How to Find the Right College Campus

Why hello there fellow student!

How are you? Good, good. Except you don’t know how to find the right college campus you say?? Geese are strange and creepy animals you say??!! … Agreed. But let’s go back to the first problem.

How to Find a College Campus That is Right for You Like I Did Because I followed These Simple Guidelines With an Absolutely Ridiculous Title!! Yay!!

As most of you know, many college campuses nowadays require (or at least highly suggest) that incoming freshman live on campus for their first year. This has been proven to help not only in living costs and in learning to live independent of a guardian, but also in the development of a person’s social skills. But you don’t really care about your ability to function with other hormone- infested beings do you? No! You care about how to find a place to live that you won’t hate after three weeks, four days and an hour! Worry not, citizen! I am here to save you from that wretched fate!

1) It’s a Hard Dorm Life: For some people, the thought of living with someone you barely know is super weird. For others, it’s no big deal. But I already talked about the importance of finding a roommate who does not have psychosomatic tendencies. THIS time I must warn you that when they offer to show you a sample room, you take the chance and also assume it is their nicest room in the building. In some cases you’ll get lucky like I did and all the rooms will be the same so what you see is what you eventually get. When you’re looking at prospective living quarters, try to keep three things in mind: Quality, Quantity, and Qualms. I just really wanted to use all “Q” words. 😀 Anyways, what that means is, ask yourself these three questions. How nice is the room: Is it like my room back home or like a prison cell at Alcatraz? How much space will I have: Can it fit me, my roommate, all of our furniture and all of my gaming systems comfortably? And finally: Will I have any qualms about my living conditions once the deal is sealed? For example, I am on the third floor, and usually do not have time to take the elevator to class because sleep and I have become such good friends. Will I regret living on the third floor after running up and down two flights of stairs multiple times a day?

2) Splish, Splash, What is Up With This Bath??: Another feature that goes along with the dorm room is the dorm bathroom. Maybe I’m weird, but I like a good bathroom. A clean, pretty, functional bathroom. Like the room itself, you want to make sure it’s a bathroom you could see yourself in … Hmmm, maybe I should phrase that differently … Nah … Moving on … Are there enough outlets for four girls’ straighteners, curlers, blow dryers, and cell phone chargers?? Or in the guys’ case: Will these drawers fit all of my hair gel??!! Another good one is: Can I see myself in this shower? …Man, I need to work on my on my phrasing … Anyways, you get the picture … I’m just gonna shut up now …

3) Taste Test: I don’t know about you, but food is kind of a big deal in my book. I mean seriously, we kind of need it to survive … And like most college kids, I like to have options when choosing what I want for dinner. When you are searching for a college, keep your stomach in mind. While most educational facilities have some sort of cafeteria, you will find after about a month you DO NOT want to eat there every day for every meal. Make sure there are some affordable and delectable alternatives in town or at least a microwave for your T.V. dinners!

4) The Wheels on the Bus: Some college campuses are rather large and walking to class is not always a practical option. At HPU for example, two of the classroom buildings are off-campus and are across a major road. Since I don’t feel like risking death every day, and I no longer have a vehicle at my beckoning, I have to take a shuttle bus to class. If this is the case, you may want to look into what kind of transportation you need to get to those far-off classes.

5) Shop ’til You Drop: Girls, obviously, will be paying much more attention to this one. If you end up going to a college relatively far away from home or even civilization, you will probably need to look into what kind of stores are nearby. For some, the question is: Where is the nearest mall? And for the rest of us it’s: Is there a place where I can get much-needed laundry detergent at 1am? My advice is to calculate how far away the nearest Walmart is. Or even better, is if there is a convenience store of sorts on campus.

6) Classroom Logic: This one I think is fairly simple. Can you learn in this environment? Or do you start freaking out and twitching because there aren’t any windows and it reminds you of that interrogation room where Batman and Joker threw down or perhaps get uber ADD because there’s a million and five things on the wall? And of course, is the equipment useable? Because even though it is great to party like it’s 1969, it is not great to have to use a computer that has a monitor the size of Texas and a CPU as slow as molasses. And you also may want to look into if the classrooms have those awesome spinny, swivelly, wobbly, super fantastic chairs. Because like I said, they are fantastic.

7) Oh the Place You’ll Go: Most college towns tend to at least attempt to cater to the relatively large population of college kids by having a lot of younger-generation-centered attractions. But some towns … don’t. Depending on what kind of person you are, you may desperately need something different to do every weekend or you just want there to be a comic book store down the street and you’re set. Whichever way your “social persuasions” lean, you will however most definitely need a few essentials. The first week I was in Brownwood, I quickly realized I needed four important places: a bank, a mechanic, a church, and a hospital.

8) Extra, Extra!: Something else students forget about it extra stuff a college campus might have. For example, HPU has an excellent work-out facility, an easy-access mailroom with the coolest mailboxes ever, a variety of places to sit and study around campus, and has a student life center with a bunch of rooms where you can just play games, drink coffee and read, or have a Bible study with a few friends.

Living away from home for the first time can be difficult. Especially if you have to leave a super cool kid named Kevin who can play the guitar hardcore par core. But once you get used to being in the college atmosphere, it becomes a little easier to breathe. (See what I did there?)

Well, that’s all the time I have for today, kids. Until next time, I’m Larry the Cucumber … Wait, no … that’s not right … I’m Rachel Ellington and I’m here to tell you that God made you special, and He loves you very much! Bye!

~Rachel
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