Indeed. The Rate my Prof sites tend to be little more than the electronic equivalent of bathroom graffitti.
I found this to be true as well. Talking to upperclassmen in your field is the best way to get a handle on what is to be expected in certain classes, but…
ask around campus to see if there is a widely used student-specific site. At Michigan State, allmsu dot com was a treasure trove of student resources. Part craigslist, part professor and class ratings, part calendar of campus events. Everyone I know used it for subleases, finding cheap couches, ticket exchanges, and class hunting. The prof ratings were very helpful descriptions of what to expect in class.
Also, you had to be a student to use it… no faculty, staff, or non-affiliates allowed. I’ve heard that other large schools have something similar, so it’s worth investigating.
Exercise!
Unless you want to gain the freshman 15, go to the gym, play some intramurals or whatever.
I work in a college counseling center - I know about FERPA. This mom wanted me to tell her what to do with her depressed son when she could have just gone to check on him herself. (As an aside, this one wasn’t even technically a student anymore AND we’d never seen him in the office.)
But, parents of freshmen should understand they have very few rights anymore.
And, yes, you do have rights, but colleges, especially private colleges, aren’t required to provide certain things high schools are. Plain and simple. For example, lunch is going to be way more expensive because there is no hot lunch program. And it’s up to the student to find time to have lunch. But, certainly there are rights.
Thank You, Anne Neville! Inside of that thread is where I posted a link to this, which is about the best 10 bucks you can spend on dorm room security (that I can think of).
Quarters are still useful if you want to take your clothes off-campus to wash them.
That said, so much is tied into your student ID that it should be protected like any other credit/debit card. Laundry money, meal plan/flex cash, library privileges, computer lab privileges can all be in that little magnetic strip. If it goes missing, you may lose some or all of the money you’ve got and some miscreant can take books out of the library and keep you from getting your grades or from scheduling for the next semester or from graduating until you get the mess straightened out. If it does go missing, and I don’t mean “it’s in my other pants” or “I left it at home” missing, but GONE, report it to the campus police ASAP so none of these things happen.
With respect to registration, you generally have a certain period of time to do this. Just because the class you want is closed when you first schedule doesn’t mean it won’t open up later. You can also talk with your department secretary to see if they can get you into the class (if it’s in your major), or the relevant department secretary. Some professors don’t mind an extra body or two, others do. But it’s still worth asking. Oh, and chocolate doesn’t hurt. 
Finally, be nice to the TAs and GAs and work-studies. They’re there to help you, but they’re also pretty busy themselves, so don’t get pissy if they’re not in their office all the time.
Robin
Be sure to find out if the money you don’t use on your meal plan rolls over, is refunded or is lost. If it’s lost, you should either treat your friends who have run out of money or swipe your card for them in exchange for cash.
Oh, and be sure you understand the meal plan well in other respects as well. Here we have something called 19+ which is very confusing but basically means you have 19 meals per week at a flat rate - I think.
Living alone for the first time is a perfect time to force yourself to learn how to cook. Buy a decent cookery book and stay clear of ready meals.
I figured you did, but some incoming freshmen (namely, the ones who get their parents to bug college staffers for them) presumably don’t. Some of the stories I’ve heard about parents calling staffers or professors to ask about their kids make it sound like some parents of college students don’t know about it, either.
Parents have also been known to email or call professors and complain about the difficulty of the assignments or the amount of homework. In college. Really.
Our dept. heads and deans have advised us not to do anything more than merely acknowledge the message, if even that much.
No problem there…Ivyboy is quite a good cook, and makes tasty mistakes. He made stuffed pasta shells the other day…but forgot to cook the pasta first before he put them in the oven. So, we had very crunchy shells filled with homemade tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella.
Yum!
Yes, I do make good food, and the mistakes are pretty tasty…but all in all, I don’t think I’ll be doing to much cooking…the college doesn’t let us have cooking material in the dorms…fire hazards and the fact that money you spend outside of the college to get food doesn’t come from their overpriced on-campus resturaunts or something like that…
This one is about money. It is important.
I’m in my third year of university. The best advice I can give anyone is don’t buy books until you need them, unless you enjoy wasting about $150 per semester. Just buy them as you need them. Especially for 101 classes that everyone needs; those seem to just utilize lecture formats and don’t rely upon books very much.
And don’t get a meal plan unless it’s absolutely critical. Often you’ll be paying about $7/meal for rice and pasta meals at the food court. A complete ripoff no at nearly every university.
Quick question…some rumors have been running around that it is possible to get through entire courses without a textbook, just by relying on study groups and other students with the required text.
I’m not saying that I plan on doing this, but some verification here would be much appreciated.
It depends on the class. Some classes that have more than one section with more than one professor are notorious for this. You could just ask at the beginning of the semester (the professors here are pretty good about answering honestly), or just buy them during the semester if you notice that there are assignments that are going to come out of them.
Sure it is. Depends on the course. Some “professors” (usually it’s the teaching assistants who do this though) just read powerpoint slides which are a rehash of the book material – and then they’ll post the slides online so you can use them to study. Some schools require a professor to pick a book, so they do, knowing full-well they’ll only use it for reference, if that.
Err on the side of caution. If you’re pretty sure you’ll need it to look at some, but not all the time, I suggest seeing about the library first, then thinking about going in on one with another person or two from the class.
I haven’t had a class where I felt comfortable ditching textbooks.
Ask yourself: do you really feel comfortable with other students’ initiative and learning abilities enough to rely on them for exams?
For me, the ultimate Type-A “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself” person, the answer is a resounding “No”. YMMV, of course.
I did that with my Mass Comm Law class. I’d heard rumors that one question on the tests came out of the book, the rest from the lectures. So it was possible to have no book and still score an A in the class (which, I did 
)
Find out from classmates who’ve taken the course what was required. I’m sure others have had similar experiences.
(Is it weird that you’re sitting right behind me as I’m typing this?)
Plus, it’s kind of tacky to borrow your friend’s textbooks…they bought their book, you can get your own.
(Is it weird that you’re sitting right behind me as I’m typing this?)
No, it isn’t weird at all. I’m getting help. Besides if you think it is weird to reply to my question while you’re in the same room, you could have just turned around and told me.
Yes, but I wanted to share my experiences with the group. Don’t you have a paper to write for a scholarship?