UD: A Current Freshman's Perspective

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Dayton
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<p>Hey all, I don't see any threads like this on the current board, and I know decisions are coming out soon. I figured I'd write a little about UD to give you a little more insight than you'd get from a general tour or a trip to the website.</p>

<p>First, a little about me: I'm a first year student, I'm a science (Biology) major and I will probably take on a minor in sociology sometime in the near future. I have a lot of experience in the science/math areas, but if you're into business, engineering or music or something of the sort I don't have any real specific information about that, sorry :/</p>

<p><em>None of this is meant to discourage anyone from attending/visiting! I *LOVE</em> UD- it's sooo comfortable and it feels like home, no matter where I am on campus.</p>

<p>A few things they might not tell you about on the tour:
-There are stinkbugs. Everywhere. They are always on my window, and I haven't been unlucky enough to discover any in my room yet, but I know that some other girls on my wing have found them crawling through the hallway. They're not dangerous or anything, but we don't have them where I live and I had no idea what they were at first.</p>

<p>-The library (Roesch Library) is sinking. It was built in the 60's, when many Americans began attending colleges, and the architects and engineers accounted for the weight of the materials, but not the weight of the books! I guess they were just in a hurry to build it.. haha. It's not like it's going to fall down anytime soon, but it's a fun fact that I like to tell people.</p>

<p>-Urban legend has a quote from David Letterman (apparently from ~2003) stating that UD is one of the top four places to be on St. Patrick's Day- along with New York, Dublin, and Chicago. I didn't believe this at all when I started but after witnessing March 17th.. Well, I've never been a party girl, but the ghetto was insane. You could hear waves of music and talking/screaming all the way outside the Science Center pretty much all day. </p>

<p>-the Ghetto. The administration calls it the 'South Student Neighborhood', and who can blame them? It's where all the parties happen, and for the first two months it's pretty lively, and you can meet a lot of people and have a lot of fun. in November things start to slow down on the weekends and a lot of people stop going out.</p>

<p>-There are tons of things to do.
-->Religious? They have mass in the chapels of all the first year dorms once a week. There is also a mass held at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception (that's the one in the middle of campus, it's usually involved in the logo of the University). What I like to go to is a mass in the Ghetto on Sunday nights, appropriately called "Ghetto Mass". It's held in the McGinnis Center and the priest who usually does it is a riot. Campus Ministry is huge and awesome, I've met some really great people through it. I went on a new student retreat in September and ended up leading one at the end of February, and I'll be one of the Sophomore leaders on the first year retreat next fall.
--Feeling artsy? They have workshops on ArtStreet, which is near the McGinnis center in the ghetto, where you can do all kinds of neat things. a few weeks ago they had a DIY shelf building class. There's also Thursday Night Live, where they have student performances and comedy routines.
--> The RecPlex has some sweet fitness classes that you can take. Yoga, spinning, zumba, pilates, P90X... There's an awesome natatorium, plenty of basketball courts and even a rock climbing wall. The third floor has a track, exercise machines and a weight room.</p>

<p>Seminars in individual departments (the bio dept has them every tuesday and thursday)
Summer classes/study abroad/cultural immersions/Break Outs- all are awesome. UD has some great partner schools in other countries. Some of my upperclassmen friends are spending this semester in Ireland, and my RA from last semester was accepted to a study abroad in South Korea.</p>

<p>The BreakOuts are trips are service trips that are go to different places in the US and in the world. There was one for Premed students in Honduras where they worked in an underpriviledged hospital.</p>

<p>Sorry this was so long! I hope at least a few people find this useful. If anyone has an UD questions, I'll be glad to answer them as always! Post on here or PM me if it's more personal.</p>

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<p>a few more things since I last posted:</p>

<p>-The Wright Brothers are buried in the cemetery that is (w)right (/pun) next to campus. It’s called Woodland Cemetery, and Erma Bombeck is buried there also. It’s absolutely beautiful, and they leave it open and allow students to jog through it.</p>

<p>-Housing is awesome. There isn’t a bad place to live on campus. I think the % undergrads that live on campus is somewhere in the high 90’s. The fours first-year residence halls are: Marycrest, Stuart, Founders, and Marianist.
Marycrest is very spacious, and there’s the Crest dining hall on the first floor. Stuart is up the hill, which a lot of students playfully complain about having to walk up, but the campus is so small that in reality it’s hardly a walk. Founders is the oldest, and the smallest. But everyone gets really close because they all hang out and play soccer in the hallways! Marianist has 3 wings, 2 of which are for sophomores, so not many freshman live there. The building was built in '04 and also houses a learning space with classrooms and a study area, the bookstore, and the post office.</p>

<p>-The dining hall staff is AMAZING. This might sound weird but they really are! By the second or third week of school at least 2 of them knew my name, and they always ask how you’re doing. They are sooo nice. Even the custodians are cool- they always say hi and tell you to have a great day, even if you’ve never seen them before.</p>

<p>-Professors come in a varying range, to be honest. My chem. professor last semester was awful, I ended up having to drop and retake this semester to avoid a potential F or D. My professor this semester, though, is awesome. It really varies and I find that looking at rate my professor or going on advice from upperclassmen really helps when scheduling. </p>

<p>-Gen eds: mehh. There are three classes that everyone takes exactly the same, which are History 103, Philosophy 103 and Religion 103. I have not yet taken the latter two because I’m a science major and have limited openings in my schedule.
–For religion: you can take General, which studies major world religions, Catholic, which (surprise!) is based on Catholicism, or Scripture. I don’t think I know anyone who took scripture so exactly what you do in those sections, I’m not really sure.
–You also have to take English Composition classes the first year: You can be placed into either Eng 101 and 102, which you take both semesters, or you can be placed in the Freshman Honors Writing Seminar, Eng 114. I placed into 114 with a 32 Reading on ACT and an A average from HS english courses. From what I understand, they evaluate both. I don’t really think of myself as a writer, and Dayton does NOT look at the writing portion of the ACT/SAT when going through applications. Which is nice, for people like me, anyway :)</p>

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<p>I’m glad things are working out well for, sparkles. Unfortunately, many of the regular posters have left Dayton, including my daughter. Some of us have posted our stories on the Parent Board.</p>

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<p>Sparkles, thanks for your perspective. My daughter has been accepted, but hasn’t visited yet, and your input was great to read. Seems like when kids visit UD, most come away loving it!</p>

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<p>Buckeye, I really don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Dayton. Several kids I know are transferring because of the huge expense, some because they just can’t keep up with the costs and others because their gpas were below the necessary 3.0 to keep the large merit scholarships. I’m sorry to say that if my gpa every dips below a 3.0 for more than 2 semesters (although I don’t anticipate this) I would also have to transfer.</p>

<p>Toledo, maybe I missed it but I couldn’t find anything on the parents board. May I ask why she left and what year she was in?</p>

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<p>My daughter left this year, during her first year. Another poster here had a son leave after first semester and then a third poster’s son, who was a sophomore in engineering, may have left after first semester. We all posted on this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1049261-any-failing-freshman-turn-around-2nd-semester.html?highlight=dayton[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1049261-any-failing-freshman-turn-around-2nd-semester.html?highlight=dayton&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So, yes, kids LOVE Dayton. Unfortunately, many can’t handle the constant partying that goes on there. Even though every school has it’s share of drinking, I really feel it’s worse at some schools.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry to hear that! While I enjoy going out with friends every once in a while, I’m definitely not a party girl. The “party school” image was certainly not what attracted me to UD. But I can understand why your daughter and others ended up leaving, because the party scene here is pretty ferocious. For those who aren’t as into it, it can be pretty tough to deal with at times, for example on Thursday nights, when you have a Chemistry test at 9 am the next morning and the girls next to you are pregaming… loudly… uurhhgg.</p>

<p>I hope your D is having a better semester/time off. One of my guy friends ended up leaving because he hated all the partying, and a girl from my HS withdrew due to low grades.</p>

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<p>Just want to say that the library is not sinking, so no worries. “Forgot to calculate the weight of the books” is an urban myth that you will hear at just about any college. Building codes are way more stringent than that, and geotechnical/structural engineers have this come up in conversation once in a while.</p>

<p>My 2012 son is thinking of applying to Dayton in the fall, partly because of its proximity to good roller coasters.</p>

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<p>As a UD alum it was nice to hear the report. There are parties at every school and those who want to find them will. I still go to Dayton to see the occasional basketball game, it is always great to be back on campus. It is a school that is always striving to change and be better. I seldom go back when I don’t see some nice improvements on what is already a wonderful school.</p>