Try to eat breakfast during the week

This is a piece of advice that I need to follow more often. If you’re like me, you might end up having afternoon classes and the last thing you wanna do is get up earlier just to eat if you’re not a morning person. You probably heard this all through high school if you weren’t a breakfast eater and it probably annoyed the hell out of you. Take it from me though, it does make a difference in your day. You kinda feel more awake after eating, especially if you get stuck with an 8:40 or 9:15 class (on a difference campus, too). One of the cool things about the dining halls is that they have breakfast takeout where you go into your dining hall from about 7-10/10:30ish depending on the campus and you can swipe for a breakfast sandwich, bagels, cereal, fruit, or even coffee. That way you can just go in, get what you want, and leave. I’d sometimes pick up a bagel on my way to class and just eat it there. So yeah, Rutgers makes it a little easier for people on the go that way, and you might find that you still hate breakfast after getting up for it. It’s worth a try, though.

It’s possible that you might break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend at school, and you might not even see it coming. The reality is, not all relationships will make it through college even if you do try to make it work. If it ends up that you’re going through a bad breakup, you’re obviously gonna be thinking about it a lot and if it was serious, it’ll hurt you. The key is to keep yourself distracted. You don’t wanna be that kid who’s depressed your whole first semester of college, doesn’t wanna go out, can’t focus on their work, etc. That’s half a year of the “best” 4 years of your life, and you’ll never be able to get it back. If you try to force yourself to always be involved with something, it’ll be easier to suffer through it. Things always get better that way, and who knows, you might meet someone new quicker than you think.

So you know how in high school, sometimes you felt a little awkward going to clubs that your friends didn’t wanna join and you didn’t talk to anyone else in them? Well don’t feel like that at Rutgers. All of your friends are more than likely gonna have different interests than you, so you might be alone in what clubs and organizations you wanna join, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Joining things like that is a good way to branch out from your other friends because you meet other people with similar interests, in turn making even more friends. You have every opportunity in the world at Rutgers, and so many different activities and groups to choose from that not EVERYONE is gonna be into the same things. Your job is to get involved with whatever the hell YOU wanna do, not what your friends wanna do collectively, even though it would be pretty cool if they had the same interests and wanted to join things with you. So do what you want, join what you want, and don’t rely on what your friends wanna do.

A lot of people who come into college are so used to getting all A’s in everything they do, and sometimes that just won’t be the case. It’s okay. The last thing you wanna do is put ridiculous amounts of pressure on yourself your first year because you’re not gonna do well. Like it’s good to push yourself to do well, but if you do it to the point where you’re getting frustrated over little things, it’ll affect your grades and you’ll drive yourself nuts. I do it sometimes where I worry about the smallest things and it’s stupid because they all end up working out in the end. So try not to pressure yourself into getting all A’s or being the absolute best because chances are, it’s not gonna work. Do the best you can and you’ll be better off that way.

One of the things I learned in school was the earlier you start and get your work done, the easier it is to do. I would come back from math classes my freshmen year and get my work done there because it was easier to remember what we did in class. Even if it’s not a math class and you just have to read, do it close to when you have class and it’ll be easier for you. You retain things better, and then you won’t have to worry about it later on.

So not only will you have an RA, you’ll have a hall director, who’s a higher-up from an RA and basically oversees everything that happens in your building. Ours ended up being a pretty nice guy and very understanding if anyone got into trouble or was written up. So even if he/she’s the dumbest, meanest, most oblivious person, don’t be a jerk to your hall director. I know people who were hanging at a different dorm and got into a conflict with that dorm’s hall director because they thought they were drinking when they weren’t and he wrote them up. What happened was, our hall director talked it out with them and was really empathetic, and it ended up all working out. A bunch of people in my dorm and I were written up for really dumb, unfair things by these 2 RA’s in our building during 24-hour quiet hours, and my hall director had a meeting with everyone. He wanted to hear our side and work out a compromise so there wouldn’t be an issue again, and he cleared our record if we met with him. Realistically, you never know when you might need them, so be nice to them and don’t bother them.

What I mean by this is, the way you act during your first week of being at Rutgers will really define how your year is generally gonna go. That’s because the people you meet the first few days will most likely be your friends for the rest of the year. Whenever you’re doing something for the first week, whether it be hanging out, going to a party, going to the involvement fair or the convocation ceremony the first day, do it with a bunch of people. The first 3 days literally defined the entire year for me. Even if, like I mentioned before, it means keeping your door open to meet people, do it. So make the extra effort the first week to meet people, befriend people, and hang with people and you’ll be solid for probably the whole year.

Ladies, if you’re considering enrolling in it, read this post. One of my friends from high school who’s gonna be a freshmen asked me about it and I figured if she had questions, a bunch of others probably do, too.

What is it?
So, the DRC is like a section of Rutgers open to all undergraduate women who wanna be part of it. It’s like a community of women that guide you in the right direction as to what you wanna do in the future and give you a bunch of resources and opportunities for networking when you graduate. You’re part of this section of Rutgers, you take a couple courses on women’s history and things like that (which fulfill the diversity requirement for the school), and you get involved in clubs and things like that within the residential college.

What are the benefits?
You’re automatically eligible for a bunch of scholarships. You get a mentor and extra advising which is awesome because it’s someone you can go to one-on-one when you need her. They have something called an “externship”, which is like an internship in the sense that you’re assigned to an alumni who’s working in the field that you wanna go into after graduation for like 2 weeks. It’s neat because you can make lots of networking connections and it might help you out a LOT when you graduate and are looking for a job. 

Dorming arrangements
So freshmen year you’re living in these dorm on Douglass called Katzenbach and New Gibbons. Katzenbach is an all-girls dorm and you’re living with an RA and a peer mentor, I think. I don’t know what the DRC’s section of Gibbons is like but I’d imagine it’d be kinda the same. After your freshmen year or if you’re a transfer, you’d live in Jameson or Woodbury Hall, or the Henderson Apartments, all on Douglass. The Bunting-Cobb residence hall is like a special-interest dorm (for math, science, engineering, etc).

Is all of Douglass the DRC?
No. And I think people get confused by this. If you’re assigned to Douglass, that’s different than being enrolled in the residential college. All of Douglass is not all girls. And Cook/Douglass is still the same campus. There are co-ed dorms on Douglass (Lippincott, other parts of New Gibbons), so not all of them are girls’ dorms. The DRC just happens to be ON Douglass, but it’s not all of the campus.

To sum it up: It’s a cool opportunity, so check it out if you’re interested. One of my friends is in it and she loves it.

http://douglass.rutgers.edu/

As my girl Mila Kunis says about the “friends with benefits” lifestyle, it’s “great in theory, bad in execution”.

The same thing kinda applies when you decide that you think your neighbor is hot and you wanna hook up with them. There were people on my floor who did this and they started going out (actually it was this whole group of friends. They ALL started dating each other, it was kinda weird lol).Some of them are still together, so it’s possible to maintain a relationship, but some aren’t. If you break up, it’s gonna be really, REALLY awkward. People are gonna start taking sides and it’ll be a mess.
Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. You can do whatever the hell you want. It’s your life. I’m just saying that if, hypothetically, something goes wrong, it’s gonna have a lot more negative consequences than positive. Just before you do it, think about how it’ll be when you see them every day for the whole school year.

This is very important. One of the MOST important things in my book. If you and your roommate don’t have a mutual understanding of how you go about your life, then it just ain’t gonna work out. My roommate and I never had issues with each other because we compromised on stuff. Here are a few things you should know for when you get your roommate:

1) Don’t take their food/drinks unless they say it’s okay, and even if they don’t mind, don’t use eat/drink ALL of what they have. They let you share it, not steal it.

2) If you bring girls/guys back, give them fair warning. A friend of mine walked in on his roommate multiple times while he was in bed with some chick. I’m sure none of you want that, so send a text being like “hey, I need the room if that’s okay” so they have fair warning.

3) If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend and they come to visit, you’re more than likely gonna want the room for the weekend/night, whatever. Make sure that is brought up well in advance, and that your roommate is okay with leaving the room. (and also, make sure you lock the door if you’re doing the deed. You’ll have friends who will just open your door and walk in whenever they want, and no one wants that)

4) If your roommate is studying/busy with schoolwork, leave the room to talk on the phone/talk on the webcam. If you’re listening to music, put your headphones in. It’s distracting and if they did it to you, you’d probably be annoyed. Besides, most of the time they probably don’t wanna hear your full conversation. Mostly, just ask before you do these things and you’ll be fine.

5) If you have earlier classes than them and have to get up earlier, try to be quiet. If you’re making a shitload of noise, your roommate’s gonna wake up and well, that sucks.

6) Don’t be a pig. If you’re messy, whatever. Just make sure your mess is on YOUR side of the room and you don’t have clothes in the middle of the floor.

7) Obviously don’t use any of their stuff without asking unless you both are cool with taking stuff from each other. My roommate and I pretty much were but I’d always ask anyway and vice-versa.

If something’s bothering you, don’t be afraid to tell them. Just be nice about it, obviously.

To sum it up: If you respect them, they’ll respect you. If you have issues with your roommate that can’t be resolved, then talk to your RA about getting a room swap. It sucks if you are put in that position, but take care of it early and you’ll be alright.