<p>Oops. Just found what I was looking for.</p>
<p>If you are an international and are under 21, in order to get into the clubs you will need to present to them a state issued form of ID or your passport. My friend was turned away as her Tufts ID wasn’t sufficient to prove that she was 19 (most clubs are 19+, but on certain days they are 18+).</p>
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<li>(I think we’re up to 49.) If you’re up to it, there’s no harm at all in going around your hall, and stopping by people’s open doors during the first few weeks to introduce yourself. I think the freshman dorms do this, but I did it as well and let me tell you, it’s much nicer to know people on your hall than not. I’d sit on the couch in my lounge with some friends and whoever walked by I’d be able to say hi to and chat with. Often they helped me a lot because some were upperclassmen, or interested in various programs and told me when the next meeting was or something. I remember when I lost my Econ book, I used another kid on my hall’s to study for the final. The people on your hall could be the ones you have the most chemistry with and end up rooming with next year, or they can just be passing acquaintances that you talk to every once in a while at hall snacks. Either way, it takes no effort at all to strike up a conversation, and if you don’t, living on a silent hall can get lonesome and boring…constantly passing the same people in January and avoiding each other’s glances, because by then it’s too ‘awkward’ to introduce yourselves? If you’re envying your friends’ crazy freshman dorms, just get to know the people on your hall and be social! All it takes is a, “Hey, I’m Bob, I live in 324. That’s an awesome poster.” “Hey, do you guys want to go get dinner?” Or whatever. Plus, if you get to know people on other halls you get to go to their hall snacks, hahaha.</li>
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<p>Basically, you can’t necessarily assume that people will come to you. I noticed that a bunch of girls on my friend’s hall were so buddy-buddy with each other, and so when I got back to my dorm I went across the hall and said, Hey, I just realized I don’t know like any freshman girls on my hall. I ended up meeting two awesome girls, and became such good friends with THEIR friends that I’m rooming with one of them this year :)</p>
<p>And I expect any of you reading this that are on MY hall - South, 3rd floor, woohooo! - to knock on my door now. haha</p>
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<li>Oh yeah, another thing: when you move in, you don’t necessarily have to keep your furniture the way it is upon entrance. Some rooms are big enough so that you can rearrange the beds, desks and bureaus at will. For example, South Hall rooms are long and narrow and when you come in all the furniture is against the walls, parallel to each other. This makes the room seem even narrower. You can rectify it by putting one of the beds or desks against the opposing wall. Other options are, you can have your bed and desk along one wall, making the wall your “side” - or you can have your bed against one wall, and the desk and drawers opposite the bed. Some people prefer this because this way, if one roommate is up working, the desklamp light won’t shine directly onto the roommate that’s trying to sleep. Also, you and your roommate can decide if you want to bunk your beds - people who did this usually did so in order to have a futon/couch/armchairs, more room for TV, or just a spacious area where you could throw down pillows to lie around. Girls wishing to bunk their beds would do well to make friends with some tall, athletic-looking guys, haha.</li>
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<li>When you get your housing assignment, DON’T freak out that you didn’t get to live uphill, or in all-freshman housing. There are pros and cons to every dorm. </li>
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<p>You may prefer a mixed-class dorm because upperclassman can give great advice and answer your questions. In freshman housing, the only upperclassman on your floor is your RA. And often they’re much louder, when you need them to be quiet to study (of course at that point you can always go to the library, etc.) Uphill is said to be “more social”, but I think that there are more people downhill, and it’s closer to Davis. You may like Dewick/Hodgdon better than Carmichael, or vice versa. Also it’s easier to get to the campus center in order to put points on your card, etc.</p>
<p>Hodgdon may not be the nicest looking or smelling, but it’s connected to Hodgdon Good-to-Go and right next to Dewick. Carmichael is supposedly anti-social, but you don’t ever have to leave the dorm to go to dinner. Wren is not the nicest of dorms either, being riot-proof (this goes for Haskell too) but I’ve been told that often, the RA for the floor will live in a suite and even his/her own RESIDENTS don’t know where they live. As a result it’s supposedly much easier to have parties without the RA knowing. South, everyone says, is really far downhill but really it’s not any farther than Latin Way, Haskell or Lewis (they’re all on the same line), and plus it has private, lockable bathrooms. Richardson, Metcalf (and Stratton, but I think that’s for sophomores and up) have to move out all their **** over winter break because people are housed there over break, such as athletic teams who stay, which would be more difficult for some students (internationals, or West Coast kids, who may need to put things in storage) than others (students from, like, Medford, lol. And if not Medford, there are tons from nearby Massachusetts suburbs). </p>
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<li>There are two bank ATMs on campus: Bank of America in the campus center, and a Citizens’ Bank in Dowling. There’s also a Citizens’ Bank ATM in Davis right by the Joey stop/T stop. So if you’re living downhill and would like to have an ATM close by, Bank of America is closer. Or, if you are often near Dowling, being uphill, or think you’ll only need cash when you’re going into Davis/Boston, opt for Citizens’ Bank.</li>
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<p>I was 17 when I went to college, so I couldn’t have my own bank account and had to stick with the love of my life, Commerce Bank, which HORRIBLY is not in Massachussetts yet. $2.00 ATM fees every withdrawal added up. By March I made my dad give me an extra fifty dollars to make up for it, lol.</p>
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<li><p>Health Services is really good for some things. You can pick up all sorts of prescriptions there every three hours or so, anything from antibiotics to birth control. They even have the morning after pill and will give it to you immediately. If you have a cold, they give you a free little bag that contains cough drops, cough medicine and hand sanitizer. The doctors and staff there are all really friendly, too. </p></li>
<li><p>Craft Center in the bottom of Lewis can be really useful! My friends and I went there and used their fabrics and wires and tools in order to make our Halloween costumes from scratch, for example. 100% free.</p></li>
<li><p>If you live downhill, it’s often easier to just walk to and from Davis. The Joey, for all its “on the 20!” schedules, can be really unreliable/late. And sometimes it’s tough to tell if it’s just left or not, and if it’s just left it won’t be back for a good 20-30 minutes or so. I’ve gotten back to Davis when it’s been pouring, or freezing cold and snowing, and opted to walk while some friends waited for the Joey. We got back about twenty minutes before they did. Also, don’t RELY on the Joey if you’re planning a trip, or have to be somewhere at a certain time. Meaning, don’t show up on the 20 - come ten minutes earlier, maybe, just to be safe. Then it might get stuck in traffic. I know if you have luggage walking isn’t an option, but just be aware that it might not come on schedule, and you shouldn’t miss a bus or train or plane because of it.</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of kids I know choose to take a train home, if that’s possible. I’ve taken the Greyhound every time. I think the train is a hundred something dollars, while Greyhounds take only a little longer usually and are much, much cheaper. In fact, if you’re going towards New York, there’s a Greyhound special that’s reduced fares in and out of NYC, so it currently costs 20$ with this discount. Plus you can get a student discount in addition to that. They sometimes come late, but that depends on when you leave, because there will always be more traffic going into New York at certain times of the day. Going in the morning, for example, you’ll have no problems.</p></li>
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<p>^Sorry, I was bored during International Trade…lol, we covered stuff I already knew.</p>
<p>Off Blurinka’s great posts…</p>
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<li><p>Don’t wait for your upper-class hallmates to meet you - introduce yourself and seek their help! I was on a mostly freshman hall my senior year and would have LOVED to help out the freshman, but they said that they felt weird bothering us. We got help from upperclassmen - more than happy to show y’all the ropes.</p></li>
<li><p>Avoid the frat scene. Not that there’s too much wrong with it, but it’s not necessary to socialise. A lot of freshmen do the frat parties because they don’t think there is much else going on. Sophomores start to really branch out. Explore Boston. Enjoy Cambridge. </p></li>
<li><p>If it’s been said, it’s worth repeating… do not miss a Bubs concert.</p></li>
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<li>haha not to completely contradict ariesathena, but don’t avoid the frat scene if you don’t want to. it can be a lot of fun! a lot of times at school its hard to see friends from different groups/friends that your close friends aren’t friends with and going to a frat party pretty much ensures that you will see a whole bunch of people you don’t typically hang out with. also, it can be fun to just go and dance</li>
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<p>mjones and aries are actually both right. I wasn’t really interested in the frats for drinking, and I dislike dancing (though everyone who knows me is amazed to hear that, lol). But when I would drag my ass from South Hall to frat row, the reason I’d enjoy myself was seeing people that I didn’t usually see, for whatever reason. People I’d met that lived uphill, or from the choir retreat, or wherever. It’s just a nice reminder that I actually know a lot more people on campus than I usually deal with.</p>
<p>But I will definitely agree with aries that often it’s better to not attempt to find a good party on Saturday night, in that it’s not the only way to socialize. Not even Cambridge or Boston are particularly necessary, sometimes (though they are amazing and you should definitely take advantage of the proximity. Definitely go to a concert when a good band is playing, stop by Chau Chow City’s dim sum, etc.) But you can just always find interesting things to do with your friends.</p>
<p>And a big YES to #57 lol. I also thought it’d be weird to bother the seniors that lived in singles on my hall, but when we were at hall snacks I realized that they’re exactly like us, just a little more seasoned. They came to Tufts for similar reasons to us. And they’re really interesting, have tons of funny stories, and sometimes even need OUR help as much as we need theirs. I got to know them, and found out that one of them lives in a town that borders mine and knows some kids from my school. They always always always answered our questions and never had a problem, were happy to help, because it’s stuff that they’ve known for years, second-nature to them. And yet when they needed a vacuum, or for us to fill out a survey for their sociology project, we could help them too. Upperclassmen were freshmen only a few short years ago, you know? It’s not like they’ve forgotten what it was like. Plus, I often made friends from extracurricular activities, assuming that the people that were going out of their way to be social were also freshmen. Couldn’t have been more wrong - they’re sophomores, juniors and seniors too. So if the people you meet outside the dorm are cool upperclassmen, who’s to say the ones IN the dorm aren’t, too?</p>
<p>TENTATIVE 61. While aries is right and the Bubs are great, I’m going to pimp the Chamber Singers, lol. I know that a lot less people will be interested in choral music than contemporary songs done in a capella style, but my high school had a 200-person choir and I know that some of those people just really loved the different types of choral music, and particularly when it was sung well. I can tell you firsthand that the Chamber Singers are extremely talented people who have spent hours learning difficult music and learning to blend with each other. And yet if classical isn’t your thing, we had a concert fundraiser for Valentine’s Day where we sang typical Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Louie Armstrong-type songs. It was FREE, and an optional donation! So if you have any interest at all in hearing the amazing thing that happens when twenty or so beautiful voices combine to form one, powerful instrument, come to a Chamber Singers concert!</p>
<p>^ I AM A HUUUUUGE CHOIR DORK. lol</p>
<p>I second Chamber Singers and make that a permanent #61. :)</p>
<p>awww, we have ONE fan! lol.</p>
<p>just a note about the joey’s. i heard that tufts will have a new online service that tracks the exact location of the joey’s at all time. this will be available in the fall, but then again it won’t be that helpful if you’re at davis square without a computer.</p>
<p>um, NO WAY! THAT’S AMAZING!</p>
<p>You can always call someone in the dorm and ask them to look it up…if you want to be ANNOYING! lol</p>
<p>hahah awesome, i like that idea.</p>
<p>yes! the online joey tracker was created by one of the newly elected sophomore senators - it was going through trials during the spring semester but should be up and running for the 2006-2007 academic year. and a note about the joey - it IS usually on schedule…its just KNOWING the schedule that is most people’s problem</p>
<p>Joeys ? (10 char)</p>
<p>Our ultra reliable shuttle bus from Tufts to Davis and vice versa.</p>
<p>ah…merci beaucoup :)</p>
<p>btw, by “ultra reliable” snuffles actually means the exact opposite.</p>
<p>In the time that it takes to get from one point to another you could’ve pretty much have walked it in the same time.</p>
<p>walking can be good 
Of course, New England winters defeat the entire purpose of that, as well as “fun jaunts up the hill” lol.
Btw, I remember reading a Tufts Observer article from an outgoing freshman (it was an online article) that mentioned that the Orientation group hands out a lot of “Tufts” things during the 1st week - what sort of things would that include? Also, If one has to purchase a television in the 1st week, wouldn’t it be difficult going into Boston, purchasing the TV, then trying to carry it back to the Campus (this is what I might have to do)?</p>