It’s been a long time since I went to school, so I’m afraid I’m not going to be of much help. I just wanted to say something to the folks who are advising vold to just suck it up and deal with it. He’s (she?) got a lot going on right now. Preparing for school, arranging to move (somewhere), registering for classes, and all the other stuff can be a little daunting. I’m sure his general anxiety level is a little high anyway.
Remeber what it was like moving to a strange city when you were 17 or 18? I do.
One of the prime ones from far-off places is BART - take BART to the Daly City station, then hop on the free SFSU shuttle - runs every 15 minutes on weekdays 7AM - 10:30PM (7:00 on Friday). No weekend service, but there are regular bus lines from the station to the campus.
The campus is well-served by SF Muni - the M streetcar, as well as five or six bus lines go there.
You will need to balance price of housing with commute time. You can get a cheap apartment across the Bay in say, Hayward, but you’d have roughly a one-hour trip each way, and close to $9 a day in BART fare.
If you stay in SF, you can go all over town on Muni with a $45 monthly pass that’s also good for BART within SF. Sadly, the Daly City stop SFSU uses for their shuttle is not in SF, so that “free” shuttle winds up costing you something. You could take BART to Balboa Park, then get the M streetcar and ignore the shuttle entirely. Also, with BART, there’s no monthly pass, discounted or otherwise. Closest you get to a discount on BART is the $48 tickets that you can get at supermarkets for $45.
Places to go for more info:
Have you asked them, specifically, what it means to be 398 on the waitlist? I find it hard to believe that SFSU simply tells freshman - not returning students but freshman who presumably know nothing - “Sorry, no room for you, you’re SOL and we cannot tell you anything about any housing possibilities whatsoever in the entire Bay Area, you’re on your own, we have no housing office and no assistance, too bad, hope you find something.”
I understand your wish to be on campus - I would too as a freshman - but perhaps you should be asking the housing office for help?
I would try honesty. If they have a chance to cut a break for a student where on campus housing is a big factor in his successful transition to college life, they may cut you a break. Some people interpret fair as meaning treating everyone the same, and some don’t. So I would give it a shot. I would give honesty a shot way before I’d start my interaction with campus housing by establishing myself as someone who’d make up a phony medical excuse.
One thing you could do to address some of your nervousness now (perhaps related to housing but more just campus in general) would be to see if the campus has a way to hook you up with other incoming freshmen or returning students from L.A. You could get together for coffee or something in a familiar face, then have someone to meet up with when you get to school.
Also, I’m not sure how you wound up this late on the list if on campus housing was so important to you. College is FULL of deadlines that sneak up on you. Not just the assignments, but practical things. Deadlines to drop and add classes. Deadlines to pay for next semester. Deadlines to arrange a meal plan. Deadlines to drop a meal plan. Deadlines to apply for financial aid. Deadlines to pick up financial aid checks. You get the picture. If you are not already set up with a solid calendar/ reminder system, this is a great time to start.
Relax - it’s not hard at all to meet people in college, whether you’re living on-campus or off-campus. Just talk to people before and after classes, join a few clubs, and participate in extracurricular activities. You may meet people living in the dorms, but in my experience it’s rare for those folks to be the ones who become your close friends. They’re just your neighbors. It’s the people you meet in the course of your studies and outside activities who are most likely to become your good friends, because they share your interests.
I don’t have a problem with his anxiety level. I think what’s setting people off is that vold is looking for advice on how to lie or otherwise unfairly get ahead of other people in the housing line. These other people are just as anxious, but they turned in their housing applications on time, or they may have legitimate health reasons for needing to be on campus.
The reasons so far offered have been not knowing how to get around San Fran and wanting the college to provide him/her with a pre-fab social life. Without going to the Pit, I will say that this entitled attitude makes me less than eager to supply the OP with good lies. Especially when s/he specifically rejects several posters’ (including a college admissions rep!) advice to simply call the housing office and ask for help.
Okay, mischievous, point taken. I didn’t get perceive any intent of dishonesty in the OP. I did see some suggestions from subsequent posters that advocated dishonesty, and the OP has subsequently signed on.
This is also a very good point. I lived in residence first year, and while I made a few friends (think about that - a few friends out of several hundred people…), the people I hang out with most are those I’ve met in clubs/extracurricular/classes.
. It was nice of you to stand up for vold.