<p>I learned a whole hell of a lot of things in my first year at school. After seeing a post on the University of Michigan page by "maizeandblue21" I was inspired to also write about my learning at the great University of Minnesota at Twin Cities. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The accent here was the first thing I noticed. Any word with “ag” has the “A” pronounced. It turns out if you’re not from Minnesota or Wisconsin you’re the one with the funny accent. </p></li>
<li><p>If you torrent videos download something really funny or anything that gets you in a good mood. All of this homework and studying will stress you out big time. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t be surprised if you get a professor who isn’t good with grammar. I have a calculus professor who needed help spelling “acceleration.”</p></li>
<li><p>The international students whine and b*ch about everything. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard complaining about American football or the American accent and how the British accent is the correct accent and that Americans are stupid. The Minnesota nice heavily comes into play in these situations. </p></li>
<li><p>Minnesota nice, for anyone who doesn’t know, is essentially that Minnesotans are nice when you talk to them, but they talk badly about you behind your backs. </p></li>
<li><p>With dating, remember that you don’t have to like someone if you don’t feel the need. Even though you’re starting college, a relationship is not at all a priority. </p></li>
<li><p>Stay humble; don’t act like you own the place and that everyone should bow down to your ass. (this is a huge problem in Middlebrook)</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure that you make friends that you have common interests with. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re living in an apartment with guys you thought were great friends then realize you have nothing in common. </p></li>
<li><p>If the football season last year was dismal, you shouldn’t buy season football tickets. I only paid for one ticket and I got 4 others for free. </p></li>
<li><p>The hockey team makes up for the football team. Get season tickets for them. </p></li>
<li><p>College is better if you’re chill about everything you and your friends do. I refer you to #7 and #8. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t whine about the food. There are very few schools with great food and the cooks have to serve 10,000 students. Cut them some slack. </p></li>
<li><p>Actually don’t whine about anything. It just ruins the mood and the time. </p></li>
<li><p>If you were a social outcast in high school (like me) odds are you will be placed in Middlebrook. Try to change your anti-socialism because you’ll probably be very hateful towards everything. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t take things too seriously. You’d think college students are much chiller than what I’m saying and what I thought when I first started. Ohhh I was wrong…. </p></li>
<li><p>Get help if you’re ever considering suicide. I’m not joking on this part. First semester was really depressing. Socializing goes on so much that you sometimes lose yourself and you don’t know what’s going on anymore. </p></li>
<li><p>Now, that the bad stuff is out of the way, Minneapolis is pretty awesome to bike in. Bring or buy a bicycle and get a U-lock to keep it safe. It’s much faster to get to classes and it’s really fun to bike here. </p></li>
<li><p>Winter of 2012 made me hate snow forever, but Minnesota generally doesn’t have a lot of snow. This place is awesome in the spring and in the summer. </p></li>
<li><p>The rooms in Comstock are pretty small, though same sized as Middlebrook, but the food is above average and it’s in the center of campus, so commute time is smaller, so it’s probably the place to choose. If you really want the apartment scene, Yudolf is a student apartment right next to Comstock.</p></li>
<li><p>Staying on the topic of dorms, Pioneer, Frontier, Centennial, and Territorial, a.k.a Superblock, have huge reputations of partying and drinking, particularly Territorial. It might die down a little bit with the Greek freshmen hall coming in, but they’re also good places to stay, (especially if you love partying) as they’re closer to many places, though not as close as Comstock. </p></li>
<li><p>Bailey is probably the worst hall to stay in since it’s in St. Paul, but if you really love food and if you’re a CBS or CFANS student, it’s pretty good. There’s also absolutely nothing to do in the St. Paul campus. </p></li>
<li><p>The Sandford dorm is where all of the athletic students in high school stay; the Wilkins student apartment for the students who play for the school stay. Sandford by far has the best food on the entire campus, and probably the best good looking students, too. </p></li>
<li><p>Middlebrook is the biggest dorm on campus, with 2 buildings, one with 12 floors and another with 6 floors with all suites, a.k.a. east building. The theater, honors, and the international freshmen live here. The stereotypes of students in Middlebrook are pretty bad and most are true. If you weren’t in theater, aren’t movie buffs, hate partying, hate hot girls or guys, nor love engaging in political discussions that go way too far, this is probably not the place for you. </p></li>
<li><p>The stereotypes of Middlebrook were that everyone is an honors student (so not true), all of the girls were hot (the Middlebrook hot, which is true), and the theater kids dramatize everything and are very loud and annoying (which is true and unfortunately not limited to theater kids). It's essentially the "goody-two-shoes" dorm of this school. </p></li>
<li><p>I should say that though Middlebrook wasn’t my ideal dorm, most of the people were pretty nice. They do offer free condoms! </p></li>
<li><p>Dinkytown has some pretty awesome food. Popular places are Annie’s, Five Guys, and Mesa’s Pizza. Big portions of great food come with a big price, though. </p></li>
<li><p>Coffman also has some pretty tasty food. You can also buy the food with Flexdine, which you get with a meal plan. The restaurants are Jamba Juice, Panda Express, Einstein’s, Starbucks, Chick-fil-a, Qdoba, and a really good pizza place that I don’t remember the name of.</p></li>
<li><p>Welcome Week is kind of restricting, forcing you to go to random things, but it was a pretty nice way to come into school. A lot of great memories came from Welcome Week.</p></li>
<li><p>Gay 90’s is the most popular club. There’s Aqua that’s free for U of M students on Thursday’s, but Aqua sucks. </p></li>
<li><p>You should probably get a U-pass. It is expensive at $97, but it’s very convenient to travel around the metro area. </p></li>
<li><p>Apparently this school is usually not the first choice of many students. Most of the people here are here because their first choice was too expensive, they got offered the most AP credits, or because they’re doing chemical engineering. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t take a writing intensive course your first semester unless you’re in engineering. You have to take freshman writing but don’t do anything else.</p></li>
<li><p>Football here really sucks because nobody is into it at all. The Michigan game was ¾ Michigan fans in TCF. Most of the students at the games are really drunk because that’s the only fun you have at the games when you're football team isn't as good as it was in the 1950s. </p></li>
<li><p>This state is so white that I forgot Hispanics in the U.S. even existed. Seriously, though. </p></li>
<li><p>There's honestly so many things to do on campus and the campus is huge. Partying is fun but also explore the campus while you're here. </p></li>
<li><p>This school also calls itself "the U." It gets really confusing if you're into college sports. </p></li>
<li><p>You'll find yourself watching kid shows again to get away from the idea that you have to become a responsible mature adult in 4 years. </p></li>
<li><p>I feel a lot more Canadian after spending only one year here, especially my new liking for hockey. Go Blackhawks! </p></li>
<li><p>Basketball here is pretty much dead. There was a time when it looked like it was coming alive again, but it returned to the dead when the gophers lost to Iowa. I also don't know any Timberwolves fans. </p></li>
<li><p>If you're not a history major, don't take a history class until you're an upperclassmen if you still need AP credit. </p></li>
<li><p>Pre-med students don't get any AP credit. This isn't just with Minnesota but with every other school. Medical schools don't accept AP credit nor community college credit anymore. </p></li>
<li><p>The Carlson students are apparently the biggest *****bags. I don't know the extent of truth of this but I think a lot of people agree to this.</p></li>
<li><p>The Spring weather is so long-awaited that everyone dresses like their at the beach, especially the girls. Get those sunglasses, boys; enjoy "ass season" while you can.</p></li>
<li><p>The Confessions Page on Facebook for this school is hilarious. </p></li>
<li><p>If you're an international student reading this, college in the U.S. is not at all like American Pie.</p></li>
<li><p>I think this is probably the majority of the things I've learned here. I did have a lot of fun here, but I did want to get the hell out in the last couple of months. I don't know if my time at my first choice school would be perfect. It's not so bad that I want to transfer, though, and college is primarily what you make of it, and the overall school secondarily. Go gophers!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also don't take anything personally; I joke a lot.</p>
![http://climate.umn.edu/img/historical/msp_seasonal_snowfall.png[/url]](http://climate.umn.edu/img/historical/msp_seasonal_snowfall.png%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
