What To Do When You First Get To Campus

Well it’s your first time out on your own and it’s time to go to university or college.   The first thing you need to do is figure out where you want to go and what you may want to get educated for, at least have a ballpark idea.  For me, it was easy, like everyone else in Manitoba, we don’t have too many options, and end up going where everyone else in your family went.   So off to the University of Manitoba!

By now you will probably have your classes all lined up and you’re in the process of getting your new school clothes, school supplies, as well as those nice expensive textbooks (check out our article on how to save money on this bothersome expense).  Something that I’m sure every student overlooks is how the campus is set up before they enrol for their classes.  Most first year courses are offered multiple times, in multiple buildings, giving you flexibility when you are signing up for the ideal class schedule; however, if you just sign up any old way, you can have yourself running across campus multiple times just barely catching your next class.  So be patient, and plan your classes so that they are reasonably close to each other.

Another thing that I highly recommend is that you take one or two days to walk around campus and throughout the buildings.  This can help you in many ways:

• Finding all the bus stops – If you bus it to campus, you might make the mistake of getting off at the first stop, often times there are more than one stop and it might be closer to your classes.
• Finding nearby bathrooms – This one you could probably wing, but since you’re walking around anyway it’s always nice to know where they are.  If you’re picky about your bathrooms, I suggest going to the “low traffic” ones, such as the ones on the upper floors.  Mostly because the only people that use them are responsible profs and the odd grad student, not thousands of freshman.
• Look around for parking spots – This is getting harder to do if you drive to campus, but the odd time you can find yourself a close spot that no one seems to know about.  There was a little spot by my faculty that allowed only five cars to park, and there was always one free for me!
• Look for “all” of the restaurants – This is something I should have done.  The U of M campus is rather large, and I discovered new places to eat each year.   Each one being cheaper and better than the last one! Its also a good idea to know where the close coffee shops are for between classes.
• Find out where your classrooms are located  – another thing that I never took seriously.  It was neat how when the prof welcomed you to “Linear Algebra 101,” and 25% of the class, having discovered that they are in the wrong room, would calmly grab their things and leave the room to frantically find the classroom that they should be in.
• Find short cuts to save yourself valuable time that can be better spent at the campus pub.

One Last Thing