Everyone dreads college food, but it doesn’t have to be like that here at UCSD. With 6 different diners to choose from, variety is easy to come by. You can always check out what each of the diners is offering daily by visiting http://hdh.ucsd.edu/diningservices/hours.asp. Sure going to another diner can be a bit of a walk compared to eating at CV (Warren’s diner). However, if you bring a friend along, the brisk walk can be a great way to get to know someone and enjoy the awesome San Diego weather! This is also a great way to get to know the campus! So build up an appetite, invite a friend, and go explore!
-Alina Khodadian, Freshman OL
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Roommates 101
It’d be nice if everyone got along.
But then again, we wouldn’t need playground supervisors then, or martial arts, or zombie survival books. The reality is that conflict, when it comes to your living situations, is to some degree, inevitable. Whether it be “All right everyone. This is not funny. Where are my Digimon Fruit Snacks.” or an unruly overnight visitor, I’ve compiled a list of basic ideas and things to keep in mind during your “rooming” experience this upcoming year. Gathered from numerous suggestions, friendly testimonies, and some of my own personal experiences, I hope that you use this blog post to your advantage to really navigate through the possible minefields that may come your way.
Now, I will explain these tips to you through numbers in a well-organized number format. Cool.
1) Set guidelines and a living contract
Yes. I know. Rules are no fun. But in this case, I find rules to be STRONGLY recommended, if not NEEDED to set a common understanding and respect of everyone’s wants. To successfully achieve this activity, I need you to be honest with yourselves. (This is deep folks.) Know your living habits, and introduce them in a positive light to your roommates the first day. (For example, if you sleep late at night, you can express that you think of yourself as a nocturnal person, and you like working in the night because of the peace) That way, you can establish base expectations of your living mates, rather than unfortunate (or fortunate?) surprises later. To get you started, go over acceptable noise levels at times of day, Food Sharing Policies, Visitor Policies amongst your suite, Cleaning Routines, and all that good ol’ nice stuff.
2) Keep in mind of future arrangements
By this, I mean to be aware of compromises made in the beginning too hastily; for example, when you all are starting to make rooming arrangements, you may decide as a residence hall suite/and or apartment to purchase a TV, microwave, or any sort of handy item. Just be careful. Think about how such an item would be divided by the end of the year, and this will eventually be a potential problem if not addressed. No one’s happy slicing their TV into portions. So, when you establish “sharing” rules for any sort of item, try to find a compromise, such as “I’ll bring my plasma TV from home if you can bring your high-tech Microwave,” Many conflicts can be avoided by simply thinking ahead.
3) Socialize with each other
I know this sounds ridiculous. "Socialize? I’ll be around my suite-mates and/or apartment-mates for HOURS, how could I not socialize with them?" While of course, you will spend your sleeping hours together to some extent, I, along with many, found that it is easy to let a rift happen between your suitemates/and or apartment mates after time. Different social circles will cater to your different experiences and personalities, and with your classes and/or extra-curriculars, it will be easy to stray, so plan for simple things, such as dinner together on a Thursday night. Yeah, I know, it sounds corny and sentimental, but it goes a long way in becoming not only more easygoing around each other early on, but also reaching friendly compromises and peaceful conclusions to arguments.
But if not?(This brings us to our next point)
4) Sometimes, you just “gotta", seek outside guidance.
Outside help can come in a variety of ways: while your RA and your Res. Life are great resources (in facilitating conflicts), if and when a major trouble occurs (that seems unsolvable), it may be also beneficial to you to share your experiences with a good friend . By doing so, you might be able to see the conflict from a third perspective to look at how you can tackle your “trouble” in a new way. Sometimes, when everything seems to hit the fan along with housing troubles, the knowledge that you have a support of a few good people to talk to (friends and staff) support of a few good people is all you need to go through a rough time.(Don’t roll your eyes here, these are true words)
5) R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Those good 7 letters combine to make an even better word; respect for your living mates’ items and privacy goes far in establishing not only trust and good relationships, but also an all-around good year with your living partners. I hear it also builds character.
So really, it’s important to keep all these things in mind. All this scratches the surface, but I hope you all have all gained at least that “something” from this blog post.
And in all, in the worst case scenario, if you find that your apartment-mates/suitemates are not simply compatible, if you have these and some of your own base guidelines established, you will always have these set to fall back on to coexist and be on the same wavelength.
But in all optimism as well, having the lucky opportunity to have a roommate(s) as a confidant and a good friend is invaluable in your college career and your latter life. It’s all about give and take, to find that balance between friendship, rooming relations and everything in between.
I’ll also leave you with something else: Touching on what most people said, it’s important to keep things in balance. Academically balanced, socially balanced, physically balanced, and balancing your friendships not only in your living space but also around you. Once things start slipping in the wrong direction, it falls on you to you to change your path the way YOU want it to.
Oh, and if you didn’t know, Warren’s kind of big on establishing a balance in life. Which is kind of why you’re entering a great college.
Last thing: CONGRATULATIONS in getting into UCSD. You’re going to enjoy University.
-Brian Lee
Freshman Orientation Leader GROUP 18!
But then again, we wouldn’t need playground supervisors then, or martial arts, or zombie survival books. The reality is that conflict, when it comes to your living situations, is to some degree, inevitable. Whether it be “All right everyone. This is not funny. Where are my Digimon Fruit Snacks.” or an unruly overnight visitor, I’ve compiled a list of basic ideas and things to keep in mind during your “rooming” experience this upcoming year. Gathered from numerous suggestions, friendly testimonies, and some of my own personal experiences, I hope that you use this blog post to your advantage to really navigate through the possible minefields that may come your way.
Now, I will explain these tips to you through numbers in a well-organized number format. Cool.
1) Set guidelines and a living contract
Yes. I know. Rules are no fun. But in this case, I find rules to be STRONGLY recommended, if not NEEDED to set a common understanding and respect of everyone’s wants. To successfully achieve this activity, I need you to be honest with yourselves. (This is deep folks.) Know your living habits, and introduce them in a positive light to your roommates the first day. (For example, if you sleep late at night, you can express that you think of yourself as a nocturnal person, and you like working in the night because of the peace) That way, you can establish base expectations of your living mates, rather than unfortunate (or fortunate?) surprises later. To get you started, go over acceptable noise levels at times of day, Food Sharing Policies, Visitor Policies amongst your suite, Cleaning Routines, and all that good ol’ nice stuff.
2) Keep in mind of future arrangements
By this, I mean to be aware of compromises made in the beginning too hastily; for example, when you all are starting to make rooming arrangements, you may decide as a residence hall suite/and or apartment to purchase a TV, microwave, or any sort of handy item. Just be careful. Think about how such an item would be divided by the end of the year, and this will eventually be a potential problem if not addressed. No one’s happy slicing their TV into portions. So, when you establish “sharing” rules for any sort of item, try to find a compromise, such as “I’ll bring my plasma TV from home if you can bring your high-tech Microwave,” Many conflicts can be avoided by simply thinking ahead.
3) Socialize with each other
I know this sounds ridiculous. "Socialize? I’ll be around my suite-mates and/or apartment-mates for HOURS, how could I not socialize with them?" While of course, you will spend your sleeping hours together to some extent, I, along with many, found that it is easy to let a rift happen between your suitemates/and or apartment mates after time. Different social circles will cater to your different experiences and personalities, and with your classes and/or extra-curriculars, it will be easy to stray, so plan for simple things, such as dinner together on a Thursday night. Yeah, I know, it sounds corny and sentimental, but it goes a long way in becoming not only more easygoing around each other early on, but also reaching friendly compromises and peaceful conclusions to arguments.
But if not?(This brings us to our next point)
4) Sometimes, you just “gotta", seek outside guidance.
Outside help can come in a variety of ways: while your RA and your Res. Life are great resources (in facilitating conflicts), if and when a major trouble occurs (that seems unsolvable), it may be also beneficial to you to share your experiences with a good friend . By doing so, you might be able to see the conflict from a third perspective to look at how you can tackle your “trouble” in a new way. Sometimes, when everything seems to hit the fan along with housing troubles, the knowledge that you have a support of a few good people to talk to (friends and staff) support of a few good people is all you need to go through a rough time.(Don’t roll your eyes here, these are true words)
5) R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Those good 7 letters combine to make an even better word; respect for your living mates’ items and privacy goes far in establishing not only trust and good relationships, but also an all-around good year with your living partners. I hear it also builds character.
So really, it’s important to keep all these things in mind. All this scratches the surface, but I hope you all have all gained at least that “something” from this blog post.
And in all, in the worst case scenario, if you find that your apartment-mates/suitemates are not simply compatible, if you have these and some of your own base guidelines established, you will always have these set to fall back on to coexist and be on the same wavelength.
But in all optimism as well, having the lucky opportunity to have a roommate(s) as a confidant and a good friend is invaluable in your college career and your latter life. It’s all about give and take, to find that balance between friendship, rooming relations and everything in between.
I’ll also leave you with something else: Touching on what most people said, it’s important to keep things in balance. Academically balanced, socially balanced, physically balanced, and balancing your friendships not only in your living space but also around you. Once things start slipping in the wrong direction, it falls on you to you to change your path the way YOU want it to.
Oh, and if you didn’t know, Warren’s kind of big on establishing a balance in life. Which is kind of why you’re entering a great college.
Last thing: CONGRATULATIONS in getting into UCSD. You’re going to enjoy University.
-Brian Lee
Freshman Orientation Leader GROUP 18!
The Warren College Honors Program!
Hello everyone!
I am a transfer orientation leader, but that does not mean that I can't tell you about one of my favorite parts of Warren College-The Warren College Honors Program. Many of your high schools probably had honors classes, but the Honors Program at Warren is very different.
If you are entering UCSD as a freshman and had a GPA of 3.8 or above, plus scores of 700 or above on the SAT Critical Reasoning, Writing, and Quantitative sections, or a GPA of 3.8 or above and scores of 31 or above on the ACT English, Reading, Math, and Writing sections, then congratulations, because you are already in the Honors Program! If you don't fall into this group, then you can qualify for Honors during winter quarter, as long as you take 12 graded units and earn a GPA of 3.7 of higher here at UCSD.
Now that you know how to qualify for the Honors Program, let me tell you why you would want to do so. First of all, you don't have to do any extra work to be in Honors-you've worked hard enough in your classes so we aren't going to make you fill out any forms or take any extra classes. Thus, the first perk of Honors is that it doesn't entail any additional work on your part.
Honors does however offer many exciting opportunities for students. First of all, the Honors Program schedules a couple of field trips each quarter, both on-campus and off (with transportation provided). In my two years at UCSD, I have gone on a behind-the-scenes tour at the Wild Animal Park's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, attended a special reception with former U.S. District Attorney David Iglesias, enjoyed a performance by the Emerson String Quartet, gone on a grunion run, and taken a tour of the San Diego Zoo, all through Warren Honors.
In addition to these engaging field trips, Honors also has a Faculty Speaker Series, in which we invite distinguished members of the UCSD community to come speak to a small group of Honors students. I have attended Speakers Series on topics ranging from linguistics to honeybees, and always enjoy the opportunity to get to interact with professors outside of the lecture hall and to hear them speak on topics about which they are very knowledgeable and passionate.
Perhaps one of my favorite things about the Warren College Honors Program is the fact that Honors students play an instrumental role in guiding the program as members of the Warren College Honors Council. Honors Council members such as myself are responsible for helping to plan field trips and inviting professors to be part of the Faculty Speaker series, as well as reaching out to prospective and incoming Honors students. Being a member of Honors Council has taken my enjoyment of Warren Honors to a a new level, and I would encourage any other enthusiastic Honors students to apply.
I hope that I have given you a solid overview of the Honors Program, which is truly one of the highlights of Warren College. If you would like additional information, please visit http://warren.ucsd.edu/academics/honors/index.html. I hope that you have a wonderful experience at Orientation next week, and I hope to see you at Honors events next year!
Rachel G.
Warren College Honors Council member
Transfer Orientation Leader Group 5
I am a transfer orientation leader, but that does not mean that I can't tell you about one of my favorite parts of Warren College-The Warren College Honors Program. Many of your high schools probably had honors classes, but the Honors Program at Warren is very different.
If you are entering UCSD as a freshman and had a GPA of 3.8 or above, plus scores of 700 or above on the SAT Critical Reasoning, Writing, and Quantitative sections, or a GPA of 3.8 or above and scores of 31 or above on the ACT English, Reading, Math, and Writing sections, then congratulations, because you are already in the Honors Program! If you don't fall into this group, then you can qualify for Honors during winter quarter, as long as you take 12 graded units and earn a GPA of 3.7 of higher here at UCSD.
Now that you know how to qualify for the Honors Program, let me tell you why you would want to do so. First of all, you don't have to do any extra work to be in Honors-you've worked hard enough in your classes so we aren't going to make you fill out any forms or take any extra classes. Thus, the first perk of Honors is that it doesn't entail any additional work on your part.
Honors does however offer many exciting opportunities for students. First of all, the Honors Program schedules a couple of field trips each quarter, both on-campus and off (with transportation provided). In my two years at UCSD, I have gone on a behind-the-scenes tour at the Wild Animal Park's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, attended a special reception with former U.S. District Attorney David Iglesias, enjoyed a performance by the Emerson String Quartet, gone on a grunion run, and taken a tour of the San Diego Zoo, all through Warren Honors.
In addition to these engaging field trips, Honors also has a Faculty Speaker Series, in which we invite distinguished members of the UCSD community to come speak to a small group of Honors students. I have attended Speakers Series on topics ranging from linguistics to honeybees, and always enjoy the opportunity to get to interact with professors outside of the lecture hall and to hear them speak on topics about which they are very knowledgeable and passionate.
Perhaps one of my favorite things about the Warren College Honors Program is the fact that Honors students play an instrumental role in guiding the program as members of the Warren College Honors Council. Honors Council members such as myself are responsible for helping to plan field trips and inviting professors to be part of the Faculty Speaker series, as well as reaching out to prospective and incoming Honors students. Being a member of Honors Council has taken my enjoyment of Warren Honors to a a new level, and I would encourage any other enthusiastic Honors students to apply.
I hope that I have given you a solid overview of the Honors Program, which is truly one of the highlights of Warren College. If you would like additional information, please visit http://warren.ucsd.edu/academics/honors/index.html. I hope that you have a wonderful experience at Orientation next week, and I hope to see you at Honors events next year!
Rachel G.
Warren College Honors Council member
Transfer Orientation Leader Group 5
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Last things right before college
So before college started for me, many of my friends had already left for college and were having fun settling into their new lives while I was still freaking out about what to bring and what it would be like. So I, like many of you probably have, asked my friends, what if anything they forgot to bring that I should.
The most ridiculous response I got was from one friend who for some reason didn't think that he would need a toothbrush in college (note: please take care of yourself. Hygiene is not an option, it is a necessity), but for the most part it was useful information. And of course, after already going through the settling in process myself, I was able to compile my own list of things that could be overlooked but would be awesome to have in college.
iPod: (or any music playing device) I had a friend who was afraid of the burglary at his school, so he didn't bring his iPod with him. Instead of worrying about his iPod being stolen and him having no music to listen, he decided it would be best to just not bring it and have no music to listen to. Just keep an eye on your stuff; burglary is not bad, having portable music is too good to pass up when you need to stay up late studying.
extra sleeping gear: for those random times when you want to go camping or something like that, it is always useful just to have some extra sheets, or blankets, and maybe a sleeping bag. You never know when one might come in handy.
personal books: though you might be busy with school books to read, nothing beats relaxing with a good book in your down time. Take a nice break from the stress of your classes by sending your mind on a journey.
school books: it might not be too late to order your books for your classes online. If you can do this and have them delivered to your home now, you can save yourself a lot of money on books. All the books you need for your classes in the fall are found on tritonlink with your weekly schedule.
alarm clock: (or something loud with an alarm) sometimes you just will not be able to wake up by yourself without something there to yell in your ear.
your sanity: don't leave it at home.
Hope you all are looking forward to orientation and move in. This is going to be a great year and I know you're all going to do awesome. Have a great last week everyone.
-Tyler Nelson
The most ridiculous response I got was from one friend who for some reason didn't think that he would need a toothbrush in college (note: please take care of yourself. Hygiene is not an option, it is a necessity), but for the most part it was useful information. And of course, after already going through the settling in process myself, I was able to compile my own list of things that could be overlooked but would be awesome to have in college.
iPod: (or any music playing device) I had a friend who was afraid of the burglary at his school, so he didn't bring his iPod with him. Instead of worrying about his iPod being stolen and him having no music to listen, he decided it would be best to just not bring it and have no music to listen to. Just keep an eye on your stuff; burglary is not bad, having portable music is too good to pass up when you need to stay up late studying.
extra sleeping gear: for those random times when you want to go camping or something like that, it is always useful just to have some extra sheets, or blankets, and maybe a sleeping bag. You never know when one might come in handy.
personal books: though you might be busy with school books to read, nothing beats relaxing with a good book in your down time. Take a nice break from the stress of your classes by sending your mind on a journey.
school books: it might not be too late to order your books for your classes online. If you can do this and have them delivered to your home now, you can save yourself a lot of money on books. All the books you need for your classes in the fall are found on tritonlink with your weekly schedule.
alarm clock: (or something loud with an alarm) sometimes you just will not be able to wake up by yourself without something there to yell in your ear.
your sanity: don't leave it at home.
Hope you all are looking forward to orientation and move in. This is going to be a great year and I know you're all going to do awesome. Have a great last week everyone.
-Tyler Nelson
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