Having a Good Time

Introduction
The security rules and system at BU is definitely intense. They have security guards 24/7. You are only allowed I think a few guests every semester and you need to sign them in every time they enter the dorms. You need to swipe your student ID every time you walk in and when you bring a friend that doesn’t go to BU or from a different dorm, they need to leave their ID with the security guard at the front entrance. It can be a pain at times, but I guess it makes you feel safer since you’re in an urban campus. I loved the freshman dorms, actually. The security system is a little bit annoying at times, but you meet a lot of different people from all over and I think it’s an experience every college freshman should have. Living off-campus is definitely more expensive, you don’t have a meal plan, you have to pay rent in an apartment building that families live in, or students live in, so it ranges. Plus you have to pay for your own food, cook. There are pros and cons to living in an apartment, but in my personal experience, I really enjoy it.

Campus Life and Social Life
You definitely notice there are more females on campus, but I guess you make the best of it. The guys on campus, to be honest, you have to pick from a small crowd. Everyone’s nice, everyone gets along, and you meet a lot of people from all different areas. There are a lot of international students, which is interesting and definitely can be fun. I don’t think the ratio really makes or breaks your experience at BU. I would say there are a lot of different ethnic groups at BU. There’s a lot of New York City kids or the New York area. There’s a ton of international students. There are a lot of Indians. I am majoring in PR. You have to take an intro class: Comm 301. The Communications school at BU is a very good college and it’s definitely respected and they have a ton of different opportunities. You can take PR lab, which is an internship in the city. You can take classes for communications in computers, there are a ton of different options. BU definitely helps out a lot when you’re looking for internships. They have a lot of different connections. There’s a strong alumni interest in helping students so it’s definitely a great program. I’m actually in the college of General Studies, which is a 2-year program and you fulfill all your general education or college of Arts and Sciences classes. You fulfill your Humanities, your Social Science and Natural Science requirements and then I can go into any college that I choose as long as I get the right GPA. You have to reach a certain GPA to be able to study abroad through BU. You can look for different programs at different colleges, but BU offers a lot of really interesting programs in Europe and Australia, Asia all over. They definitely have a solid program. Advertisement
Academics
The college is spread out all over Commonwealth Avenue. It really can take you about 20 minutes, to go from one end to another on a nice day, unless you’re trudging through the snow. It’s on a strip and the GSU, the Union where you can get food and meet your friends is central campus which is nice because it makes it easier from both ends. It’s definitely a long campus and there’s the T that runs through the middle, and that helps on rainy days or snowy days, which is a lot of the time in Boston. There are a ton of clubs that you can get involved in. There are sororities and fraternities. There are different international programs, PRSA through the college of communications. There are different leadership opportunities in different colleges. For example, the College of General Studies has a treasurer, secretary, president to help those kids get their say in the community. The Greek life, comparatively is not very big at BU. I would say about 9% of the student population are involved in Greek life. There are fraternities and sororities, but you’re not allowed to live in a sorority house, I don’t think. I am personally not in one, but there are definitely fraternity parties, sorority parties and the people that do become involved love it, but that can either be your college experience at BU or you can be completely separate and not know the difference. There are party scenes on a few streets. You can go to MIT frats. But for the most part, I think that once you are able to go to bars people tend to go to bars and clubs. It’s definitely not that difficult being an underage drinker in Boston. You have to just know where you can get in and use your ID. You get to know people, you find out where freshmen and sophomores go, you find out where Juniors and Seniors can go and figure it out from there. I would definitely suggest having a fake ID before coming to school in Boston or any other city, for that matter. It’s definitely a huge part of the social scene and it makes it a lot easier and a lot more fun.

Student Body
I would say the typical BU student has to have a certain level of sophistication to get through the urban life and get used to huge amounts of people. BU’s a really expensive school to attend and I would say, for the most part, people are from wealthy areas and it’s just a scene. Everybody’s walking through the Union with their new, expensive bag, or shoes or whatever. It’s kind of a scene, but you get past that and you meet the people you want to be with. I think that you would choose BU because Emerson or Northeastern, or Tufts, are smaller schools and you get one kind of group of people going there. I think that BU is really diverse, you can meet a ton of different kinds of kids and have many different opportunities in the academic fields. I think it’s great. It doesn’t specialize in one area, but the programs at BU are really highly respected and I think it’s a great opportunity. If you go to bars or clubs or parties you can definitely meet kids from all over different schools in Boston. Whether you’re walking down Newbury Street one day, or at a party, or go to their campus or a bar, it’s easy to meet people. There are a million things to do in Boston. You can go to a Red Sox game on a nice spring afternoon. On the day of the Boston Marathon, a lot of people hang out on Beacon Street. You can meet your friends at The BU Beach. You can go to Newbury Street to get lunch, go shopping, you can go to Copley and see a movie. There are a ton of different museums, theatres. There are a ton of different opportunities. The BU Beach is our Pseudo-Beach. It’s right in front of the Charles River. You can watch people sail or go kayaking and it’s just a place you can hang out on a nice day, read some books, meet some friends, have lunch. It’s a really small area but BU students love it. We’re proud of it. I think that I expected BU to be a little bit smaller and more campus-like. But I came here knowing that I was going to a city school and that’s what I wanted and you really just have to be confident with your decision and make the best of it. You go into your freshman dorm and there are thousands of kids around you, it’s overwhelming at first but the truth is, you have to go meet with your professors, meet with students, join clubs, become involved and you can really make BU seem as big or small as you want to make it.