung out a lot, he took me to his prom. We ended up being put in the same dorm to our surprise and delight. He is an awesome kid. But on myspace, for some reason, he had this really creepy picture up, called himself "The Rover" and made regular posts but with things that could be misinterpreted as sketchy. I had to follow each of this with a counterpost of "Mike, ***. Everyone, I swear to god that Mike is TOTALLY NORMAL, do NOT think these posts are representative." When we got here, Mike made lots of friends, but today one of our friends was like "Hey Renee...what was with the whole Rover thing? I didn't realize that that was Mike until like December, but by then I knew him too well to think he was creepy." Also, on the day of Orientation, I was having a conversation with a myspace kid about how creepy it is to run into myspace people. He was like, "OMG, do you know who I saw today? THE ROVER!!!! IT WAS SO WEIRD!" And I had to immediately tell him that NOOOOO MIKE IS REALLY COOL I SWEAR!</p>
<p>I have friends who did myspace, and friends who did not do myspace. The ones who didn't have never said, I regret not being on myspace!</p>
<p>I was interested in doing Wilderness when I was an incoming freshman but I didn't because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my friends and boyfriend, and I totally regretted not doing it later! It's a great way to go into Tufts with a few friends already and makes the transition a lot easier. Now I'm a leader in the Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO!!) and I love all the people involved. I've never spoken to anyone who regretted doing it. If hiking or canoeing isn't your thing, I've heard all good things about both FOCUS and F.I.T. too, you really can't go wrong.</p>
<p>haha I doubt it Matt17. I stayed the night at Tufts and went through the Tufts nightlife (on campus) - went to 3 different fraternity parties. It seemed pretty tame, everyone is incredibly nice. A lot of people stay in most nights during the week (from what I witnessed) and go to boston.!!! Boston is amazing!! I'm from Australia and have only been to america once before and that was to visit boston/tufts/new york. People come hang in boston with me!!!</p>