<p>I agree that if shedding hair is equiv. to a chocolate lab,that’s pretty disgusting. We had a yellow lab where, I swear, I could make a small dog out of what he shed in a week. But blowing ones nose in the shower is pretty up there as well.</p>
<p>The nose blowing is pretty disgusting. D’s suitemate does the same thing…only in the sink. Nasty.</p>
<p>My child attends VCU and his pet peeve is noise, noise and more noise. Even the library is noisy. Freshmen year, the noise came from hallmates, hooting and hollering all night long. He moved to an apartment style suite and now the noise comes from the street. He lives off a main road in Richmond and contends with traffic noise, sirens, and homeless people fighting just below his window.</p>
<p>He has adjusted but, when he comes back home to our very quiet suburban street, he crawls into bed and sleeps for a week.</p>
<p>proud-mom: To answer your question, I know that I don’t want to specify what school my S (a freshman) is attending because he is unhappy mainly with one aspect of it (drinking). I know that there are many other things about the school that he is happy with, especially the academics. Also, I’m not entirely sure how much the drinking is really part of the college culture to the extent he describes it as being, and how much is simply his needing time to adjust, or that he’s been stuck in a heavy drinking dorm. It’s only been about two months after all. Therefore, I hesitate to name the school because there are many other wonderful things about it and I would not want to influence anyone to cross it off their list because of purely subjective comments I have made here.</p>
<p>I’ll second drunken roommates or neighbors. Roommates that skip morning classes because they stayed up too late irks me to no end. The ignorance of some people bugs me. Many of the people I met lived in the city and never knew how to take mass transit. What really floored me was when someone was surprised that the Muslim RA didn’t go out drinking! Now I know I was really lucky growing up in an extremely diverse inner-city setting but some of these things make me feel embarrassed.
-Gotta eat</p>
<p>When roommate steals things without asking – especially if not real “friends” yet.</p>
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<p>This is something that kind of surprises me as well. I live in rural America and had never been on a train, plane, or bus before. Ever. I managed to use the DC Metro just fine. I’m not saying a new user shouldn’t have hiccups - I sure did! And I’m sure the bus system would puzzle me at first. But I was with a girl on the metro on my way home from DC this weekend and she just hopped on the blue line, not checking to see which direction it was going. We had come from the same program, so we knew each other tentatively. Then she chided me for letting her know that she was going the wrong way, which, as she was hoping to catch a flight, I thought was proper manners. So… I just let her ride all the way to Largo Town Center. Wonder if she ever made that plane.</p>
<p>I’m always puzzled when someone is so intimidated by public transport that they refuse to use it. It can be confusing at first, but what the heck is wrong with asking questions or getting assistance? My own D would rather walk 3 miles than get on a bus and ask the driver to let her know when her stop is coming. Am I so old that I don’t remember a time when asking for assistance was out of the question, or is this something that certain people find simply impossible to do? I seriously don’t get it.</p>
<p>I didn’t know you could ask the driver things like that! <em>slaps forehead</em> </p>
<p>Most of Michigan does not have any public transportation to speak of, so I am having a really hard time figuring out how to use it even though I am THRILLED to have it. I don’t understand the route maps no matter how I try, and I don’t understand how you know when your stop is coming if you’ve never been there before to recognize it. My boyfriend has taken me places on the bus at least half a dozen times and tried to teach me but I get so confused and I am afraid I will end up getting lost on the opposite side of town, and people always look at me like I am incomprehensibly stupid when I don’t understand the route map. >.<</p>
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<p>Lol Twisted. Live and learn!</p>
<p>Claire1016: You’re absolutely right. One of my kids in an honors college thought it was irritating when freshmen kept referring to their AP classes, or their GPA or SAT scores. He thought it was funny when he ended up with higher grades in calculus and organic than some of the kids who were bragging about their high school performance. </p>
<p>He said it was ironic that the kids in his honors college would laugh at the freshmen who were still wearing their high school letter jackets, when the same kids were hung up on their own high school academic honors.</p>
<p>Many cities have public transportation route on the internet or iPhone. You could literally enter origin and destination, and the program would give you the best route, whether it’s bus or train, or combination. We did that in Paris and Sydney. In NYC there is such a site too.</p>
<p>I find that people hate to ask for help or direction is a common problem. My mother is that way, as is much of the rest of my family. I have found this to be especially true when I go on college campus visits or overnights: at every trip I’ve been on, I’ve been known as the person who isn’t afraid to ask for something. I just ask, and nine times out of ten I get a polite answer. I’ve noticed that some people are especially hesitant to approach customer service. Huh? That’s why those people get paid! Ask and ye shall receive.</p>
<p>I guess part of the not asking for directions syndrome is the desire not to look like a freshman, lol.</p>
<p>Speaking to the question of drinking culture on campus, here is a link to an article with the facts and with helpful recommendations to parents:</p>
<p>[College</a> Fact Sheet for Parents](<a href=“http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/NIAAACollegeMaterials/collegeFactSheetForParents.aspx]College”>http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/NIAAACollegeMaterials/collegeFactSheetForParents.aspx)</p>
<p>Today my pet peeve is that my residence hall is apparently a polling place. It doesn’t seem right that they would do that in the building we LIVE in, particularly given that we are basically throwing all our security rules out the window for the day. I am probably being needlessly contentious about it but it just doesn’t seem right, especially with all the buildings we have on campus that are actually open to the public that wouldn’t have disturbed the residents.</p>
<p>stringkeymom: Thank you for that link. I look forward to reading it. Btw, I have tried to send you a pm but it doesn’t seem to be working. I hope someday when I discover what I am doing wrong I can get it to you. :)</p>
<p>Twisted, I have to agree…that’s a pretty stupid idea. I hope you and your fellow residents will address it to the Residential Life folks (or whatever they are called @ your school) and to your administration as appropriate.</p>
<p>Mummom, I got one PM from you “testing” the transmission, but nothing else. Please try again!</p>
<p>I have to say, I have seen college spaces used for polling frequently over the years. I find it peculiar, given the high security risk of allowing unlimited access over the 12-14 hour polling day.</p>
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<p>Rules really don’t do much for that. At my school, in the single-sex the freshmen dorms, guests of the opposite sex need to be signed in if it’s after 11 and on weeknights they’re supposed to be out by 2, and 3 on weekends.</p>
<p>I can’t even tell you how many times I, or one of my friends have slept in the guys dorm without even signing in or anything.</p>
<p>My roommate has a boyfriend, and there was one night, pretty much right after they started dating that she and her boyfriend were just being loud and obnoxious while I was trying to sleep (with my iPod on with headphones too), and I didn’t want to be mean, but around 1, I lay down the rules: either they needed to shut up, or he needed to leave. There have been no problems since.</p>
<p>Regarding the changing thing…people can shut their eyes if the person changing wants privacy. I personally couldn’t care less and have completely stripped to shower whilst my roommates boyfriend was here.</p>
<p>My biggest pet peeves are:</p>
<p>1) People being loud in the dorms late. My next door neighbors will talk loudly the entire night on a regular basis.
2) Repetitive food. It’s not even that it’s bad, but there’s always the same thing and it gets old quick.</p>
<p>I was wondering whether to start another thread, really wanted to know more from the current college freshman parents how their 2nd semester is going…</p>