The ultimate guide to your first week at Tulane

“College is the best four years of your life.”

Remember you’ve heard it here first, folks. But despite the cliche that is that far-too-overused, if-only-I-had-a-dime phrase, maybe it is exactly the truth. Partially. OK, maybe you don’t want the very best years of your life to end at 22 and head south from there, but maybe you also want these to be the best four years of your life so far- and they absolutely can be. The semi-adulthood that is college means more responsibility with not as many bills as being 30, a place where you interact 90 percent of the time with people solely in your age range (what is an adult?), and access to being a creature of good (or bad) habits. So in these first mind-numbing seven days, here’s some advice from a Senior … (who still needs the advice themselves)

Don’t be fooled

I know what you’re thinking, because we all thought it too. From the first moment you step onto campus you’re going to think “How is everyone friends already without me?!”. And sorry, but it just ain’t true. While there will be small groups of people who already know each other (we’re talking to you, Jews from summer camp and Explore program kiddos), it doesn’t make them soul mates just yet.

The first month, going on semester, at Tulane is full of the friendship hot potato, and if you ask any upperclassmen who their closest friends were that first grace period compared to today, you can be sure your answer will be full on fits of laughter. Hey, not everyone gets it right the first time. But don’t be discouraged when the case of “I’M SO ALONE” sets in and get out there! Introduce yourself to as many people as humanly possible, say yes to any coffee/lunch/boot date you’re asked on (or do the asking!), and know that while everything feels hectic and free and scary as hell right now, the dust will settle and you will come out on top.

Everyone isn’t best friends yet, they’re just clinging to any sense of safety they can find, and when you realize that you’re free to take over the world (or Tulane).

Get involved

If you haven’t already heard the words “community service” or “Outreach Tulane” nine times on move-in day, then you’re still fetal position underneath your lofted bed wondering “WHY OH WHY DID I EVER THINK I COULD COME TO COLLEGE?”. Relax. And then sign up.

Tulane has this sometimes awesome/sometimes checklist demand where every student has to participate in two public service semester-long projects attached to a class of your choosing, but this attitude in class lends itself to everyday at Tulane.

If you look just a few feet or ask more than one person, there is a guarantee of finding some extracurricular community service possibility for you to join- read: public service is always looking for more bodies. So go gardening with Grow Dat Urban Farm, beautify the sides of Lake Pontchartrain, or talk college-search with local high school students; honestly, the possibilities are endless (and these are all just things that I’ve done).

And as far as that big banner and chalking down McAlister that advertises Tulane’s greatest day of community service with over 1,000 students volunteering for an event called “Outreach Tulane”? Do it. It happens on the first Saturday of the school year, when everyone is severely hung over and just doesn’t want to be there no matter the amount of free crap bagels given. But you meet so many people that day and get to see the city in ways you will very rarely have the chance to again. On my first Outreach Tulane, I met one of my best friends and now-housemates. I made a joke and she laughed – community service folks.

Go out

Let’s just put it out there, shall we… The Boot. Tulane is a party school that has a studying problem (about three times a semester when all your professors get together and decide to give exams on the same Tuesday). Going out anywhere on your first week, but most importantly The Boot, is like entering a door into a specific dimension of Hell that knows how to give you just enough of the things you enjoy to keep you coming back (cue wild dancing, a city made for outdoor drinking, and then for good measure some more drinking).

I can promise you that till the day you die, The Boot will always have this effect upon you. But in some ways it’s a wonderful magical land where you can go, have a terribly made drink for a bomb price (during Happy Hour on Wednesdays and Fridays) or an insanely cheap shot (fifty cent shot night is Tuesdays), and meet and make any friend at Tulane; even the kids who will never, ever go out again go to The Boot this week, and so should you.

You should have fun trying on thirty seven different outfits that night all to decide that what you had first worked the best and rejoice in the fact that college, unlike high school, favors the fashion brave, and you dip your toe into the “hookup culture” pool to see if it holds any appeal for you. And if it does – good for you. You should take the week to see if going out every night or no night or some nights is your style, if there’s a hidden Uma inside your dancing queen visage, and just how much liquor your body can handle versus what you say you can handle. And no matter what floats your boat you should take just a little bit of pride in the fact that you chose the place with the #1 COLLEGE BAR IN AMERICA. Just saying.

Kiss my class

I’m sorry- class? What is class again? Ah yes, the supposed reason you’re “really here”. My advice? Go sometimes. Or all the time. But first I suggest you figure out where you’re going and when- do a test run the day or two before class actually starts so that come day numero uno you aren’t a hectic, sobbing fool who can’t find their Gen Chem lecture hall that SOMEHOW 240 other people found their way to.

After you find your classes, you might want to hold off on buying the books too quickly because it’s likely you’ll be dropping and adding something new every five minutes for the first two weeks; there’s a grace period of when you can still add and drop courses that typically lasts the first three weeks of any semester, so log onto Gibson (or checkout the calendar) for when that is. Teachers may seem laid back (cue Dr. Fleury who plays killer track lists every day) or the antichrist themselves (shout out to my Calc I T.A. who told me to come to office hours only to then tell me there that I had to “do it myself” he wasn’t “going to help me”), but the truth is that they’re all manageable; if you want a bit more input though, checkout “Rate my Professor” online and ask everyone you’ve ever walked past on campus.

Finally and drumroll please… Homework. It’s real. Sort of. Honestly, business and science classes have a lot less weekly homework and then crash studying for large exams, whereas liberal arts know the finesse of weekly essays and projects all the every-living damn time. The trick is to watch your syllabus (usually given in both hard and digital copy by professors) and realize that the work listed under a certain date is DUE that day (a mistake I made many a time before learning it right). Classes in college are nowhere near as easy as high school, but they aren’t life or death- take a deep breath, you can do it and kill it.

My room is my temple

Live by this rule. Try as hard as you can (and trust me it’s not easy) to only use your room for the basics: sleep, Netflix, and sex. All others (i.e. studying, eating, drinking, partying, crying to mom) should be done in other spaces. Do not contaminate the calming flow of the only space on campus specifically that is yours (and your roommate’s)! Decorate it however you please, feel a swell of pride at every compliment you receive on it, and know that this is your home for ten months where the rest of the outside world is crazy enough that this doesn’t also have to be.

Take the time to be the I-am-an-island side of your self in that space or laugh with friends on the world’s comfiest mattress topper (try Costco) or make all the right moves with whatever-their-name-is from last night, but let it be the place you can escape to from everything else. You’ll thank me.