Second Home

I am updating from my second home, Tisch Library. I actually spend more time in here these days than in my dorm room. Much more time. Studying for finals has been a train wreck of procrastination, but hopefully they’ll turn out alright. I have one exam tomorrow and two on Wednesday. Not terrible.

The year’s almost over and it’s been a learning experience for sure. I’ve learned so much about myself in the academic realm, the social realm, and the extracurricular realm. I’ve figured out a lot of my goals for the next few years and a lot more (cliche coming up) about who I am as a person and who I want to be. This, to me, has been the most valuable lesson, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to keep learning about these things.

But of course, the end of the year means that nice weather and summertime are here! I’m waiting to hear back from two jobs (one summer camp job, one internship at Tufts). I’m spending the summer working and taking two classes – an EMT class (takes up a lot of the summer) and a bartending class (just two weekends). I’m very excited. I’m hoping to spend some time with the Jumbos I’ve met at Tufts who also live in my area at home and travel a little bit (you know, drive to Canada or Maine or maybe take a train somewhere cool) for weekends occasionally. It’s going to be a nice break from schoolwork to prepare for a challenging sophomore year.

Now that all of your decisions are made – whether or not you are enrolled in the Class of 2013 at Tufts! – I hope you are at peace with them. Soon (by this I mean, July or something) you’ll receive a ton of information from Tufts. A summer reading book, roommate surveys, pre-orientation, and the tuition bill! If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

Pre-Frosh Everywhere!

Campus has been awesome the past few days. There have been an abundance of pre-frosh here for the Open House. If you are available to come by next week (Wednesday and Thursday), do it. Open Houses are awesome. This Thursday’s was incredible – the weather was so nice. It was like a huge beach party on all of the lawns. Let’s just say, no work got done yesterday. Everyone was outside enjoying the weather.

We’re finishing up – next week’s our last week of classes, then we have the next Monday (and maybe Tuesday?)… then finals. Definitely a little nervous about those – I have three, and they’re falling on the same day. Just my luck. That doesn’t normally happen, and I’ll probably (hopefully) be able to move one.

But other than that, things are still exciting. Tufts Dance Collective has its performance tonight. The Amalgamates performed yesterday.

I thought I’d mention one other thing about being a pre-frosh before I go. You get the opportunity to sign up for a pre-orientation program, and I highly recommend this. I went on Wilderness – and it would have been awesome if I didn’t get violently ill from eating too much cheese and have to hike 7 miles out of the forest – and everyone had a great time (except me! lol). So I’m going to push for that one. No cell phones for a week in the wilderness. You get to know your group pretty much and have some time for yourself to prepare for the difficult transition to college from home. But there are others. International Orientation takes place on campus, as does FIT. FIT is exercise and well-being focused. FOCUS is the last one, and it’s a week of volunteering in the Boston area. I know many people who did FOCUS and loved it. They’re all great programs, and if you can take the last week of your summer off, you should definitely sign up.

Once again, if you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, I hope to see some of you at the open houses next week!!!

Registration Day… AGAIN!

I cannot believe it was time to register for new classes today. This is the third time I’ve registered this year – I feel like college is almost over! Where did the time go?

I registered for the following courses:

• Physics 1
• Latin 21, Cicero
• Classics 146, History of Ancient Greek and Roman Medicine
• Greek 7, Greek Classics
• French 1

So, I’m excited for a new semester. I’m also excited to tell you about Metcalf, the dorm I will be an RA in next year! Metcalf is seriously the best dorm on campus, and incoming freshmen can check a box on their rooming survey (which will be released in early June, I believe) to apply to live there. The other dorms are cool, too, but here’s what Metcalf’s got.

1. Mixed housing – I lived in a freshman dorm, Houston, this year. I’ve enjoyed it and met some really great people who live just doors away and had a fabulous, helpful RA. But I think it is nice to have upperclassmen around, and people living in mixed dorms freshman year have enjoyed that, too. It’s great to get their advice and experience.

2. The Bridge Program – Bridge is a class that meets once a week for about an hour through the Experimental College, and you learn about all sorts of cool things. Most of the presentations are done by students, and from what I’ve heard, it’s a fun way to learn. Bridge also sponsors lunches where you meet in the newly renovated Metcalf Lounge and have free lunch with a professor! Awesome! I’ve been to a few of these, and they’re really interesting. The Provost came to one, and the renowned professor Sherman Teichman from the Institute for Global Leadership came to the most recent one.

So, look into the Metcalf/Bridge Program. Again, I’ll be an RA in your hall if you decide to try for it! It’s luck freshman year as to who gets in.

The last thing I want to mention today is that I’m available all the time to answer any questions you might have. Please e-mail me, comment on the blog, or send me a Facebook message. I’ve answered a few people already – even had an admitted student spend the night in my dorm room (she was AWESOME!) – and I am really excited to make your college decisions just a little bit easier.

Little Delayed in Posting…

Hello, again! I’m sorry for the extended break in posting! I caught pneumonia a while ago, and then midterms followed right after that. But now, I’m back.

So, I’m sure the letters came yesterday – I hope many of you got good news! The decision of which college to go to is tough and dependent on so many things – money, academics, location, campus, diversity, sports, clubs, etc. etc. etc. – and if you have any questions about Tufts, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me or comment on the blog.

Today, it’s April Fools’ Day, so of course, there have been some pranks, per say, around here. The best example: just check out www.tuftslife.com today. The Tufts Daily and Tufts Observer also had fool-ish issues today, and they were quite entertaining.

I think the best part of the day for me was leaving my dorm room this afternoon and seeing President Bacow and his wife walking around campus right in front of me. That was really cool – and it happens all the time. Larry & Adele are everywhere. It’s very clearly spring – despite some chilly weather, there’s been lots of rain and TONS of tour groups all over campus. It’s really cool to see how many people are interested in Tufts.

I will write more later in the week (I have some interesting opportunities for admitted students to take a look at!), and I can’t wait to meet some of you at the Open House! I will be hosting a few students in my room. ! Yay!

A Few Things

1. If you are on campus during the winter months (visiting, studying, just in the area), GO SLEDDING. The President’s Lawn is the most impressive sledding place in the area. I took a break from studying this weekend and just froliced in the snow and sledded. Tufts is awesome – lots of people from the community come to sled here. The university set up hay in front of the trees so that you don’t hurt yourself if you crash (no Ethan Fromes here…) and there is a little bowl of snow in front of the library steps so you don’t fly off. SO COOL. Everyone’s having a blast around here. Many people also unofficially use dining hall trays instead of sleds – wouldn’t recommend it, though. Much easier to make friends with someone cool enough to bring a sled with them to school because a) they’re probably pretty awesome to have done that and b) sleds are probably much nicer on the behind.

2. The Tufts Daily – cool newspaper we read on campus, often at breakfast. It really gives you lots of information on cool things on campus. They have a spiffy new website, too.

3. Speakers coming up! Within the next few weeks, there are some interesting speakers coming to school. I think tomorrow there’s a speaker to talk about healthy lifestyles (“How to Feel Good Without the Gym”). On Friday, Cecile Richards, the Vice President of Planned Parenthood, is talking about Roe v. Wade and the Future of the Supreme Court, and next month, Tony Blair, the ex-prime minister of the UK is coming to speak! I’m most excited about the last one, as I am a British citizen. I hope I can get a ticket!

Hope the snow is treating you well if you live in a lovely wintery area like New England.

The Start of a New Semester!

Hello, world. My name is Charlotte Harrison – I am a freshman at Tufts University. I have decided to blog for the admissions page to offer a new/alternative perspective on life here. So much happens on campus -  academically, extracurricularly, and randomly.

Example: Last night, I saw one of the funniest movies I have ever seen in my life, Burn After Reading, through the Tufts Film Series. They put on two free movies every weekend and have showings every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They’re good movies, too! This weekend, they’re also playing Snatch. Last semester, they had some awesome movies – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Counterfeiters, Wall-E, Wanted, The Rocky Horror Picture Show… the list goes on.

Some of the most memorable moments at school for me have been at the dining halls. In high school, if you had an experience anything like mine, you ate lunch with the same people at the same time, pretty much every day. In college? You can eat with whomever you choose, whenever you want. This is awesome. And freshman year, you have an unlimited meal plan = lots of food. There are two dining halls on campus – Carmichael (uphill) and Dewick (downhill). Dewick is openly better. But there are many, many arguments about this. Tufts food is very good compared to other colleges.

Anyway, I’ll give you a quick update on my courses and go. I’m taking…

Chemistry 2 – Chemical Principles. It’s the continuation of Chem 1. Two semesters of intro chem (with lab) are required for medical school. The class is a moderate amount of work – three lectures, one lab, one recitation – with problem sets usually around every week. It’s not bad, but lab sciences here certainly aren’t a walk in the park. This is the only big class I have this term – there are a few hundred people taking the course.

Classics 32 – Classics of Rome. This is a survey course of Roman literature. It’s going to be fantastic! I am a classics enthusiast, so this is a perfect class for me… the teacher is challenging and it will be a lot of work (300-500 pages of reading a week), but it’s totally worth it. This type of class, an intensive reading one, you should only take if you’re going to want to do the reading. Otherwise, you’ll want to kill yourself very soon. There are about 20 people in the class.

Greek 2 – Elementary Ancient Greek II. Taught by the same teacher as above, so it’s challenging and fast-paced. There are only six people in the course, which is awesome.

Latin 22 – Latin Poetry: Catullus. Another small course in the Classics Department. I’m very excited for this one.

and finally: Math 12 – Calculus II. I placed out of Math 11 with my AP score, so now I’m in Math 12. The teacher is really young – she makes us call her Genevieve – and I think it’s going to be relatively enjoyable.

Tomorrow, I have an interview tomorrow to work for the Tufts Telefund, calling alumni to raise money for Tufts. This morning, I had a group interview to become a Resident Assistant next year. We really jumped into the semester, but I am very excited.