For the penultimate Prefrosh Preview, we’ll be tackling all the various vices you might be interested in engaging in during college: drinking, drugs, sex and smoking. As a disclaimer: Vox isn’t advocating underage drinking or the use of illegal drugs, and most of this information comes from outside sources, not firsthand experience.

Alcohol

Georgetown is definitely a drinking school, and on weekends you can almost always find a party somewhere on or near campus. When going out, there’s no quicker way to be identified as a somewhat obnoxious freshman than to travel with the entirety of your floor. It’s also seen as particularly poor form to crash a party, drain the booze and leave.

At Georgetown, people generally don’t charge guests admittance to parties (a fact your visiting friends will doubtlessly be shocked by). However, if you find a a kindly upperclassmen who frequently supplies you with liquor, it’s nice to reimburse them.

If you’re over 21 (or have an ID that says you are) and prefer bars, here are some of the more popular nearby options:

• Chadwicks (3205 K Street): Good happy hours and champagne brunches.
  
• Champions (1206 Wisconsin Avenue): A favorite among the underage crowd (although it has something of a checkered past).
• Epicurean (On campus, under Darnall): Offers karaoke, and you really can’t beat it for convenience.
• Old Glory (3139 M Street): Strong drinks; the covered back porch with a bar makes it convenient for smokers.
  
• Rhino (3295 M Street): Sketchy, but good wings and a good chance of spotting Real World cast members.
• Smith Point (1338 Wisconsin Avenue): Bastion of prep that prides itself on having a guest list; Late Night Shots central.
• Third Edition (1218 Wisconsin Ave): Relatively cheap; famous for having its exterior used in St. Elmo’s Fire.
• Tombs (1226 36th Street): The closest bar to campus and thus almost exclusively for students, but also the strictest with IDs.

How strict a given bar is with accepting fake IDs varies from bouncer to bouncer, but generally Vox would discourage you from trying your fake at Smith Point, Third Edition and Tombs.

If you’re looking to procure your own spirits, the best bets are Towne (1326 Wisconsin Avenue), Wagner’s (1717 Wisconsin Avenue) and Dixie (3429 M Street; you shouldn’t even think about attempting to use a fake at Dixie, though). Wisey’s also sells beer and wine.

If you’re tired of jostling at the bar for a watered-down rum and coke or an overpriced draft beer, Booey’s is a good bet. Its pitchers are among the cheapest around, and it is open until midnight.

More fun stuff likes drugs, sex and smoking after the jump!

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Once you’ve mastered the fine art of dining at Leo’s, you’ll probably be looking for some more varied fare. Vox has a couple of resources to help introduce you to Georgetown’s culinary scene.

View Voice Restaurant Reviews in a larger map

First, we’ve compiled a map of restaurants the Voice has reviewed (above, but better viewed in its own window). There are a lot of places on there, so to help you narrow it down, we’ve also come up with the following list of Georgetown’s dining highlights. Neither is totally comprehensive, but they should give you a good start.

Best Argument for Multiculturalism: Snap

• Serving up crepes, paninis and bubble tea, you get to reap the rewards of this little restaurant’s identity confusion issues.

Best Burrito, Tuesdays through Sundays: Chipotle

Best Burrito, Mondays: Qdoba

• Although Chipotle is generally accepted as the superior make-your-own Mexican chain on M St., the tables turn on Mondays when Qdoba offers its Half Price Nights. Every Monday you can get 1,000+ calories worth of burrito and a soda for under $4.

Best Caffeine: $1 Sodas from the Corp

Best Chinese Place You’ll Walk by 50 Times without Noticing: Harmony Cafe

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Editor’s Note: For this week’s freshman feature we’ll be giving the Class of 2013 information about the gustatory delights that await them at Georgetown. The feature is split up in to two separate posts, one on Leo’s and another on other dining options. The post about restaurants will run later this morning.

As an introduction to the subject, you may want to watch the Heckler’s extremely informative “Georgetown Freshmen Education Series: I Know How to Eat!” video.

It’s really not worth complaining that much about our errant dining hall; as long as meal plans are foisted on us through sophomore year, it’s simply a cross we all have to bear.

There are some coping mechanisms you’ll develop, though. Here are Vox’s tips for dealing with Leo’s:

• Unless you’ve got a prodigious appetite or a passion for bland cafeteria food, there’s really no reason why you’ll need to get a plan with more than 14 meals a week.
• Keep track of your meals and plan your Grab ‘n Go consumption accordingly. The weekly meal cycle starts on Saturday, so by Wednesday or Thursday it should be pretty clear whether you’re going to be maxed out or whether you’re going to have lots of unused meals. If it’s the latter, start picking up Grab ‘n Go whenever you’re at Leo’s, either to store up or to donate to the Grab ‘n Give program.
• Don’t be afraid to go alone and study. If you can find a free outlet (most are along the wall on the lower level) and don’t mind a little ambient noise, you’ll save a lot by getting your caffeine and study snacks from Leo’s rather than Midnight Mug.

More tips after the jump!

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With NSO starting in just a few weeks, you’re probably starting to wonder what exactly the first few days of your collegiate experience will be like. Here are Vox’s tips to guarantee a stress-free start to your Georgetown career.

You don’t have to go to every NSO event, but try to attend a few. As you’ll quickly learn, events that are “required” in college aren’t mandatory in any sense of the word. If you need some time to unpack or shop for supplies, don’t worry about opting out of a few NSO programs. That said, NSO isn’t as awful as you might expect, and it’s not like there’s really anything better to do during the first few days. And even the less-than-stellar events make for good conversation fodder.

Don’t worry if you don’t find a BFF the first few weeks. There’s lots of pressure to find your new collegiate bosom buddies right away, but don’t be too upset if it doesn’t work out that way for you. Most of the people you end up hanging out with the first few weeks are totally random—either your OA group or your floormates or acquaintances of acquaintances—and there’s no guarantee you’ll have anything in common with them.

Sure, some people stick with their freshman floor friends for all four years, but many don’t. Most of the conversations you’ll be having your first few days will be really enthusiastic but also really superficial (see below). Give it a few weeks before you start stressing.

(Click to enlarge)

More tips after the jump!

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This week Vox figured we’d give you some sense of institutional history by presenting a primer of the ten most widely-discussed campus news stories from the past couple years.
10. GUSA election debacles

GUSA Candidates, pre-squabbling

Georgetown’s student government, GUSA, doesn’t have a great record as far as presidential elections are concerned. In 2008, they experimented with instant run-off voting. They failed to conduct the election properly, though, and had to have a re-vote with the top four candidates.

This past year wasn’t much better. GUSA ditched IRV, but the election still devolved into chaos when the Election Commission disqualified two candidates hours before voting started. GUSA largely objected to the Election Commission’s decision, the election was suspended, complaints were filed, Election Commissioners resigned, and the disqualified candidates were ultimately reinstated.

9. Hoya independence and insensitivity

Students hold a sit-in after the Hoya’s April Fools’ issue

The Hoya, Georgetown’s self-proclaimed “newspaper of record,” has been trying to go independent from the University for a quite a while. Indications were that they were set to go independent this coming year.

They ran into trouble this spring when they published a racially insensitive April Fool’s issue. The issue led to protests from students and promises from the Hoya to reform.

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Here’s part two of our feature on academics.  We’ll be highlighting the main general education or core requirements you’ll have to deal with your freshman year for each of the schools and giving you some tips on how to deal with them.

The College

Because the College is so varied, this guide assumes that you’re not too seriously interested in these departments, and you mostly just want to get your requirements taken care of. If you’re planning on being a Philosophy major, for example, you probably won’t find our just-getting-by approach to the Philosophy requirement all that useful.  Also bear in mind: you also don’t need to take care of all your requirements freshman year.

Philosophy

That’s right, you have to take Philosophy classes. Two of them: an intro class in either Ethics or non-Ethics, and then a higher level course in the other one. Skip Intro to Philosophy in favor of Intro to Ethics (if you have masochistic tendencies and choose to ignore this advice, at least avoid Professor Ver Eecke), and then take a Philosophy, preferably “Philosophy of [something that exists in reality].”

Social Sciences

Georgetown requires you to take two social sciences unless you’re a Chem, Bio, Biochem, or Physics major. Economics, Psychology, Linguistics, Anthropology, and Government classes fall under this category. Especially if you’re not big on abstract concepts (like you’ll find in International Relations), U.S. Political Systems is a good choice. Most Psych introductory courses are pretty easy.

Then there’s Econ. Just say no.

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Welcome to the second week of Prefrosh Preview. Last time we had fun with a totally non-controversial campus map, but this week we’ll be buckling down for the real meaty stuff: academics.

There’s a ton to say, so we’ve broken this up into two posts. This morning we’ll be giving you a field guide to Problem of God professors, and this afternoon we’ll come back with advice about tackling core classes for each of the four schools.

Problem of God, the one class [edit] just about everyone is required to take, is a mixed bag because the quality of instruction varies wildly, and professors have almost no constraints on how they want to teach the class. The professor you get is the difference between loving the class and loathing it, and with so many professors teaching PoG, it can be tough to know who to take—especially as an incoming freshman.

With that in mind, here are Voice staffers’ (and a couple friends of the Voice’s) thoughts about their PoG professors. (Asterisks denote professors who are teaching the course this fall).

John Burnett*

Burnett’s class raises some serious questions, like a good theology class, but it’s also easy to pass and easy to skip, like a good core class. If you’re serious about theology, Burnett’s not for you—he doesn’t go deeply into the material, and he never inspires much from the class. But if you just want to burn through the core and boost your GPA, Burnett’s your man.

Stephen Fields, S.J.

If you’re a Catholic boy, you do well in his class. If you’re not, then you don’t. The class was theoretically an examination of rational defenses of the existence of God, which sounded pretty cool to an agnostic like me, but it was a very one-sided debate; only Catholics (and mostly boys) were called on. It was not a good introduction to Catholic school.

Julia Lamm*

She’s a fair, but not easy, instructor, and a good grade definitely requires you to read the books and speak in class (although there’s no actual participation grade). She’s really nice, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that she doesn’t have a good radar for bullshit.

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Editor’s Note: Every Friday between now and the beginning of school, we’ll be posting a feature specifically for the Class of 2013 to give them an advance introduction to Georgetown.

The first step for feeling at home is knowing your surroundings. Back in the olden days, you would’ve been stuck poring over Georgetown’s retro map, but thanks to the magic of Google, Vox is proud to present our very 21st century solution: a satellite map complete with pictures and snarky (but hopefully helpful) commentary about every major building and attraction on campus!

A note about the negativity: Georgetown has many, many virtues, but our facilities aren’t really one of them—try to take the curmudgeonliness in that context.

You can check out our map here, but it works better when you view it in its own window.

View Campus Map in a larger map