All the pros and cons of the Mount
You actually don’t even need to go to the gym because of the 200 stairs
Living in the Mount comes with its ups and downs. The friends, the memories, and the overly worked calve muscles. If you’ve never lived there you’ve probably thought that living on top of the dreaded stairwell would be torture, however there is so much more to living on the mount than what meets the eye.
Pro
When you’re a freshman it can be intimidating to be in an entirely new place with entirely new people. I don’t know a single first-year student in college that isn’t worried about making friends. But the Mount is full of a little over 1,000 freshmen in the exact same boat as you, and odds are you’ll find a few you get along with pretty well.
Con
The stairs. Roughly 200 of them going straight up a steep hill that is unavoidable and inspired the namesake of the Mount. Nothing will make you hate life more than rushing to get to your 8 AM recitation and realizing you forgot your assignment on your desk all the way back in Day.
Pro
As awful as the stairs are the good thing is that once you’re up on the Mount, you don’t have to leave. The dining center, Graham, is open until 9 PM and while it doesn’t have quite the spread as Ernie, it’s usually significantly less packed. The convenience store in the basement of Graham also provides snacks, drinks, and necessary things for chores like laundry detergent, along with a computer lab to print things out if you don’t own a printer (its fine okay I don’t have one either). You don’t need to go to CVS in order to get errands done.
Con
Have a friend in DellPlain? Meeting in Schine? Date on Marshall? Party on Comstock? Good luck getting the motivation to leave your room and bed and the entire village that is the Mount. It is true that once you’re down the stairs you’re basically on the quad, but damn if that walk doesn’t feel like forever. Also good luck getting any of your friends that don’t live on the Mount to visit you.
Pro
Syracuse is known for it’s brutal winters and the last thing you want to do is put on layer after layer just to go visit your friend in Flint. But thanks to the tunnels underground connecting the entire Mount, you don’t have to. Go ahead and wear your flip flops to Graham. You don’t have to worry about slipping on ice if you never step foot outside.
So hey, if you’re a freshman on the Mount, don’t take it for granted. You’ll end up seeing a lot of familiar faces and enjoy the amenities it has to offer. The daily expedition up the stairs will suck but just remember it could be worse; you could live in BBB.