You’re probably hearing a lot about FAU from orientation leaders, admissions counselors and other people who seem way too chipper about you starting out as a freshman here. That’s great and all, but there may be some things they’re not telling you about life as an Owl.
When I was in your position a few years back, I thought I knew it all by the time I started FAU. Turns out that I didn’t. Now, looking back, I feel like I’ve learned a bit more than the average orientation leader is teaching you – and as a recent spring 2008 graduate, I’d like to leave you with five tips about FAU that no one else is going to teach you.
5 Tips 4 Freshmen
1. Financial aid for school suppliesDo you remember those blue Scantron sheets from high school? Guess what? We still use them at FAU. Over the course of a few semesters, the cost of buying them could have bought you a Happy Meal. So when you find yourself needing a Scantron, head over to the Office of Student Financial Aid on the second floor of the Student Support Services building and snag a sheet or two.
2. School can be cool (if you want it to be)When I first started FAU, I fell into that whole rut of class-work-home, and never really appreciated our university. The best thing I could have ever done for myself was to get involved in campus life and extracurricular activities. In fact, my student life experience has turned into real-life experience because now I actually have stuff to put on a resume that looks better than the job I had when I worked at Sears.
3. Go fishing in the fishbowl for free condomsIf a girl tells you “no glove, no love,” tell her you’ll be right back. Haul ass over to the Student Health Services clinic (located above Starbucks on the second floor of the Breezeway) and look for the giant fishbowl of condoms sitting on a table in the lobby. Reach into that thing with pride because, my friend, you are about to get laid while the girl giving you dirty looks from across the room is there to get her wart examined.
4. Free food is easier to get than sorority girlsUnfortunately, you’re going to realize rather quickly that eating on campus every day comes with a hefty price. However, there are tons of student clubs and organizations that give away free food at their meetings and events. I once survived a whole week by eating all of my meals for free on campus… including lunch and dinner over the weekend. So if you’re a Jew and the Catholic Newman Club is serving free pizza at their weekly mass, it’s totally kosher to go score some slices.
5. It’s a printing free-for-allYou’re not always going to have cash on your Owl Card to print your last-minute papers in the computer labs on campus. Hell, you could spend a couple minutes calling your grandmother in Argentina for less than the cost per page to print at some of the terminals on campus. But you can always do what I did for years and print your pages for free inside the language lab on the second floor of the General Classroom South building. The signs will say you’ll have to be a registered foreign language student, but believe me no one verifies a thing.
