Just the Right Distance from Home

Introduction
On Marathon Monday everyone has the day off. Only Boston schools get the day off, I think. People just hang outside and cheer the runners on. There are some school events I think. They have an annual Back Bay Ball that tries to target undergrads to go. Hockey games, they’re big on that. Our school is pretty good with hockey. I heard that the Agganis Arena and the fitness center are probably the 2nd best in the nation now. It’s brand new, it cost $100 million- all new fitness equipment and all new hockey arena.
I think what BU is trying to do is to move everyone up towards the west side and make it more of a campus-like school because we don’t really have a campus. So everyone’s kind of hanging around that area now. Because everyone’s either working out there or just laying outside. I still live on campus and it takes me on an average 18-20 minutes just to walk really quickly to class and make it just in time, and that’s probably half the length of our campus. Our campus runs 2 miles long from one end to the other.
I live in the student village. I believe it’s only 4 years old. It’s fabulous, I have to say. They renovate whenever necessary. We just got brand new furniture and we have a view of the river. The only thing is the guards. It gives us security but there’s a lot of signing in and having guests past a certain time, and it kind of gets to be troublesome.

Campus Life and Social Life
I would say Boston is very safe. When I had my freshman orientation, we were the safest school tied with Ohio, or Idaho, in the nation I think. For 3 years in a row, but that was freshman year. I don’t think that has changed. I’m in school of management and my concentration is finance- it’s a little different from being a major. I would say finance is probably not the strongest major in the school. Although 40% people in our School of Management concentrate in finance, the classes could be a little stronger. For finance, I would say on an average, there are 30 people in the class. And the classrooms are amazing, though. Everyone has their own Ethernet and plugs if you want to bring a laptop and the equipment is phenomenal. The professors really make an effort to get to know everyone. We have nametags that, in the beginning of the year we should all carry with us.I think the School of Management is really prestigious and you’ll leave the school knowing what the real world is like. We have a program called CORE, in which everyone goes through their Junior year. And we have to write a business plan and they have to project our annual revenue up to 10 years. I think Business Week commented how this program is usually for MBA students and we complete it in our Junior year. I think for everyone that goes to the School of Management, it’s a very unforgettable period in our lives. Academics
It’s definitely hard work. But it taught us a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever learned anything like that in a regular classroom. Like right now, if I want to start a business, I feel like I can do it. I can write a business plan. It was hard; there were a lot of sleepless nights.
I have a few friends that are in CORE right now and they haven’t been home in the past 2 and half days already—like come home to sleep! They’re hanging out with their group and finishing up their project. They try to squeeze it into one semester, so you have to work as a team. Generally for each class I would say I have to prepare at least an hour and a half to 2 hours before a class, and I have 4, so probably 4 hours everyday for the next day.

Student Body
You can always hail cabs back to campus if you need to. Everything’s always running. Except for the T. That stops at 12:30. Whenever it hits I’d say, above 50, people start coming outside to the BU Beach, and just take some time off and relax and hang out in the sun. And it’s kind of the area, where all the grass is. We don’t have much grass so it’s all here. My favorite thing about BU is all the local restaurants that are on our campus. There’s a sandwich shop called Freddie’s, D’angelo’s, Burger King, Starbucks, Dominos. You can order at 4 in the morning, they’ll still deliver and take your points. My least favorite thing about BU is the long walks. Especially in the brutal winter weather. It’s pretty bad walking 20 minutes in the cold. Some people take public transportation, I guess, but sometimes you wait longer than you have to walk. I wish it was a little closer, or the campus had more of a circular shape to it.