Everything I wish I knew as a freshman at NYU

So welcome week is over and the first year of your college experience is well and truly underway. But just because you may now be considered an adult, and maybe even a New Yorker, does not mean that this experience doesn’t still feel pretty overwhelming.

But never fear – I, the wise yet youthful Junior, have knowledge to bestow upon you.

300 meal swipes is way more than you think it is 

Most freshmen, even if they are commuting will have a meal plan. And for those of you who are the lucky ones living in housing with no kitchen, you will have a 300 meal plan. You may think that seems like a lot, especially now when the end of the semester seems like a lifetime away.

In fact, 300 meal swipes means you need to go to a dining hall 3 times a day, every day of the semester. That includes the mornings that you are too hungover to get out of bed and order Seamless. So you’re not going to run out; don’t go to Fresh & Co every lunch and spend $10 on a salad. Your bank account will thank me later.

That being said, when you’re drunk this is where you should eat

Eat after you drink and before you go to bed, or face the ugly rage of a hangover the next morning.

• Joe’s Pizza (14th and 3 Av)- you’ll soon learn that this is one of the best Pizza places around and they’re open until 3 in the morning.
• Westside Market (12th and 3Av) – 24/7 supermarket and one of my most favourite places on this Earth (for that exact reason).
• Atomic Wings (West 4th and Jones Street) -Serves insanely good wings and is open till 2am.

 Try not to hook-up with/date/have feelings for anyone on your floor

This is just a bad idea on some many levels, and this advice may seem obvious, yet it is frequently ignored. If it’s just a casual hookup, you can’t later avoid them because you live on the same floor. If you’ve caught actual feelings and you don’t want to deal with them, you have to because you live on the same floor. And if it’s a relationship and it goes wrong, you can’t escape post-break up. Why? Because you live on the same freaking floor.

You don’t have to be best friends with your roommate, you just have to live with them

Your first year roommate can be a blessing or a curse, and I guarantee that you will hear some complete roommate horror stories over the upcoming months. In my case, it ended up being the later, but for a time I thought it was completely crucial that I had to be best friends with this girl.

That is not the case and most of the time, it only makes it worse if you try and force a relationship between two people who are actually really different. Just remember – you lived with your parents for the last 18 years and survived. Even though some may like to use the cliche that they are, your parents probably are not your best friends.

If you are going to do illegal stuff, for God’s sake be discreet about it 

Of course I have not done anything illegal because I am a law-abiding international alien of this country (please don’t take my visa), but my ‘friend’ may have got herself into a few near-misses her freshman year. If you are going to do illegal activity, especially if it is occurring in a residence hall, be as discreet as possible. Remember, you never know who’s lurking the halls and nothing is more of a buzzkill then an aggressive knock and a shout “RA on duty!”

Your first year experience is not necessarily a reflection of your whole university experience 

There’s no getting around it – NYU is a pretty unique university, and for many that is probably the reason why you chose it. However, this also means that initially it can be quite overwhelming. So in the upcoming weeks and months, as you try and figure out your college life while simultaneously trying not to avoid being hit by a cab (don’t worry it happens to the best of us), know that your first year may not be exactly what you thought it should be, but that doesn’t mean that your college experience can’t be.