By now, most of your high school friends are probably off at college and you’re stuck at home realizing that there’s not much on TV at noon on a weekday.
That means for the rest of the summer your only choices are to watch the five-or-so episodes of “Law and Order” on a day, sleep, visit your high school or stress out about what college is going to be like. I’d choose “Law and Order,” but a lot of you are probably stressing already.
But don’t worry. College is fun. You get to take classes that you’re at least a little interested in, sleep in, hang out with people your age all day, party, watch Big Ten sports, or head to Chicago on a whim. When “Law and Order” isn’t on (yes, that actually happens periodically throughout the day), there are a few things you can do the rest of the summer to keep yourself occupied while getting ready for college. First, call your future roommate. It’s awkward, but it should be done. There’s not much of a personal bubble in a dorm room, so it’s best to at least be able to tolerate the person you’re going to live with for a year.
Calling your future roommate will start the relationship, and maybe you’ll hit it off right away and talk on AIM the rest of the summer to pass the time. Or it will be awkward and you’ll worry from now until move-in day that your roommate is boring, crazy or dirty. Good luck.
Next, you can start looking up classes. This is only if you’re really bored – like just before you’re about to pick up a book to read “for fun.”
Once you have your student ID and password, you can log on to CAESAR, which is how you will eventually register for classes. This may sound boring, toolish and not all that exciting, but it will help in the long run – and it wastes hours at a time.
By looking up classes now you’ll have a better chance of finding four courses you want – and can – take, and it’s less likely you’ll get stuck in a 9 a.m. class. That might not sound early now, but your timing is a lot different in college than in high school – you’re more likely to stay up until 6 a.m. than wake up that early.
Learning the Greek alphabet would be helpful, too. It’s pretty embarrassing to walk around the frats screaming into your phone, “I’m outside of E looking thing-circle with a line-E” when you’re trying to find your friends (yes, I’ve actually heard that before). A little studying over the summer and you’d know that it is Sigma Phi Epsilon – or Sig Ep if you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about.
Finally, give away all the shirts you bought while visiting other schools. You go to Northwestern now.
When you walk around campus wearing a Princeton shirt people assume you got rejected and came here but wish you were there.
When you sport Michigan gear, NU athletes get upset that they don’t even have the support of their fellow students. It’s overall a bad situation.
You don’t have to wear purple every day, or at all, and you can still be a closet Michigan fan or wish you were going to Princeton, but don’t diss your new school from the start.
Now you don’t have to be bored the rest of the summer. Or you can ignore this advice and visit your state school friends to see what you’re missing.
Editor-in-Chief Abe Rakov is a Medill senior. He can be reached at [email protected].
