Georgetown has but one, single dining hall—everyone’s favorite, Leo J. O’Donovan’s. The University considers purchasing a meal plan a “fundamental part of developing community among resident students,” which seems to be true, though it may be more of a point of commiseration rather than celebration. Here are a few  tips on how to get by dining at Leo’s.

• Get to meals early. We can’t stress this enough, especially at the beginning of the year. Lines are long and tables can be scarce, so go on off times. This means 11:00-12:15 for lunch and 4:30-6:00 for dinner.
• Unless you just love eating breakfast, there’s no reason to get a meal plan with more than 14 meals a week. Vox endorses the University’s recommendation to get the 14 plan your first semester.
• Keep track of the number of meals you use. Running out of meals is not a common occurrence at Georgetown, but make sure you don’t walk up to the card swipers without meals on your GOCard.
• When you notice that you’ll have meals left over at the end of the week, get grab ‘n go meals and save them for later. Even if you won’t eat all the food, just grab some soda and juice to use as chasers.
• Don’t be afraid to eat at Leo’s alone. It’ll probably be difficult to schedule a time to go to lunch with all your friends. There’s no shame in it: just get some food and keep yourself busy with a book or a laptop. It’s also best to do this when Leo’s isn’t too busy.
• Study at Leo’s. If you’re all right with smelling like Leo’s for hours afterward (and oh yes, it’s a distinct smell), head downstairs, find an outlet, and camp out. Not to mention, you also get infinite snacks and free coffee.
• Late night isn’t that bad. Vox’s previous recommendation to freshmen was to avoid late night altogether. Since then, late night (9pm-11pm, Sunday-Thursday) has gotten better, though it’s still somewhat of a gamble. Some nights they only have breakfast food or pizza-and-corndogs fare. At the same time, they always have the salad bar and cereal out.
• Invest in some tupperware. While most students get enough cafeteria food during meals, stealing Leo’s food is a cherished Georgetown pastime. If you do it right, then you won’t have to buy bread or fruit for four years. Read the rest of this entry »

The last of Georgetown’s  four undergraduate schools, we end here with a review of the School of Nursing and Health Studies (NHS).

So you’re in the NHS, easily the smallest of the undergraduate schools. There’s a good chance you’re pre-med, a better chance you’re female, and a sure-shot that you’re a particularly good finder (we win the Hogwarts game, College).

Class-o-physiology

Being in the NHS means having fewer general education requirements than most of your friends. Everyone is required to take two classes each in humanities, philosophy, and theology, but that’s usually all the liberal arts you’ll have to take. And, with the exception of International Health, there is no foreign language requirement.

But that doesn’t mean you can take whatever classes you want. The would-be gen eds are replaced by a slew of major-specific requirements, which don’t leave much time for electives. For instance, Nursing majors can only take three open classes.

For most students, freshman year is synonymous with Human Biology, a memorization-heavy anatomy and physiology course that will test your commitment to your major. Be prepared for the workload, and remember to take advantage of the weekly tutoring sessions the NHS holds because, when it comes to Human Bio, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Also, the school all but guarantees you a spot in its required in-house classes. Be glad, as this will spare you the semesterly headache that is preregistration.

St. Mary’s and beyond

Student life in the NHS benefits from its intimate size. The academic council treats students to a couple pancake breakfasts and faculty dinners throughout the year. Also, the NHS holds a barbecue in the St. Mary’s parking lot each semester – a good time to schmooze with next semester’s professors.

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If you’re enrolled in the MSB right now, you’re doing yourself a big favor.  Not only will you heighten your appeal to future employers, but your time at Georgetown will be exponentially more…comfortable than the rest of the student body.  Here’s a laundry list of why your SFS friends will be unfathomably jealous of your freshman year:

The Building

The Rafik B. Hariri building is the pride of the McDonough School of Business.  This state of the art structure is littered with fully equipped classrooms (you never have to worry about finding a power outlet), capacious study spaces to save you from the macabre behemoth known as Lauinger Library, and an undergraduate commons area stocked with printers and scanners.  Which brings us to the next perk:

1000 Free* Prints per Semester

As your buddies will soon tell you, printing in Lauinger is a pain in the derriere.  Fortunately, under the auspices of MSB’s Tech Center, business students can  print up to 1000 free (*and by free, I mean it’s included as a Lab Fee in your tuition, but you can keep that fact from your peers) pages in the familiar halls of Harriri.

Bagels with the Dean

Once a week, the benevolent MSB deans pile loads of bagels and coffee onto a table for a schmooze-sesh with the undergrads.  Trust me, this is a big deal.

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Vox presents you today with a preview of the Georgetown College. This is part of a series of posts covering each undergraduate program at Georgetown for the Class of 2016.

Hold your head up high, College student.
As the oldest and largest of Georgetown’s undergraduate schools, Georgetown College boasts the most majors and the lowest admission rate. The College will give you the most leeway to indulge all of your weird and remote interests: Take that theater class, then see if you’re cut out for chemistry, before finally settling into linguistics. Also, stick it to your SFS and MSB friends that you’re allowed to pick your own courses your first semester.

You are a beautiful, unique snowflake.
Unlike students in the other schools at Georgetown, no one can pigeonhole you as a student in the College. You’re not necessarily worrying about America’s hegemony in Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan or spending all your time in a lab. You could have anything going on. Your weird pursuits aren’t just accepted, they’re expected. Sure, you’ll find the STIA major in Linear Algebra, but no one will bat an eye at your double major in women’s studies and biology.

Add “well-rounded” to your resume
Most College students spend the majority of their first two years completing general education requirements, but the College’s generous AP credit policy can help with that. Before you truly get to take any course that strikes your fancy, you’ll need to take a language to the intermediate level and fill the humanities and writing requirement, then two courses in just about every other area: mathematics/science, history, social science, philosophy, and theology. And don’t worry “not science people,” your science requirement can be filled with painfully easy classes like astronomy and chemistry in everyday life.

Additionally, for your first two years in the College, you can’t take two of the same courses per semester, forcing you to try out new disciplines. But, take note, the College only enforces this during preregistration. You can add two courses of the same type during add/drop. Don’t abuse this rule, though. Vox doesn’t want to be responsible for a College freshman taking three English classes and two philosophy classes in their first semester.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week, Vox will be reviewing all of Georgetown’s undergraduate schools for the Class of 2016. Today, we start with the School of Foreign Service.

Core Crackulum

The core requirements for SFS bring you a step closer to the world of international relations, game theory, and how to memorize lists of dates for a history class. Somewhat reminiscent of high school (that is, if you went to public school), each major core class is usually large, lecture-style with an accompanying recitation to review the more difficult material. Most recitations have about 20 students and are usually taught by graduate or PhD students.

The proseminar, required for all incoming freshmen, gives new students a chance to be in a smaller, more intimate classroom setting with a top professor in the field. This class is waived for transfer students. The proseminar is meant to hone writing skills and get new students excited about studying diplomacy and globalization and international conflict and the AIDS epidemic and … stuff like that.

Students often moan about Political and Social Thought (PST), but this course generates some of the best in-class discussions of any other in the core. International Relations, with the right professor (cough Elizabeth Arsenault cough), reminds students that while we might think we’re informed about every major conflict in recent history we really aren’t. Generally, students like to get these core classes out of the way in their freshman and sophomore years to bring on the more interesting and focused courses.

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From now until the end of NSO, Vox’s series of prefrosh previews will be in full swing, so check back regularly, freshmen, for advice on transitioning to Georgetown.

As evidenced by Georgetown’s recent establishment of a satellite campus, space is at a premium at 37th and O Street, though that hasn’t stopped the University from dutifully utilizing every acre the school sits upon. As current students will attest, giving directions to anywhere on the main campus is exceedingly difficult, so we hope this map helps you in your first few weeks in understanding where everything is.

In addition to locations, this map contains both photos and a little of Vox’s own commentary in each entry. Click the link below the map to get a better view.

View Vox Populi 2012 Campus Map in a larger map
And thanks to Juliana Brint and Chris Heller for previous versions of this post.

Hey, incoming Class of 201615, we know you’re not all freshmen. In fact, some of you have already seen the highs and very, very lows of college life and are looking for something better. But you’re back to being a freshman again and I know, from experience, that it isn’t fun. Transfer students are a breed of their own, a group of motivated individuals who come to Georgetown hoping that this second time around will meet their expectations.

I started out at New York University, surrounded by a predictably eclectic and vivacious bunch. On my floor, I would wake up to the sound of an aspiring Broadway actor practicing “Defying Gravity” down the hall. Two weeks into classes, our entire hall had memorized the lyrics to a wanna-be Justin Timberlake hallmate’s atrocious and over-produced single (he was very clear to tell us the piano lights on fire in the video to symbolize his fiery passion.) We had everything from the “you haven’t seen that movie?” budding film majors to the “you don’t wear high heels to class?” fashion and design majors.

Coming to from Manhattan to Georgetown was certainly a dramatic change. During the ten-hour car ride with my parents to Georgetown, all I knew was that I wanted to be in a school that emphasized a campus over a city, and focused on the academics. I knew that my life at NYU was great, but didn’t quite satisfy my academic interests and the loans I’d be incurring in three years. Not only was that exactly what Georgetown gave me, but it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

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Class of 2016, we’d like to know what’s on your mind.

What are your biggest questions about Georgetown student life and academics? Do you want to know what the best classes are in the core curriculum? Are you interested in which student groups are big on campus? Do you want to know about the best concert venues, restaurants in the Georgetown and D.C. area?

Use the form after the jump to send us your questions and we’ll do our very best to address them all throughout the summer.

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As we start to work our way into the summer, Vox will be posting prefrosh previews. This series of posts (we hope) will be a helpful guide to starting your Georgetown experience as a freshman.

First off, Vox would like to extend a congratulations to all the members of the class of 2016 coming to Georgetown next fall.

Even though you don’t head to campus for a few more months, it’s already time for you to pick roommates. Our roommate matching service, CHARMS opens this morning. This guide is to help you figure out who you’ll be boarding with for the next year. In the comments, feel free to share your own roommate experiences and, freshmen, feel free to ask your own questions.

Be honest. I hope you told the complete truth on your CHARMS surveys. No matter what happens, you’ll be stuck with someone, so don’t feel the need to bend your preferences because you think it’ll make finding a roommate harder. If you go to bed every night at 9:30 listening to the Lion King soundtrack—not only will you find someone that’s okay with that—someone has three Lion King pillows and prefers to start the CD on “Hakuna Matata” instead of “Circle of Life.” You’re in a bigger place now.

Say too much rather than too little. Use the comments box and messaging feature liberally to explain your life habits. This will draw potential roommates to your page. Once you get out all those weird quirks on day one, there won’t be much more to hide!

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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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