<p>"Dear SEAS First-Year,
Congratulations on being chosen to live in the Living Learning Center (Hartley and Wallach Halls) and personally selected to participate in the Gateway Residential Initiative (GRI)!</p>
<p>My name is Scott Helfrich. I am an Associate Director with the Office of Residential Programs. I have the privilege of working with the Living Learning Center (LLC) and two of its dynamic residential programs, the GRI and the Residential Engineering Initiative (REI). </p>
<p>As a GRI participant you will reside on the 8th floors of Hartley and Wallach Halls with your 45 of your fellow SEAS classmates. All 45 of you will be taking the same required first semester Gateway Lab as a part of your SEAS curriculum. What does this mean for you? </p>
<pre><code>* You will receive a traditional first-year experience while benefiting from residing in the LLC and participating in the GRI program.
- You will get to know non-SEAS students by participating in New Student Orientation Programs and attending regular LLC events while having a strong SEAS community of support.
- No mandatory programs, only opportunities, so you do not need to worry about added stress.
- You will receive personal invitations to events designed to help shape your Gateway Lab experience and highlight the real-world applicability of your class project.
- You will have the opportunity to attend a GRI-only reception with the new SEAS Dean.
- You will have the opportunity live with upperclass SEAS students who applied to mentor incoming SEAS students.
- You will receive a strong foundation for academic success.
- You will receive access to free SEAS Alumni Dinner and Discussion throughout the semester.
- You will receive access to the LLC Faculty-in-Residence, who is a SEAS faculty, and his family.
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<p>These are just a few of the many benefits you can expect from your participant in the GRI initiative. I hope you are excited for this opportunity.</p>
<p>Have an excellent remainder of the summer. I am looking forward to meeting you in August.</p>
<p>Best regards,
Scott"</p>
<p>Does anyone have previous experience in being in this or know someone involved in this in the past?</p>
<p>I was in it last year and am doing the sophomore version this year. It was quite convenient for Gateway and a lot of the science classes, because so many of my floormates were involved in the same classes. However, there is a lot to say for academic diversity on most freshman floors, which GRI explicitly lacked. You probably won’t get to argue about politics with a poli sci major nor have an English major help with a UW essay, at least from your floor.</p>
<p>In which dorm are you living? I’m living in Wallach.</p>
<p>@ Skraylor lol. I did a search pulled up 3 other than mine.
Did not learn anything new…kinda sad on the diversity issue and the fact that i did not even put GRI in my housing app and if i did it was last, not to mention hartley was like 3rd or 4th. </p>
<p>Im just going to go with an open mind and enjoy what comes up. I made this post to meet fellow ppl going in it this year, and to maybe answer some questions that i have not voiced and can think of atm. </p>
<p>@ Arak…I will be in hartley :D</p>
<p>hartley suites are arranged such that you can make friends on floors above and below yours easily because of the duplex design. i lived on 3 my frosh year but had many friends who were on 5 and 2. so don’t worry. plus that and most frosh live in jj or carman and you will have your share of friends there. hartley is a good respite from some of the craziness of frosh year. more of a place to chill than to party/have fun. </p>
<p>plus diversity of years, and interests will be present if not on your floor, but nearby.</p>
<p>hope you like it - i am a huge hartley fan here, good set-up, chill people.</p>
<p>I know the RA for the Hartley one, he is a kindred spirit. With that being said, your freshman experience is going to be a very SEASy one, so just be aware that you may be lacking the hall diversity that you would get somewhere else. However, there’s lots of free **** that the LLC gives away.</p>
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<p>If you read through the threads in their entirety you’d see that the program really has never had stellar reviews and that most people advise against it. mike brings up a good point about diversity…when you’re a jr and sr, 90% of your time will be spent with people in your major…having cc friends from freshman year is one of your only saving graces.</p>