First off, we’d like to give an official Vox Populi welcome to the Class of 2015, for officially graduating from “pre-frosh” to bona fide freshmen. As you begin your career on the Hilltop, you’re going to notice that, although your fellow classmates may have different interests and hail from different corners of the Garden State, there is one habit that unifies the student body like no other: Complaining about the University. Here, Vox has compiled a rundown of Hoyas’s most common topics of complaint, why they do so, and how to deal with them a little more effectively.

Facilities

• Why we complain: Blame it on Target catalogues that show college dorms with enough room for home theaters and popcorn machines, but most kids go to college under the delusion that their dorms will be big, perfectly furnished, and spotless. So it’s easy to forget before moving in that your room has been lived in by an unfathomable number of people, many with doubtlessly questionable hygiene and destructive living habits, before you. So your blinds might fall off (Editor’s Note: Mine did), your toilet might overflow, your lights will burn out, and you’ll have to wait some undesirably long amount of time before Maintenance comes around to fix them.
• What to do instead: Make sure you report everything, and we do mean everything, in the Room Condition Report you fill out in the beginning of the year—it’ll keep you from being charged for the mess that the inhabitants of yesteryear left in their wake. If you have any problems with your room’s facilities that you really can’t deal with on your own (burnt-out light bulbs, broken drawers, even low water pressure in your shower), put in a work request immediately: Sure, it will still take a couple of days, but the worst thing you can do is wait.

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As NSO descends upon the Hilltop, the incoming freshmen will no doubt be a little scared, unnerved, or weirded out by some of the newness of college life. Here, we’ve compiled a handy list of some common people and things you’ll encounter during your first week here at Georgetown, and some advice about how to deal with them.

List compiled by Leigh Finnegan and Rob Sapunor, drawings by Kathleen Soriano-Taylor.

We love Juliana Brint’s run-down of New Student Orientation so much that we’ve decided to republish it!

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 generally hosts some useful and entertaining events—and it’s not like there’s anything better to do during your first few days. Even the less-than-stellar events make for good conversation fodder.

Take your GOCard picture beforehand. The line for pictures will be wrapped around Darnall, and you’ll be sweaty and exhausted. You don’t want that vision of yourself plastered on your ID for the next four years.

Don’t worry if you don’t find a BFF the first few weeks. There’s lots of pressure to find your new college buddies right away, but don’t be too upset if it doesn’t immediately happen. 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. Give it a few weeks before you start stressing—most of the conversations you’ll be having your first few days will be really enthusiastic, but also really superficial.

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As part of its special Prefrosh Preview series, Vox invited Class of 2015 students to ask any burning questions they might have about the upcoming year. We’ve collected all your questions and provided responses to your most frequent queries below.

Do I have to read How to Read the Air and write the response paper?

Let’s just say that Vox does not want to be held responsible for a whole class of freshman skipping out on the Marino Family International Writers’ Academic Workshop.

The standard threat is that if you don’t complete the paper you will get a bad housing lottery number. That said, it seems highly unlikely that Housing would be able to coordinate with other University departments to that degree.

Are there any “hidden” places on campus or in the town that are often overlooked but are great for studying or hanging out?

As far as study spots go, alum Chris Heller’s post from last year provides a good inventory of spaces to crack open a book. I particularly enjoy Hariri (if I can find a room) or the Medical Library.

Otherwise, we really enjoy the observatory and other places mentioned in former Voice Editor-in-Chief Molly Redden’s 4/20 post. Other cool places to check out are the herb garden and experimental urban farm next to the Medical-Dental Building on the medical campus.

What is the best freshman dorm?

Most people will defend their freshman dorm. Between bathrooms in Village C, sinks and space in New South, and clusters and quiet in Harbin, they’re all kind of the same.

The exception is Darnall, whose residents usually have a masochistic obsession with hating their admittedly cramped, squalid conditions. Others will defend Darnall with an insistence bordering on Stockholm syndrome.

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Who says D.C. isn’t good for music? Sure, you can’t find a club on every corner, and for the most part you’ll have to venture pretty far outside that damn “bubble” everybody’s always talking about to get there, but the District has plenty of good venues for live music and DJ sets, and here we give you a nice little rundown of where to find it:

U Street Corridor: D.C.’s fabled center for arts and music, this neighborhood, located on and around U Street in the Northwest, is home to some of our city’s best concert halls, dance clubs, and restaurants.

• The biggest and most popular of the concert venues is 9:30 Club, which has upcoming shows from the likes of The Hold Steady, Bright Eyes, and Peter Bjorn and John. Bigger names are known to cost a pretty penny and sell out pretty quickly, so it’s best to get tickets early.
• As for smaller concerts, Black Cat is another favorite among Georgetown students, with smaller shows and more manageable ticket prices. Black Cat is also known for its themed dance parties, which it throws virtually every night there isn’t a musician headlining.
• Even smaller is DC9, which shows a lot of local acts in addition to national ones. One caveat: Someone got killed there last year.
• If DJ’s and dance parties are more your thing, look no further than the still relatively new U Street Music Hall. The foremost of D.C.’s DJ-centric dance party venues, this club is dark, underground, and all about music and dancing. For the most part, shows are 21+ at the door and 18+ if you order tickets online.

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For this edition of Prefrosh Preview, we’ll be tackling 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.

Drinking

Despite what some tour guides reassured your parents, drinking is a sizeable part of social life at Georgetown for many people. If you look for a party on the weekend, you will always find one.

During New Student Orientation, many freshmen will wander the neighborhood in packs listening for noise that might signal a party. We advise freshmen who find parties to avoid inviting their entire floor or drinking everything as soon as they can.

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.
• Epicurean (On campus, under Darnall): Offers karaoke, and is usually occupied with doctors from the hospital.
• Old Glory (3139 M Street): Strong drinks, good barbecue; 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 or Kobe Bryant.
• Rugby (1065 Wisconsin Ave): As part of a Ralph Lauren store, very, very preppy.
• Third Edition (1218 Wisconsin Ave): Relatively cheap, lots of dancing; famous for having its exterior used in St. Elmo’s Fire.
• Tombs (1226 36th Street): The closest bar to campus and filled with students, but also the strictest with IDs.

How strict a given bar is with accepting fake IDs varies from bouncer to bouncer. Last spring, a number of fake IDs were taken from Third Edition, so be aware that it could happen to you. Generally, Vox would discourage you from trying your fake at Third Edition or Tombs.

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You’ve heard a little bit about D.C. as a whole. Now it’s time to explore her neighborhoods past M and Wisconsin. We don’t pretend this a comprehensive guide, but rather a little taste of what the city has to offer. Hold tight for Friday when we take on the top nightlife venues!

Dupont Circle (Metro: Dupont Circle)

With a combination of embassies, restaurants, shopping, and bars, Dupont Circle has it all, and it’s only a free GUTS bus ride away from Georgetown. Dupont Circle is also the closest Red Line Metro Station to Georgetown.

The main shopping street in this area is Connecticut Avenue northwest of the circle. Here you can pop into one of the largest independent bookstores in the region, Kramerbooks & Afterwords, which also has a café famous for its delicious pie!

Just off the circle on Massachusetts Avenue is Embassy Row, where the SFS Academic Council organizes trick-or-treating every Halloween.

Also check out the Phillips Collection. It’s not free, but there’s an excellent rotating collection of modernist and contemporary art.

Photo by Shubert Ciencia

Foggy Bottom (Metro: Foggy Bottom)

Just a 20-minute walk down M street, Foggy Bottom is home to George Washington University, the Kennedy Center, and the White House.

Adams Morgan (Metro: Woodley Park, 42 bus to 14th St./Columbia Rd.)

It’s hard to talk about Adams Morgan without talking about nightlife. But this area has a slew of great ethnic restaurants, from Ethiopian to Arab fare.

Sober or drunk, the tiny Amsterdam Falafel shop is your best bet for cheap, delicious falafel. This self-service shop let’s you stuff your falafel full of delicious toppings, and best of all it’s open late for the hungry bar hopper. And if you’re still thirsty afterwards, Tryst is a great place to listen to somber jams while sipping a sophisticated beverage.

A few blocks from the Woodley Park-Adams Morgan Metro Station, the National Zoo is free and makes a great daytrip in the fall or spring. The Zoo is one of only a handful of U.S. zoos that have giant pandas.

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The editors figured you should know something about the federal enclave that you will call your home almost nine months out of the year. See below for a general history and profile of the District, from D.C. voting rights to race politics, and stay tuned for profiles of individual neighborhoods on Wednesday.

L’Enfant’s wet dream

As a consolation prize to the South for assuming Northern war debts, the capital city would take root firmly below the Mason-Dixon line.

In 1790, Congress asked President Washington to select the location. He gladly obliged with a location on the Potomac River that would be navigable to ships and just so happened to lie less than 20 miles from his house. The new city absorbed the old port towns of Georgetown and Alexandria (the latter returned to Virginia in 1847 because they were afraid D.C. would ban the slave trade).

Washington then appointed a Frenchman, Pierre Charles L’Enfant, to design the rest of the city. The planner offered up the city of grand avenues and plazas that we know today. Unique among American cities, they recall a European imperial capital.

However, L’Enfant was a temperamental prima donna, and Washington fired him before he could see the city developed. The designer of the capital city died in poverty. And they named an ugly modernist development near the Mall after him.

Taxation without representation

In a freak accident of history, the capital of the free world has no vote in its national legislature. The U.S. Constitution only gives votes to states and their residents. But the District of Columbia is a “federal district,” and the Congress functions as its local government.

Why ever would Congress need its own private fiefdom, you ask?

In 1783, angry Continental Army soldiers marched on Independence Hall in Philadelphia to demand wages the Congress had neglected to pay. At the time, there was no national army and Pennsylvania took a pass on confronting a mob of over 400 backcountry yokels.

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A Note to Readers: Unfortunately, Vox can’t cover every great eatery in Georgetown, so scroll down to the comments and let us and incoming freshmen know your own favorite dishes, dives, and hidden culinary gems.

There comes a time in every Hoya’s life when another trip to Leo’s proves daunting and he or she begins looking for some more varied options. Some good places to start include:

The Basics –

Wisey’s: Officially “Wisemiller’s Deli,” Wisey’s is the closest walk from the front gates and offers up a delicious, artery-clogging set of sandwiches that serve as an accessible alternative to the Leo’s buffet.

Be sure to grab a Chicken Madness at least once during your freshman year (it would be quicker to list the toppings it doesn’t have). If you’re trying to avoid the Freshman 50, you can also check out Wisey’s healthy cousin on Wisconsin (look for the green sign), which serves up some lighter sandwich fare.

Sweetgreen: Opened in 2007 by Georgetown alumni, you can now find Sweetgreen all over D.C. Walk over to the M street branch to enjoy an expansive salad selection along with the best frozen yogurt this side of the Potomac.

Qdoba and Chipotle: Dueling Tex-Mex stops on M street serving up a fairly generic and identical menu of taco and burrito selections. Aside from Chipotle’s tendency to douse their meat in pepper, these joints are mainly popular for their cheapness. Qdoba offers a half-off burrito special Monday nights that will sometimes see a line stretching down the block.

The Tombs: Classy and a bit overpriced, the Tombs is pretty much the Georgetown tavern, located just a block off campus and known equally for its bar and burgers.

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Our very own Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall is a bit of a bonding experience for all freshmen and sophomores, who must submit to the mandatory meal plan, barring a few exceptions.

Vegetarianism doesn’t get you a pass on Leo’s, but you bleeding heart animal lovers will be pleased to hear Peta2 voted Georgetown the 10th most vegetarian friendly campus of 2008. Though we have yet to repeat the performance, Leo’s vegetarian options aren’t all that bad. In fact some Leo’s-weary diners become what we like to call “Leo’s vegetarians,” in self-defense from the dubious post-Thanksgiving turkey mélange.

Anyway, whether you carry out a (totally safe) Grab ‘n Go sandwich, or enjoy your chicken fingers beneath Leo’s nod to the Sistine Chapel, surviving Leo’s requires an iron-clad will stomach and a reliable Tupperware set. Not to mention the well-developed knack for double-think that allows students to smuggle out a backpack full of nauseating food after every meal.

Luckily for all you newbies, some of your fellow Hoyas have compiled their favorite Leo’s recipes (we like to call them coping mechanisms) in O’Donovan’s On The Waterfront. Since these tips won’t get you through the whole year unscathed, here are Vox‘s tips for dealing with Leo’s, originally compiled by former Voice Editor Juliana Brint:

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