Hey~
Okay so, I have a million excuses that I could give about why I fell off the face of the earth this whole semester. Long story short, I am sorry and I blame my computer and classes.
So, first I'll do a post on my classes last semester like usual, with tips (such as whether to buy the textbook, attendance, professors etc.)
Chinese 201: Second-Year Chinese. A look at schedule builder tells me that my professor is still teaching the only section of 201 this semester, as well as a section of 202. TAKE HER. I had Y. Chen. My class only had four students (including myself) and she is hands-down the best teacher. She is very passionate and enthusiastic about teaching Chinese, she shows Chinese music videos before class and occasionally shows Chinese tv show videos during class. The other teacher subbed for my class one day, and I am very grateful that I had Chen laoshi. Plus, I heard that the other teacher (H. Wang) is a bit more stricter on homework, so the answers have to correlate exactly with what the textbook teaches, while Chen gives a little bit more leeway.
Textbook: You always need the textbook for Chinese class. You also need the workbook, although not the character workbook now that you are in the 200-level (which I am thankful for because the character workbook was the bane of my existence in 101). The thing is, Chinese textbooks are really a long-term investment because if you decide not to continue learning Chinese, you can sell them and make most of your money back, or if you are minoring/majoring in Chinese, you can keep them because all of the vocabulary builds on each other. I mentioned before that I bought a bundle of 7 books for Chinese (I think it is 101-401 but I am not sure) from someone who was graduating for $100, so now all I have to buy is the workbooks. (Although be careful about that. I did not check carefully on Amazon and when I received one, it was missing half of the pages from each lesson, so I had to return it (because that is $20 down the drain) and buy a new one).
Economics 201: Intro to Microeconomics with Ballard. Okay, so I liked this class. Kind of. He started taking attendance for the first time this year, but that is easily got around by swiping in on the card readers and leaving (ahem). His teaching style is very good, and he makes it easy to learn and understand the material. Admittedly, I did not go to classes after a certain period, but that is okay because the textbook has all of the info you need. A week or two before each exam, he sends out a packet of notes of important topics that could be on the exam (which is basically just sparknotes of that section from the book) as well as two old exams with solutions and explanations. These are gold because a lot of the questions from the old exams are verbatim on the exam. Also after you take the exam, he releases the solutions to all of the exams so you can figure out what you did wrong. So Ballard is really the best professor for Econ 201.
Textbook: If you do not go to class (like I did) then this is very, very helpful. Since he wrote the textbook, all of the exams are basically pulled straight from the book. The new editions sell for a ridiculous amount (I awkwardly left one of the bookstores after taking it to the counter and discovering it was ~$160), and I ended up buying the older edition from Straight A Bookstore for $50, and there was no difference. Everything that was covered on the exams and in his notes were from the old edition, so I did not miss anything. If you are looking to buy older editions, I highly, highly recommend Straight A Bookstore. It is on Grand River closer to Chipotle (I think), and it is in the basement of a building. It is run by international students but it was not a problem. I have bought a couple of older editions from them and it is always much cheaper than the bigger bookstores.
IAH 204: Asia and the World. I see that this class is not being offered this semester; I took the normal class that did not have a focus on China and Japan. The professor was Aminda Smith. OKAY CONFESSION (I am going to lose all my respect), I only went to class sporadically... It is a large lecture class with a weekly recitation. They have quizzes every unit, usually on Thursday, but she does not tell you when it is, so you are supposed to go to class to figure it out (guess which days I usually went...). And then there are 5 papers, but you can only do 4 of them. I would recommend that you do the first four, that way you can have your pick and do not have to do the final paper during exam week.
About the class: I chose this class because I have done a lot of studying about Asia and I wanted to learn more. 3 out of the 5 papers were about colonization and India, which was not a point of interest for me (but thankfully, I learned how to BS my way through a paper in high school). Other than that, I pretty much skated by in recitation with my previous knowledge. I got a 3.0 in the class which is not that great, but considering I missed four of the quizzes, only made it to about half of the recitations (they were at 9 AM in BERKEY, okay?) and totally BSed my papers the day that they were due (they are due at 11:55 PM on the Monday of the week, so I would start at 2 or 3PM and get writing), this was a pretty good grade. Yay for underachieving.
Textbooks: This class requires three books, which all have to be read and then are discussed during recitation. Monkey by Arthur Waley, Strangers from a Different Shore by Takaki and Midnights Children by Rushdie. Honestly, the only book that you could really get away without buying is Strangers from a Different Shore, because only sections of it was assigned for one recitation. I rented that and Monkey from Ned's Bookstore for about half the cost of actually buying the book, and then I ended up buying Midnights Children on Kindle because I forgot about it, and we were reading it in the last part of the semester. THAT SAVED ME DURING RECITATION because my TA decided to randomly call on people, so I was able to read it quickly during class and keep up with what he was saying (because God forbid I actually do my work ahead of time).
ISS 210: 001 Society and the Individual with Tibebe Eshete. This class. This class. I have no words. This professor was super duper nice, but sometimes it was hard to focus. And he showed a lot of movies. And the class was at 8AM, so I may or may not have always made it. He only started doing quizzes towards the end of the semester, but most of the grade was based off of attendance (which was done by passing a paper around the class. It was a big lecture hall and papers don't always make it all the way around, so I really don't recommend that method) and a couple of papers, a midterm, and a final.
Textbook: The books for this class were a coursepack (which was like $80 and had to be bought from some random printing press off campus) and you could choose between the Four-Inch Golden Lotus and the Lost Boys of Sudan. I chose Lost Boys of Sudan because it was the only one available on Kindle, and I read it the day before a book report was due. Actually, that book was super interesting so I was glad to have chose it. The coursepack is not that necessary.
And here is a quick look at my classes for this semester. If you are in any of the same classes and we might be in the same section, let me know! I've changed my major (again), and I do not have any friends in the same major, so I am going into all of these classes basically alone. I am just waiting for one class to open up so that I can switch into it and it will work better with my schedule, but otherwise I am DONE crazily changing my schedule. I am trying to cram in all of the necessary classes into my schedule for this semester and next so that I can hopefully graduate as close to on time as possible. I was very glad to discover that I did not screw up my schedule again with this major change. Last year, I took mostly pre-med focused classes and when I switched, I basically had to start over. Taking Chinese, ISS, IAH and Econ did not hurt me and fingers crossed that I will be able to graduate almost on time.
Anyways!
CHS 202: Second Year Chinese II. I am doing an additional major in Chinese, so I will be taking Chinese language courses all four years (although I am hoping to do a study abroad during the summer between my junior and senior year). My professor for this class is Y. Chen laoshi again, so I am pumped. I really am excited for this class.
COM 275: Effects of Mass Communication. The problem with this class is that it literally starts just as CHS 201 ends. Probably not the best idea, but the Comm Arts building is less than ten minute walk away from Wells, so I am not that concerned. I do not know anyone who is in Communications so if you are in the major, let me know!
COM 300: Methods of Communication Inquiry. Another required class.
MTH 103: College Algebra. I know. Soo ashamed to be in algebra in college, but at this point I just want to get as many of the requirements out of the way as I can, and this is the one that I can do with the least credits possible.
PHL 130: Logic and Reasoning. Let me tell you what. I strongly dislike logic and philosophy, but this is a requirement for the COM major. I guess we will see how it turns out. Also, it is an 8AM class at East Neighborhood, so I am not so sure about it...
So, this semester there are 17 credits. I had been seriously hoping for a nice and simple schedule like I have had for the past three semesters, where I start at 10 or 11 AM and am finished by 3, but with these classes, they are kind of scattered all over. Most of my classes have like a 2 hour gap, but they are all relatively close to each other/Van Hoosen, so I am probably not going to be buying a bus pass this semester.
Please suggest some topics for me! I will probably do some reviews on places around East Lansing, etc.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
MSU Welcome Week Day 3: 8/27
Today is the last day of welcome week activities, before classes start tomorrow!
It is also my favorite day of welcome week, because Sparticipation is today!
(For specific times for the events, take a look at the welcome week schedule.)
There are colloquiums for all colleges today. Starting from 9AM until noon, and you are required (according to the website) to attend. I will be 100% honest, that I cannot remember if I want to this or not. I actually don't think that I did, because I don't remember it. But I don't know if that's because they didn't have it last year, or I wasn't required to go. I would totally recommend that you go though, just to learn more about your college.
You can still stop by Career Services for help finding student jobs, so if you have time, definitely try to go to get job-hunting and interview tips, and to polish your resume.
If you look at the welcome schedule, there are a lot of different programs and meetings for students of specific colleges (like James Madison students, Honors college students, etc.), so if you are part of a college, make sure that you pay attention to your schedule.
The "Fall Welcome Spartan Spectacular" starts at 4 P.M. at Munn Field. If you're walking, honestly, just follow the sounds of people and loud music. Anyways, this is the best event of the year. They serve food at this, but it is only if you have a meal plan (if you're an incoming freshman, you're covered). To encourage you to go to this, they usually close all dining halls during the Fall Welcome Spectacular. If nothing else, come for the experience! It's very loud and crowded, but it's a lot of fun and most of the booths give out free food.
There is music, and the MSU radio station is usually here, and it's very loud and crowded.
The best part of this, for me, is Sparticipation. It's basically a fair, where the student organizations put up tables with information about their groups and, to entice people, they usually have free stuff to pass out. (For some of them, you do have to sell your soul to get freebies because you sign up for e-mail lists. I received e-mails from the LEAF club twice a week all year, despite never attending the meetings, all for a packet of ramen.)
Come find me! I will be at the Pilipino American Student Society (PASS) table, talking about the organization and maybe giving away free stuff! (I'm not sure what just yet). Even though it's called Pilipino student society, we welcome anybody! I'll do an update with the times of our meetings later, but they're a great way to learn more about Filipino culture, and to eat Filipino food!
I will probably also be at the Asian Christian InterVarsity table, as well. Again, the name sounds a little bit intimidating, but you don't have to be Asian or Christian to join. It's a wonderful organization that holds a weekly small and large Bible study. Even if you're not Christian, they provide a wonderful support group and it's where I made my first friends on campus. I highly recommend checking them out!
If you're interested in more information from either group, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment and I'd be happy to send it to you!
Anyways, make sure that you browse around all of the different Sparticipation tables. There's so much free stuff to be given away! A lot of free pens, some shirts, Ramen, candy, etc. Take a look at the student organizations list to get a feel for the groups that you might want to join!
At around 9:30, they put on a wonderful fireworks show. I was only able to stay for part of it last year, but it's always big, exciting, and fun.
So if you have time, definitely come out to Sparticipation today! It's a fabulous event, I highly recommend it from the bottom of my heart. Just make sure not to stay out too late, because classes start tomorrow!
Go green!
Rakuzen
It is also my favorite day of welcome week, because Sparticipation is today!
(For specific times for the events, take a look at the welcome week schedule.)
There are colloquiums for all colleges today. Starting from 9AM until noon, and you are required (according to the website) to attend. I will be 100% honest, that I cannot remember if I want to this or not. I actually don't think that I did, because I don't remember it. But I don't know if that's because they didn't have it last year, or I wasn't required to go. I would totally recommend that you go though, just to learn more about your college.
You can still stop by Career Services for help finding student jobs, so if you have time, definitely try to go to get job-hunting and interview tips, and to polish your resume.
If you look at the welcome schedule, there are a lot of different programs and meetings for students of specific colleges (like James Madison students, Honors college students, etc.), so if you are part of a college, make sure that you pay attention to your schedule.
The "Fall Welcome Spartan Spectacular" starts at 4 P.M. at Munn Field. If you're walking, honestly, just follow the sounds of people and loud music. Anyways, this is the best event of the year. They serve food at this, but it is only if you have a meal plan (if you're an incoming freshman, you're covered). To encourage you to go to this, they usually close all dining halls during the Fall Welcome Spectacular. If nothing else, come for the experience! It's very loud and crowded, but it's a lot of fun and most of the booths give out free food.
There is music, and the MSU radio station is usually here, and it's very loud and crowded.
The best part of this, for me, is Sparticipation. It's basically a fair, where the student organizations put up tables with information about their groups and, to entice people, they usually have free stuff to pass out. (For some of them, you do have to sell your soul to get freebies because you sign up for e-mail lists. I received e-mails from the LEAF club twice a week all year, despite never attending the meetings, all for a packet of ramen.)
Come find me! I will be at the Pilipino American Student Society (PASS) table, talking about the organization and maybe giving away free stuff! (I'm not sure what just yet). Even though it's called Pilipino student society, we welcome anybody! I'll do an update with the times of our meetings later, but they're a great way to learn more about Filipino culture, and to eat Filipino food!
I will probably also be at the Asian Christian InterVarsity table, as well. Again, the name sounds a little bit intimidating, but you don't have to be Asian or Christian to join. It's a wonderful organization that holds a weekly small and large Bible study. Even if you're not Christian, they provide a wonderful support group and it's where I made my first friends on campus. I highly recommend checking them out!
If you're interested in more information from either group, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment and I'd be happy to send it to you!
Anyways, make sure that you browse around all of the different Sparticipation tables. There's so much free stuff to be given away! A lot of free pens, some shirts, Ramen, candy, etc. Take a look at the student organizations list to get a feel for the groups that you might want to join!
At around 9:30, they put on a wonderful fireworks show. I was only able to stay for part of it last year, but it's always big, exciting, and fun.
So if you have time, definitely come out to Sparticipation today! It's a fabulous event, I highly recommend it from the bottom of my heart. Just make sure not to stay out too late, because classes start tomorrow!
Go green!
Rakuzen
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
MSU Welcome Week Day 2: 8/26
(Take a look at the welcome week schedule to find exact times).
Congratulations Spartans! You should be all moved into your new home now!
(Just kidding. It took me a month to finish unpacking, to set up my stuff, and to get organized. I didn't bring my organization stuff (or clothes hangers) the first few days, and then classes started, so I had to find time to set everything up).
Today is when returning students will move in! If your roommate is a returning student (aka a sophomore, junior, or senior), I hope you learn a lot from them! Don't be afraid to try and set rules, just because they're older than you. They were freshman once too! I will probably be moving in on the 25th, just because I have a lot of stuff to get ready to promote PASS for Sparticipation!
Today will be a busy day! There's a lot of events planned, try to go to as many as you can. Today is Convocation at the Breslin Center.
Last year on the Facebook groups, everyone was asking each other if we had to go to the Convocation, since it starts at about 8:45 AM. Hubbard wanted us all to be in front of the dorm at 8AM, so that we could all walk across campus together. Supposedly, Convocation was incredibly mandatory.
I didn't get a lot of sleep after move in, so I strongly considered skipping. But then I was thinking, what if they give you something (like a card or something) that you need to prove that you went? And I'm not much of a rule breaker, anyways. So, since I didn't sleep, I went. Let me tell you something, it was both a good and bad idea.
Basically, a bunch of important people at the University (like the president, provost, and representatives from each of the college) go up and make a speech, as well as the author of the One Book, One Community book. For last year, since the book was set in India, they had the Indian dance group (not sure of the name... sorry) go up and perform, which was amazing. They also brought the Spartan Dischords to sing, which was also cool. But, that was pretty much the extent of the coolness. That was the reason that going was a good idea.
The reason that it was a bad idea is because: the walk from East Neighborhood to the Breslin Center (near Brody Neighborhood) is ridiculously long. It is usually hot and sunny in Michigan in August. It was very boring, other than the dance performance and the song from the Spartan Dischords. They do NOT have a way to check if you went or not, which I should have realized, since there were around 8,000 incoming freshman. Also, I got lost finding my way back to East, because I have no sense of direction. (I did make it, though!)
Anyways! I would say, go for the experience. But if you don't want to, no big deal. Even if rumors float around that it is mandatory, it really isn't. But something that they said, which definitely made me think, was the reason they have the convocation: Your first day on campus, you will be in Breslin for a welcome orientation. And on your last day on campus, you will be in Breslin for graduation.
During Welcome Week, you can go to Career Services (which is near north campus, I think... It's across from Grand River, near the big spaceship) to get help with resources to go job hunting. I didn't go, because I already have a job, but my friend said it was helpful to get their resume sorted out!
Until 8PM that night, all the rest of the events are pretty much college-specific. If you're in a certain college, take a look at the schedule.
At 8, they have Moonlight Madness at Meijer! The buses will leave from Munn Ice Arena at 8PM, and you can ride them to Meijer for free!! They make this a huge, crowded event at Meijer--they have free food, entertainment, and give-aways. The buses are always super packed, so plan well!
I hope you had fun! Tomorrow is Sparticipation, and your last day before classes on Wednesday!
Go Green!
Rakuzen
Congratulations Spartans! You should be all moved into your new home now!
(Just kidding. It took me a month to finish unpacking, to set up my stuff, and to get organized. I didn't bring my organization stuff (or clothes hangers) the first few days, and then classes started, so I had to find time to set everything up).
Today is when returning students will move in! If your roommate is a returning student (aka a sophomore, junior, or senior), I hope you learn a lot from them! Don't be afraid to try and set rules, just because they're older than you. They were freshman once too! I will probably be moving in on the 25th, just because I have a lot of stuff to get ready to promote PASS for Sparticipation!
Today will be a busy day! There's a lot of events planned, try to go to as many as you can. Today is Convocation at the Breslin Center.
Last year on the Facebook groups, everyone was asking each other if we had to go to the Convocation, since it starts at about 8:45 AM. Hubbard wanted us all to be in front of the dorm at 8AM, so that we could all walk across campus together. Supposedly, Convocation was incredibly mandatory.
I didn't get a lot of sleep after move in, so I strongly considered skipping. But then I was thinking, what if they give you something (like a card or something) that you need to prove that you went? And I'm not much of a rule breaker, anyways. So, since I didn't sleep, I went. Let me tell you something, it was both a good and bad idea.
Basically, a bunch of important people at the University (like the president, provost, and representatives from each of the college) go up and make a speech, as well as the author of the One Book, One Community book. For last year, since the book was set in India, they had the Indian dance group (not sure of the name... sorry) go up and perform, which was amazing. They also brought the Spartan Dischords to sing, which was also cool. But, that was pretty much the extent of the coolness. That was the reason that going was a good idea.
The reason that it was a bad idea is because: the walk from East Neighborhood to the Breslin Center (near Brody Neighborhood) is ridiculously long. It is usually hot and sunny in Michigan in August. It was very boring, other than the dance performance and the song from the Spartan Dischords. They do NOT have a way to check if you went or not, which I should have realized, since there were around 8,000 incoming freshman. Also, I got lost finding my way back to East, because I have no sense of direction. (I did make it, though!)
Anyways! I would say, go for the experience. But if you don't want to, no big deal. Even if rumors float around that it is mandatory, it really isn't. But something that they said, which definitely made me think, was the reason they have the convocation: Your first day on campus, you will be in Breslin for a welcome orientation. And on your last day on campus, you will be in Breslin for graduation.
During Welcome Week, you can go to Career Services (which is near north campus, I think... It's across from Grand River, near the big spaceship) to get help with resources to go job hunting. I didn't go, because I already have a job, but my friend said it was helpful to get their resume sorted out!
Until 8PM that night, all the rest of the events are pretty much college-specific. If you're in a certain college, take a look at the schedule.
At 8, they have Moonlight Madness at Meijer! The buses will leave from Munn Ice Arena at 8PM, and you can ride them to Meijer for free!! They make this a huge, crowded event at Meijer--they have free food, entertainment, and give-aways. The buses are always super packed, so plan well!
I hope you had fun! Tomorrow is Sparticipation, and your last day before classes on Wednesday!
Go Green!
Rakuzen
Monday, August 19, 2013
MSU Welcome Week Day 1: 8/25
If you don't know what welcome week is, it is basically a series of events that go on from between the time you move in until classes start, designed to welcome you onto campus!
If you want to take a look at the schedule, you can click the link. But I'll just post a little bit about the days and the events.
This is move-in day for new students! I hope you enjoy the experience. There is a lot of excitement in the air because everyone is in the same boat as you: a new student!
Move-in for me was really easy, because my cousin and his friend (both MSU students) came to help me. And I lived on the first floor of Hubbard, so I didn't have to fight for the elevator or climb up the stairs. As I mentioned before, my roommate was on a trip until the day before classes started, so I had the room to myself for two nights. It was so nice, but I didn't really make a lot of (read: any) friends because I'm really shy and I didn't leave my dorm a lot, except for the required events.
Some things to know about move in: This is move in day for ALL new students from the United States. So, it's going to be incredibly busy around the dorms, there might not be very good/close parking spots (move in and move out days are pretty much the only times that they let you park on the grass) and since it's still "summer" in Michigan, it could be HOT. But after you're all moved in, the residence halls offer free food for you and your family, so you could treat them to a meal at the dining halls.
Anyways! You can see the list of activities on the site, but here's a few of the highlights.
There are usually floor meetings on move in day. It is important that you attend them because you can meet your floor Resident Assistants (RA) and your floormates. Also, if your floor has any particular rules (for instance, one side of Akers is "dry" so, no alcohol and some floors are quiet floors), then they will tell you them.
Personally! I moved in late in the day because I had to work, so I missed the floor meeting. (I also "missed" every meeting there after). Some RAs are cool with it and don't mind, but I know one RA who would use his master key to burst into dorms if people weren't at the meeting. Anyways, since this is your first day on campus, it would be great to at least know the names of the people who will be living in your hall! Your RA will probably send you an e-mail before you move in to let you know when the meeting will be.
There are two fun events on this night: Midnight Bingo Mania at the International Center (if you don't know where that is, use MSU maps. Also, International Center is a very good place to know because it is home to the Crossroads Food Court with Sparty's, Subway, Panda Express, Woody's Oasis, and Villa Pizza) where you can win some cool prizes, and also ice skating at Munn Ice Arena. I didn't go to either of them because my cousin took me around to show me campus and East Lansing, but some of my friends went and said it was very cool and fun.
That's all for the first day! I hope you have a fabulous time moving in, and that you make a lot of friends before classes start! Up next, I'll do a review on the next day of Welcome Week, to get you ready in the week before you move in!
Go green!
Rakuzen
If you want to take a look at the schedule, you can click the link. But I'll just post a little bit about the days and the events.
This is move-in day for new students! I hope you enjoy the experience. There is a lot of excitement in the air because everyone is in the same boat as you: a new student!
Move-in for me was really easy, because my cousin and his friend (both MSU students) came to help me. And I lived on the first floor of Hubbard, so I didn't have to fight for the elevator or climb up the stairs. As I mentioned before, my roommate was on a trip until the day before classes started, so I had the room to myself for two nights. It was so nice, but I didn't really make a lot of (read: any) friends because I'm really shy and I didn't leave my dorm a lot, except for the required events.
Some things to know about move in: This is move in day for ALL new students from the United States. So, it's going to be incredibly busy around the dorms, there might not be very good/close parking spots (move in and move out days are pretty much the only times that they let you park on the grass) and since it's still "summer" in Michigan, it could be HOT. But after you're all moved in, the residence halls offer free food for you and your family, so you could treat them to a meal at the dining halls.
Anyways! You can see the list of activities on the site, but here's a few of the highlights.
There are usually floor meetings on move in day. It is important that you attend them because you can meet your floor Resident Assistants (RA) and your floormates. Also, if your floor has any particular rules (for instance, one side of Akers is "dry" so, no alcohol and some floors are quiet floors), then they will tell you them.
Personally! I moved in late in the day because I had to work, so I missed the floor meeting. (I also "missed" every meeting there after). Some RAs are cool with it and don't mind, but I know one RA who would use his master key to burst into dorms if people weren't at the meeting. Anyways, since this is your first day on campus, it would be great to at least know the names of the people who will be living in your hall! Your RA will probably send you an e-mail before you move in to let you know when the meeting will be.
There are two fun events on this night: Midnight Bingo Mania at the International Center (if you don't know where that is, use MSU maps. Also, International Center is a very good place to know because it is home to the Crossroads Food Court with Sparty's, Subway, Panda Express, Woody's Oasis, and Villa Pizza) where you can win some cool prizes, and also ice skating at Munn Ice Arena. I didn't go to either of them because my cousin took me around to show me campus and East Lansing, but some of my friends went and said it was very cool and fun.
That's all for the first day! I hope you have a fabulous time moving in, and that you make a lot of friends before classes start! Up next, I'll do a review on the next day of Welcome Week, to get you ready in the week before you move in!
Go green!
Rakuzen
Friday, July 26, 2013
Dorm review: East Neighborhood: Holmes Hall
Hello!
This is another post in a series that I'm trying to do on the dorms of Michigan State University. Today, I'm working on reviewing the last residence hall in East Neighborhood, Holmes Hall. I also did a review on Hubbard and Akers.
I did not live in Holmes, but I spent a LOT of time there first semester as one of my close friends lived there. Holmes Hall is known as the home of Lyman Briggs College, which is a residential college focusing on science and math majors. Usually, you have to be accepted into Lyman Briggs College to live there, although my friend was only there because her roommate was an LB student.
And actually, this dorm post will have no pictures. The dorm is set up the EXACT same way as Hubbard Hall, so if you want to see what it will look like, take a look at the Hubbard post. Everything is the same, the beds, the closet and shelf, the dresser, the mirror, the desks, the modular shelves. This will mostly be a review on Holmes Hall itself.
I disliked Holmes Hall the most out of any of the dorms that I visited. It had an odd smell in it (although I suppose if you're a Lyman Briggs student, you're used to it. And it's probably because of dissections and chemistry and stuff, but still). I hated the dining hall. It was where I had my racist experience. It was far away from Hubbard (okay, not really, but it was far enough away that I complained like crazy for having to walk over to visit my friend).
The dorms: Like I said, they are exactly like the Hubbard dorms. There's six floors. My friend lived on the sixth floor, which was supposedly haunted (although I never met anyone/thing coming down at 3AM).
The dining hall: I wasn't very fond of it (to put it mildly). They are the only dining hall in East Neighborhood to serve late night (which means they're open until midnight). They have Today's Features, which has different foods each day; Levels, which has pizza (usually cheese, pepperoni, and then a special one) and made-to-order sandwiches (those are to die for. That is the only reason that I ever agreed to eat at Holmes); Origins, which has made-to-order waffles and omelets in the morning, and vegetarian stir fry at lunch and night; Mosaic, which has smoothies and parfaits and Halal entrees.
The rest of it: Since Holmes Hall is home to Lyman Briggs, there are a lot of classrooms in it. It also has a Sparty's Express, which is a much, much smaller version of the Sparty's in Hubbard and doesn't have a grill or fryer--it's more like a convenience store, so you can still get your Combo-X-Change there.
They have two study lounges, which are actually pretty nice. The study lounges are very comfortable and I did spend quite a bit of time in them.
Overall, chances are that if you're in Holmes, you're a Lyman Briggs student so none of my issues with the dorm will bother you. Otherwise, if you're trying to switch dorms, I would stay away from Holmes.
Go green!
Rakuzen
This is another post in a series that I'm trying to do on the dorms of Michigan State University. Today, I'm working on reviewing the last residence hall in East Neighborhood, Holmes Hall. I also did a review on Hubbard and Akers.
I did not live in Holmes, but I spent a LOT of time there first semester as one of my close friends lived there. Holmes Hall is known as the home of Lyman Briggs College, which is a residential college focusing on science and math majors. Usually, you have to be accepted into Lyman Briggs College to live there, although my friend was only there because her roommate was an LB student.
And actually, this dorm post will have no pictures. The dorm is set up the EXACT same way as Hubbard Hall, so if you want to see what it will look like, take a look at the Hubbard post. Everything is the same, the beds, the closet and shelf, the dresser, the mirror, the desks, the modular shelves. This will mostly be a review on Holmes Hall itself.
I disliked Holmes Hall the most out of any of the dorms that I visited. It had an odd smell in it (although I suppose if you're a Lyman Briggs student, you're used to it. And it's probably because of dissections and chemistry and stuff, but still). I hated the dining hall. It was where I had my racist experience. It was far away from Hubbard (okay, not really, but it was far enough away that I complained like crazy for having to walk over to visit my friend).
The dorms: Like I said, they are exactly like the Hubbard dorms. There's six floors. My friend lived on the sixth floor, which was supposedly haunted (although I never met anyone/thing coming down at 3AM).
The dining hall: I wasn't very fond of it (to put it mildly). They are the only dining hall in East Neighborhood to serve late night (which means they're open until midnight). They have Today's Features, which has different foods each day; Levels, which has pizza (usually cheese, pepperoni, and then a special one) and made-to-order sandwiches (those are to die for. That is the only reason that I ever agreed to eat at Holmes); Origins, which has made-to-order waffles and omelets in the morning, and vegetarian stir fry at lunch and night; Mosaic, which has smoothies and parfaits and Halal entrees.
The rest of it: Since Holmes Hall is home to Lyman Briggs, there are a lot of classrooms in it. It also has a Sparty's Express, which is a much, much smaller version of the Sparty's in Hubbard and doesn't have a grill or fryer--it's more like a convenience store, so you can still get your Combo-X-Change there.
They have two study lounges, which are actually pretty nice. The study lounges are very comfortable and I did spend quite a bit of time in them.
Overall, chances are that if you're in Holmes, you're a Lyman Briggs student so none of my issues with the dorm will bother you. Otherwise, if you're trying to switch dorms, I would stay away from Holmes.
Go green!
Rakuzen
Monday, July 22, 2013
Dorm Review: East Neighborhood: Akers Hall
Hello!
This is part of a series that I've begun, since I know that a lot of people are starting to figure out their dorm assignments and want to take a look at what their dorm looks like. (I know that the official assignments aren't out yet, because they come out in August. But like I mentioned in my Hubbard Hall review, if you check StuInfo, then they'll have posted a room to your account. They say that this is not the official room (and a lot of people that I know had their rooms changed) because it's for billing purposes, but it's always nice to check and get a little bit excited. My assignment was right, but I did end up switching out.) I will only be doing a few of the dorms, the ones that I have personal experience, but if you want to request your dorm, leave a comment and I'll find some friends who lived there. I will probably do East Neighborhood (Akers, Holmes, Hubbard), South Neighborhood (Case, Wonders, Holden, Wilson), River Trail Neighborhood (Owen, McDonel, VanHoosen), and Yakeley.
Note, I did not personally live here. I was assigned to this dorm, but I ended up switching out. However, one of my friends lived here and I visited the room often, so I can give a little bit of insight but not a lot of pictures.
Akers is special, because it is the only suite-style dorm on campus. Four people live in the room, the bathroom is inside the dorm (as opposed to sharing with another room like in Hubbard, or a community bathroom), and there is a tiny "living room" in the dorm.
This is part of a series that I've begun, since I know that a lot of people are starting to figure out their dorm assignments and want to take a look at what their dorm looks like. (I know that the official assignments aren't out yet, because they come out in August. But like I mentioned in my Hubbard Hall review, if you check StuInfo, then they'll have posted a room to your account. They say that this is not the official room (and a lot of people that I know had their rooms changed) because it's for billing purposes, but it's always nice to check and get a little bit excited. My assignment was right, but I did end up switching out.) I will only be doing a few of the dorms, the ones that I have personal experience, but if you want to request your dorm, leave a comment and I'll find some friends who lived there. I will probably do East Neighborhood (Akers, Holmes, Hubbard), South Neighborhood (Case, Wonders, Holden, Wilson), River Trail Neighborhood (Owen, McDonel, VanHoosen), and Yakeley.
Note, I did not personally live here. I was assigned to this dorm, but I ended up switching out. However, one of my friends lived here and I visited the room often, so I can give a little bit of insight but not a lot of pictures.
Akers is special, because it is the only suite-style dorm on campus. Four people live in the room, the bathroom is inside the dorm (as opposed to sharing with another room like in Hubbard, or a community bathroom), and there is a tiny "living room" in the dorm.
The first picture that I have of Akers is from the LiveOn site. When I was first searching my dorm last summer, I found this picture, but I can't seem to find it on the site. This is just a floor plan that shows you, basically, what it looks like. There's two "bedrooms," that have two beds and a dresser in each, with a mirror. In the floor plan, the beds are lofted, so there's more space. My friend had his beds end-to-end, so it was kind of cramped. The desks can move around, too, so they had their desks in the bedroom which meant they had to jump on the beds to get around.
It has four "closet" style areas, which you can see in the picture is across from the bedrooms. The closet areas have a pole and a shelf above it, which actually provides a lot of space.
MSU has virtual tours on the bedroom, bathroom, and living room of Akers now, so I won't bore you with the details of the room. If you click the link, you can go through a virtual tour and see how other people set it up. Although, as I look at the virtual tour, make sure that you notice the yellow wall that divides the two bedrooms. At first glance, it might look like it's not there and that the room is huge, but the wall is there.
Now that there's some pictures, I'll do a review on the rest of Akers. Akers was, apparently, remodeled. The inside is super nice. Both East and West Akers have a study lounge area with tables and chairs that is really nice and comfortable. The walls are gorgeous on the first floor. There are classrooms and there's a full computer lab, which is nice.
I spent a lot of time in that cafeteria, because the food is decent--better than Akers, but not as good as some of the other dorms. It has three stations; Bamboo, which serves "Asian" food like sushi and a made to order wok meal of the day (as in, Ramen one day, Moo Shu Pork another, etc.), Publisher, which serves sandwiches and wings, and Today's Features, which is just a hot line with different food every day. It has two lines of salad bars, and a dessert area. Akers dining hall is beautiful because it has windows along half of one of the walls, where you can look out at people walking to class and the beautiful grass and trees.
Overall, Akers is decent. I didn't want to live in a suite-style room though, so I didn't live there. The dining hall is pretty okay sometimes (I know, high praise). The study rooms are nice, as is the study lounge.
Hope this helped. If I scrounge up any pictures from my friends' experience, I'll be sure to update the post!
Go green!
Rakuzen
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Dorm review: East Neighborhood: North Hubbard Hall
Hello!
I know it's been awhile, but I just wanted to get this review up! You might have seen one like this before on the blog without pictures, because I had it scheduled and didn't get it together enough to post the pictures before it went up. So, last night when I had insomnia, I re-wrote the post and got the pictures together.
This is a post in (another) series that I'm starting, about the dorms on campus. I won't be doing every single dorm unless requested (through the comments or through an email), but I will try to post an in-depth review with pictures (if I have them) and a review on the entire dorm. I'll start with Hubbard Hall. I believe it's the same in North and South, but I lived in North Hubbard on the first floor.
If you check your StuInfo account, you might see your room assignment! I had AOP on this day last year, and they posted the room assignments. Now, the housing department will say that it's not set in stone and it's used for billing purposes, but for me it was my first room assignment. So who knows, you might find your roommate based off this assignment and keep them or not. (For me, I received the right assignment. But I did end up switching to North Hubbard, so I'll do another post on that in case someone else is like me and wants to switch buildings/roommates).
First, I guess we'll start with the end of my room. There was this huge window. I am horrible at taking pictures, but you should be able to see that the window is huge. It has blinds covering it. There's a window sill in front that is also really wide, big enough to sit on! (although 1, we kept stuff on the window sill so it was too cluttered and 2, if you sit on it, be careful not to fall out of the window).
My chair. A simple black rolling chair with arm rests. It wasn't bad, just not super comfy since it's plastic.
On top of my desk, attached to the wall, was a humongous tack board. Gorgeous! For the first week, it was ultra bare, but I bought a ton of costume jewelry for cheap from the mall and hung it up, and then I started putting random flyers up. I wanted to post my pictures in a bare room but sadly, that didn't quite work out. The tack board has about another inch on the left that I cut off on accident, but that's about the size. The flowers were a gift from my roommate, since she went on a trip just before I moved in and I didn't meet her until a few days later.
Next is my bed. I took a couple of different shots for you. The right one is how it looked shortly after I moved in, when my cousin lofted it for me. The angle is a little funny to show you the steps on the side, and the left picture is just the side bar that keeps you from crashing and dying. As for the towels and random stuff laying on the side, that is because those steps HURT. That's why I ultimately unlofted my bed. You can kind of see in the first picture, my refrigerator under the bed. Lofted, I would say that the bed is about 6-7'. Unlofted (which I have on my phone, I'll have to update) is about 4'.
The dresser. I didn't have that many clothes, and neither did my roommate, so we put mostly food and personal stuff in there. As you can see, the drawers were kind of deep. Since the top drawer didn't open all the way, we stuck tea and hair supplies (hair dryer, straightener, etc.) in there. The top was kind of a mess, because we stored our makeup up there.
Directly across from the mirror and dressers is the closet space. The closet has a pole and two hooks on the far left side. I couldn't take a picture of the entire closet, because my roommate had already moved in. As you can see, there's a little shelf on top of the closet. It was pretty tall, because I could fit my box from the dresser there for the entire semester.
On top of that was this huge open space. It had sliding doors, but it was too high for both my roommate and I to reach (it reached to the top of the ceiling). She ended up storing her suitcases there.
There is the room review. I really did like it, except for the fact that they didn't really use the heater in winter (it was so cold in there, which may or may not have been mostly because we were on the first floor), and then seemed to crank it up as it got closer to spring, so the room was roasting.
The dining hall: Hubbard's dining hall is not TOO bad. It has three stations, Piazza, which serves made-to-order omelets for breakfast and made-to-order pasta for lunch and dinner; Terra Salsa Verde, which served Tex-Mex style food like nachos, quesadillas and tacos; and Today's Features, which had various food every day. It also has two rows of salad bar. The food wasn't too bad, but it wasn't as good as some of the other dorms on campus. The dining hall itself is very, very dark because of the blinds that they have on the windows.
The rest of it: Hubbard is home to the East Neighborhood engagement center. At the engagement center, you can see UUD advisors, and I think they have tutoring and computer services there. They also have a writing center there, where you can set up an appointment to get help with writing papers. There is a fabulous Sparty's in Hubbard, which has a grill and fryer, so you can order hot meals like hamburgers and fries or chicken tenders as part of your Combo-X-Change. The Olin Neighborhood Clinic is located in South Hubbard, and I went there twice during the year (you get three free visits as a student). It's super convenient, and they're really helpful and can write prescriptions. There are classrooms in the basement, and there's a small computer lab (8 computers and a printer) in North Hubbard. I believe that Hubbard was recently remodeled, because they have a lounge area near the computer lab that has comfortable couches and televisions.
Overall, I loved Hubbard. It is the farthest from the East Campus bus stop, but the walk to it (not that far, really) is just beautiful. I had a pretty good experience at Hubbard, and I would honestly recommend it.
I hope this helped you if you got assigned here!
Go green!
Rakuzen
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Schedule!
Since I had some holds on my account, I wasn't able to sign up for classes until a couple of weeks ago. Some of the classes that I want are full and I'm on the waitlist for them, but I am really lucky and managed to get a lot of classes that I need/want.
I'll be living in Van Hoosen next year, which I'm super excited for, so I tried to schedule most of my classes to be nearby. My first schedule was fabulous, all of my classes were either at the Business College Complex or the Eppley Center, which are both across from Van Hoosen, or at Wells, which is a 5-10 minute walk.
Sadly, my schedule was rearranged, but I still got a lot of classes that I want. Here's the classes that I'll be taking for the fall semester:
IAH 204: Asia and the World. Since I messed up my schedule first semester and didn't take as many university required classes as I should have, I'm making up for it this year. IAH is required, and I have a particular interest in China and Asia, so most of my classes revolve around those topics. This helps me stay interested and focused.
EC 201: Introduction to Microeconomics. Can't say too much about this, but I'm taking this because it's a required class for my intended new major. I'll post more about my major change, hopefully soon, because I want to be accepted into the major before I tell anyone.
CHS 201: Second-Year Chinese I. I'm taking Chinese again this year, and I plan on making it my additional major. I'm so excited because I really love learning languages, and I love the Chinese curriculum and the way it is set up at MSU.
ISB 200: History of Life. Another required class. This is supposedly not too boring, according to Koofers. If the class that I want to take becomes open (or I find out that I don't need this class, because I took CEM 141 and I can't remember which class that replaces), I'll probably drop this and just take it next year. Also, I hope to take a summer class that will cut the ISB requirement for me, so fingers crossed.
ISS 210: Society and the Individual. Required! I'm going to take this if I can take the summer class and drop the ISB class. And then about half of my requirements will be done!
So, that's my schedule for the fall semester. Let me know if you're taking any of those classes, maybe we're in the same section!
Here's a review of the classes that I took last semester, with tips for books and professors.
CHS 102: First-Year Chinese II. I can't say a lot about the Chinese classes because it all depends on the TA that is teaching your section. For me, second semester was much better than the first. There are typically two teachers (TA's who are usually graduate students), and for second semester I had two ladies. One had taught me first semester, and I liked her a lot, but she was kind of a push over and didn't want to do immersion, so I preferred the other teacher. The other teacher was fabulous, although a lot of other students in my class didn't like her. She spoke mostly immersion and was really helpful, and when we had to do pair work and my partner wasn't there, she would partner with me, which really helped me grasp whatever lesson or concept we were learning. I really like the Integrated Chinese books that CHS 101 and 102 use, because they teach everything in a very easy-to-grasp way.
For the books, I mentioned before that I got a fabulous deal on all of my Chinese books, because I bought the lot of them from another former Chinese student. I believe that I have all the textbooks for CHS 101-402, and I got them for $100. You still need a workbook, which is usually around $15 online. And they want you to get a character workbook, but I only bought one for 101, and then I used notebook paper for 102. It's an extra $15. It makes it a little bit easier because you don't have to haul out the textbook to find out the characters each time, but I'm too cheap.
WRA 125: 010: American Racial and Ethnic Experience. For this class, the section is important. Section 10 with Johnson Cheu has an Asian-American focus. I 4.0'ed this class. I really, really loved it. It helped that I was super interested in all of the topics. He's a pretty strict teacher (any papers that are turned in late receive half a grade down, and you can only miss 5 or 6 classes), and I'm really surprised that I 4.0'ed it. I will admit that I probably skipped about 10 times or so, and he still didn't take points off. Especially since I missed on all the paper-return days. But he shows quite a few movies (Joy Luck Club, Who Killed Vincent Chin) and he is hilarious. The only reason I skipped was because 8AM was way too early, otherwise I would have gone to every class. I highly recommend his section. One thing is that not all of the books are necessary. Woman Warrior and Screaming Monkeys are, since they're the first books so he focuses a lot on them, but American-Born Chinese and M. Butterfly are not so much. Neither are the "Curious Researcher" and the other required WRA book. I didn't buy either of the WRA books because I was conceited and figured that my MLA formatting and stuff was just fine, and I didn't even need it. I did, however, buy all of the books because I really wanted to add them to my collection.
CEM 141: General Chemistry. Yes, I did re-take this class. Here's some tips since I have two semesters-worth under my belt! Go to every recitation. Even if your TA sucks or whatever. In the event that you dislike your TA, switch sections. Do ALL the homework. If it's Connect, find a study group and work on it together. If it's OWLs, use screencaps to help you if you're too lazy to find the answers by yourself. Don't buy the book (along the same lines, don't rent the book and then forget to return it.) Buy the exam & answers booklet (used/older edition is fine... Not a big deal.), and start preparing, going through every question, at least a week before the exam. Buy the lecture notes book and use that as your guide, because the answers to a lot of the questions on the exam can be found in the lecture notes. I sat through four teachers: Morrissey, LaDuca, Hong, and Harrison. Morrissey, I had first semester. He is boring as all else, I could not pay attention in his class, I do not recommend him. At all. Same with Harrison. Hong was super nice and had a passion for chemistry, but I had scheduling conflicts and I had to change sections. I ended up with LaDuca and I have to say: IF YOU CAN GET LADUCA AS YOUR CHEM PROFESSOR, DO IT. DON'T PASS GO, DON'T COLLECT $200. He is so fabulous. He explains everything really well, and things that I had been beating myself over since high school were explained in seconds by him. He is funny and really grabs your attention. I credit my passing grade with him.
I'm also planning on taking a few classes online over the summer, either at Lansing Community College or Schoolcraft College. I'll let you know how that goes!
There you have it! I hope this helped. I'll try to post a review of each class/teacher at the end of every semester, and I'll post the classes that I will be taking as well.
Rakuzen
I'll be living in Van Hoosen next year, which I'm super excited for, so I tried to schedule most of my classes to be nearby. My first schedule was fabulous, all of my classes were either at the Business College Complex or the Eppley Center, which are both across from Van Hoosen, or at Wells, which is a 5-10 minute walk.
Sadly, my schedule was rearranged, but I still got a lot of classes that I want. Here's the classes that I'll be taking for the fall semester:
IAH 204: Asia and the World. Since I messed up my schedule first semester and didn't take as many university required classes as I should have, I'm making up for it this year. IAH is required, and I have a particular interest in China and Asia, so most of my classes revolve around those topics. This helps me stay interested and focused.
EC 201: Introduction to Microeconomics. Can't say too much about this, but I'm taking this because it's a required class for my intended new major. I'll post more about my major change, hopefully soon, because I want to be accepted into the major before I tell anyone.
CHS 201: Second-Year Chinese I. I'm taking Chinese again this year, and I plan on making it my additional major. I'm so excited because I really love learning languages, and I love the Chinese curriculum and the way it is set up at MSU.
ISB 200: History of Life. Another required class. This is supposedly not too boring, according to Koofers. If the class that I want to take becomes open (or I find out that I don't need this class, because I took CEM 141 and I can't remember which class that replaces), I'll probably drop this and just take it next year. Also, I hope to take a summer class that will cut the ISB requirement for me, so fingers crossed.
ISS 210: Society and the Individual. Required! I'm going to take this if I can take the summer class and drop the ISB class. And then about half of my requirements will be done!
So, that's my schedule for the fall semester. Let me know if you're taking any of those classes, maybe we're in the same section!
Here's a review of the classes that I took last semester, with tips for books and professors.
CHS 102: First-Year Chinese II. I can't say a lot about the Chinese classes because it all depends on the TA that is teaching your section. For me, second semester was much better than the first. There are typically two teachers (TA's who are usually graduate students), and for second semester I had two ladies. One had taught me first semester, and I liked her a lot, but she was kind of a push over and didn't want to do immersion, so I preferred the other teacher. The other teacher was fabulous, although a lot of other students in my class didn't like her. She spoke mostly immersion and was really helpful, and when we had to do pair work and my partner wasn't there, she would partner with me, which really helped me grasp whatever lesson or concept we were learning. I really like the Integrated Chinese books that CHS 101 and 102 use, because they teach everything in a very easy-to-grasp way.
For the books, I mentioned before that I got a fabulous deal on all of my Chinese books, because I bought the lot of them from another former Chinese student. I believe that I have all the textbooks for CHS 101-402, and I got them for $100. You still need a workbook, which is usually around $15 online. And they want you to get a character workbook, but I only bought one for 101, and then I used notebook paper for 102. It's an extra $15. It makes it a little bit easier because you don't have to haul out the textbook to find out the characters each time, but I'm too cheap.
WRA 125: 010: American Racial and Ethnic Experience. For this class, the section is important. Section 10 with Johnson Cheu has an Asian-American focus. I 4.0'ed this class. I really, really loved it. It helped that I was super interested in all of the topics. He's a pretty strict teacher (any papers that are turned in late receive half a grade down, and you can only miss 5 or 6 classes), and I'm really surprised that I 4.0'ed it. I will admit that I probably skipped about 10 times or so, and he still didn't take points off. Especially since I missed on all the paper-return days. But he shows quite a few movies (Joy Luck Club, Who Killed Vincent Chin) and he is hilarious. The only reason I skipped was because 8AM was way too early, otherwise I would have gone to every class. I highly recommend his section. One thing is that not all of the books are necessary. Woman Warrior and Screaming Monkeys are, since they're the first books so he focuses a lot on them, but American-Born Chinese and M. Butterfly are not so much. Neither are the "Curious Researcher" and the other required WRA book. I didn't buy either of the WRA books because I was conceited and figured that my MLA formatting and stuff was just fine, and I didn't even need it. I did, however, buy all of the books because I really wanted to add them to my collection.
CEM 141: General Chemistry. Yes, I did re-take this class. Here's some tips since I have two semesters-worth under my belt! Go to every recitation. Even if your TA sucks or whatever. In the event that you dislike your TA, switch sections. Do ALL the homework. If it's Connect, find a study group and work on it together. If it's OWLs, use screencaps to help you if you're too lazy to find the answers by yourself. Don't buy the book (along the same lines, don't rent the book and then forget to return it.) Buy the exam & answers booklet (used/older edition is fine... Not a big deal.), and start preparing, going through every question, at least a week before the exam. Buy the lecture notes book and use that as your guide, because the answers to a lot of the questions on the exam can be found in the lecture notes. I sat through four teachers: Morrissey, LaDuca, Hong, and Harrison. Morrissey, I had first semester. He is boring as all else, I could not pay attention in his class, I do not recommend him. At all. Same with Harrison. Hong was super nice and had a passion for chemistry, but I had scheduling conflicts and I had to change sections. I ended up with LaDuca and I have to say: IF YOU CAN GET LADUCA AS YOUR CHEM PROFESSOR, DO IT. DON'T PASS GO, DON'T COLLECT $200. He is so fabulous. He explains everything really well, and things that I had been beating myself over since high school were explained in seconds by him. He is funny and really grabs your attention. I credit my passing grade with him.
I'm also planning on taking a few classes online over the summer, either at Lansing Community College or Schoolcraft College. I'll let you know how that goes!
There you have it! I hope this helped. I'll try to post a review of each class/teacher at the end of every semester, and I'll post the classes that I will be taking as well.
Rakuzen
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Dorm items! Part 3: Bedding
Back again!
In case you're new, this post is part of a series that I'm posting on dorm items, specifically for Michigan State students. I'm obviously not an authority and this doesn't have everything you need for the dorms, but these are items that worked for me and my friends. As an introduction to each post, I'll write a little bit about what Michigan State offers for each section. Note, these aren't affiliate links and you don't have to buy them through these links. I just use them so that you can get an idea of the items and comparison shop, or if you happen to find a good deal, so you can snatch it up as you prepare for dorm living.
Today, I'll do a short post on bedding. MSU has twin XL beds on a loftable frame. What this means (in case you don't know. I didn't really know, since I've never had the choice to loft my bed or not) is that you can loft your bed so that it is higher. Just guessing, but I'd say it lofts to be about 8-10' high. It's enough to put shelves or a minifridge or a futon underneath, so it goes pretty high. (In most of them, anyways. When I was at Yakeley, the bed lofted a little bit lower, but my friends were still able to put their desks underneath.)
On move-in day, I had my cousin loft my bed for me, but I didn't like it. Since I was on the first floor of Hubbard, my ceiling was pretty high (and I'm pretty short), so I didn't have any problems with hitting my head on the ceiling. But the "steps" on the bed are wooden and really painful to step on, so I ended up having my friend unloft my bed, which put it at about 4' high. Still high enough for me to put my boxes underneath, but I had to move my minifridge.
MSU uses twin XL bedsheets, which is kind of inconvenient. Just remember that, while twin XL sheets will fit on twin size beds, twin size sheets will not fit on twin XL beds. So, unless you happen to have a twin XL bed at home, you'll probably have to buy new sheets. When it comes closer to move-in day, stores will start to stock college dorm supplies, and usually they'll have sheet sets to fit your bed. Otherwise, check out Target or Bed Bath and Beyond.
If you don't want to buy sheets, they have a program at MSU where you can get a free linen package every week. It's all white linens and includes a fitted sheet, a sheet, pillowcase, and two towels. Obviously, if you feel like decorating your room and coordinating your linens and whatever, this isn't ideal for you. I used this though, and it's really convenient and nice because you don't have to drag your bedding to the laundry room every week, and you can exchange it weekly for clean sheets. And it's free!
I would highly, highly, highly recommend buying a mattress protector. This is the exact same one that I bought. They re-use the mattresses after "cleaning them" but really, there are so many dorms on campus and a lot of work to be done over the summer, so you never know how well they clean them. I wiped my mattress down with some Clorox wipes and then put on this mattress protector. It's very cheap and it provides a good barrier between you/the sheets and the mattress. And if you don't use the linen package or have backup sheets, it's good to use if your sheets are in the wash and you're ready to sleep.
My roommate had this mattress pad. It was very comfortable, especially because the mattresses in the dorms are really firm, bordering on hard. It was easy to clean and made the beds a lot nicer, but I didn't bother with one because I didn't have a problem with the beds. But if you're not used to firm beds, or if you get there and find that you're having trouble sleeping, a mattress pad could definitely help you. I know a lot of my friends had one. Just make sure you get one in twin XL!
One of my friends had this bedside organizer because her bed was lofted. It was really cool! I thought about buying something like this when I was planning on what to pack over the summer, but ultimately didn't buy it. But since the bed is so high and it's such a pain to climb back down to put away your glasses or cell phone or whatever, this organizer was super efficient. (Since I'm not efficient, I would have to crawl under my bed every day to pick up my glasses or whatever dropped through the crack.)
My roommate bought a heated blanket during the black Friday sales since the room became super cold in the winter, but that's not essential.
Hope this helped! The next post of the series will probably be school supplies. (: I know that the Academic Orientation Program is starting next week, so have fun and good luck to all of the incoming freshman!
Rakuzen
In case you're new, this post is part of a series that I'm posting on dorm items, specifically for Michigan State students. I'm obviously not an authority and this doesn't have everything you need for the dorms, but these are items that worked for me and my friends. As an introduction to each post, I'll write a little bit about what Michigan State offers for each section. Note, these aren't affiliate links and you don't have to buy them through these links. I just use them so that you can get an idea of the items and comparison shop, or if you happen to find a good deal, so you can snatch it up as you prepare for dorm living.
Today, I'll do a short post on bedding. MSU has twin XL beds on a loftable frame. What this means (in case you don't know. I didn't really know, since I've never had the choice to loft my bed or not) is that you can loft your bed so that it is higher. Just guessing, but I'd say it lofts to be about 8-10' high. It's enough to put shelves or a minifridge or a futon underneath, so it goes pretty high. (In most of them, anyways. When I was at Yakeley, the bed lofted a little bit lower, but my friends were still able to put their desks underneath.)
On move-in day, I had my cousin loft my bed for me, but I didn't like it. Since I was on the first floor of Hubbard, my ceiling was pretty high (and I'm pretty short), so I didn't have any problems with hitting my head on the ceiling. But the "steps" on the bed are wooden and really painful to step on, so I ended up having my friend unloft my bed, which put it at about 4' high. Still high enough for me to put my boxes underneath, but I had to move my minifridge.
MSU uses twin XL bedsheets, which is kind of inconvenient. Just remember that, while twin XL sheets will fit on twin size beds, twin size sheets will not fit on twin XL beds. So, unless you happen to have a twin XL bed at home, you'll probably have to buy new sheets. When it comes closer to move-in day, stores will start to stock college dorm supplies, and usually they'll have sheet sets to fit your bed. Otherwise, check out Target or Bed Bath and Beyond.
If you don't want to buy sheets, they have a program at MSU where you can get a free linen package every week. It's all white linens and includes a fitted sheet, a sheet, pillowcase, and two towels. Obviously, if you feel like decorating your room and coordinating your linens and whatever, this isn't ideal for you. I used this though, and it's really convenient and nice because you don't have to drag your bedding to the laundry room every week, and you can exchange it weekly for clean sheets. And it's free!
I would highly, highly, highly recommend buying a mattress protector. This is the exact same one that I bought. They re-use the mattresses after "cleaning them" but really, there are so many dorms on campus and a lot of work to be done over the summer, so you never know how well they clean them. I wiped my mattress down with some Clorox wipes and then put on this mattress protector. It's very cheap and it provides a good barrier between you/the sheets and the mattress. And if you don't use the linen package or have backup sheets, it's good to use if your sheets are in the wash and you're ready to sleep.
My roommate had this mattress pad. It was very comfortable, especially because the mattresses in the dorms are really firm, bordering on hard. It was easy to clean and made the beds a lot nicer, but I didn't bother with one because I didn't have a problem with the beds. But if you're not used to firm beds, or if you get there and find that you're having trouble sleeping, a mattress pad could definitely help you. I know a lot of my friends had one. Just make sure you get one in twin XL!
One of my friends had this bedside organizer because her bed was lofted. It was really cool! I thought about buying something like this when I was planning on what to pack over the summer, but ultimately didn't buy it. But since the bed is so high and it's such a pain to climb back down to put away your glasses or cell phone or whatever, this organizer was super efficient. (Since I'm not efficient, I would have to crawl under my bed every day to pick up my glasses or whatever dropped through the crack.)
My roommate bought a heated blanket during the black Friday sales since the room became super cold in the winter, but that's not essential.
Hope this helped! The next post of the series will probably be school supplies. (: I know that the Academic Orientation Program is starting next week, so have fun and good luck to all of the incoming freshman!
Rakuzen
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Dorm items! Part 2: Food/"Kitchen" items
I'm back! Here is the food/kitchen items that I promised you. This is part of a series on dorm items that my friends and I found useful for our first year of college. I'll post a little bit about how this applies to Michigan State University and some of their dorm rules/items that serve this purpose, and then I'll post pictures and links for the items that I show. Note: None of these links are affiliate links, nor am I recommending that you buy these items off the sites shown. This is just to give you an idea of the online site's price, so you can keep an eye out for it.
Now, if you're a freshman at Michigan State or if you live in the dorms, you are required to buy a meal plan. These meal plans are awful (in my opinion) because they are ridiculously expensive, and they have 100 meals/week, with no other options. Unlike other schools, you can't swipe other people in unless you have guest meal passes (which requires opening a Sparty cash account on your meal plan). And seriously, what kind of person actually goes to the dining halls 100 times a week? I don't think that I ever went under 80.
That said, the list of kitchen appliances allowed in the dorms is very small. No rice cookers, no "George Foreman style grills" (I was so bummed, I really wanted to bring my panini grill). No crockpots, no toasters. You can have a microwave and refrigerator, though. I will also mention that my roommate had a rice cooker in our room (as did a lot of her friends, or so I am told), and even though we were suitemates with the RA, we never got in trouble for it. (We also had a ginormous space heater, against my will, and we never got in trouble for that, either).
Anyways! Here are some items that I personally had in my dorm, that my friends had, etc. I also included some foods that are well-suited for dorm life.
My roommate had a coffee maker kind of similar to this. This is a Mr. Coffee 5-cup coffeemaker. The point was, she had a small and cheap coffeemaker for first semester. Neither of us drank coffee, so she used it for boiling water for tea/ramen. I know a lot of college students do drink coffee, so I'm including it on the list. Make sure that you buy filters, coffee, creamer, sugar for it. (Actually, you could probably get away with taking some from the caf.)
Second semester, my roommate replaced the coffeemaker with an electric kettle. Not sure if this is the exact brand, but whatever. The coffeemaker took up a lot of space on our counter (on my half, actually...), so she got an electric kettle instead. I hated this thing with a passion, even more so than the coffeemaker (I just can't win) because it wasn't silent. I had a really old water boiler at home that was almost silent until it was done (when it started whistling). This made noise while it was boiling which was really annoying. Anyways!
I also want to mention that my kuya from Pilipino American Student Society apparently uses his to make ramen in. And my friend's roommate used it to boil eggs in. Multi-use? I never tried either, because I always used her rice cooker to boil water since it wasn't as loud or annoying.
If you're going to buy a microwave, get one like this Haier one, because they're supposed to be under 750 watts. No one comes to check apparently, but if you prefer to stay on the safe side. I didn't have a microwave in my room because I had brought the mini-fridge, my roommate didn't want a microwave, and I did not want to get stuck lugging both a mini-fridge and a microwave back home in my small car. First semester, since I was eating in the dining halls and stuff, I didn't usually miss it, but in second semester, when I didn't want to run into people when I left my dorm, I wished that I had one.
Also, the university offers a microfridge program through the University Activities Board (UAB), but I can't find the price on the site since it's summer, so take a look later. My friend's roommate rented the microfridge through the year, and it was pretty nice. It has a freezer! Also she didn't have to bother with taking it all the way home (although we did have a small duly to carry the thing all the way to Wilson on a very hot day).
Get a minifridge. This is a Culinair one that I found online, not the one that I used. You have to make sure that it is 5 cubic feet or less. My dad brought mine home on the day that I was set to move in (about an hour before I was going to leave), and it was huge, probably not 5 cubic feet. So, I don't recommend that. My car is super small, so it was a pain to move in and out with it. I will admit that I didn't really use my fridge, and if I lived in the dorms again, I probably wouldn't bring one. I only used it to keep my waterbottles cold since I hate warm water, and also to keep my apples. Other than that, my roommate filled it with a bunch of random things (she hated the dining hall food, so she filled it with food.)
These are really the only items that you might need/want. The rest of the items are just stuff that were useful to me, but are definitely "optional" on the packing list.
I would recommend bringing some paring knives. I didn't use this kind, I actually just "borrowed" one from my house, but I've used this brand before and they're easy to use. I just kept one in my dorm for cutting and peeling fruits. You could definitely live without it, but it was useful to me more than one time.
This Hamilton-Beach single-serve blender is on my want list for this year. I wanted it last year, too, but I never got it. A couple of people on my floor had one of these, and I really loved it. If you make power smoothies or whatever, this could be helpful. I didn't end up getting it last year because I didn't know how often I would use it, since I might not have fresh fruit on hand and my freezer didn't work. But I really want this, so I think I'll just buy it, especially since I'll be living in an apartment.
Water bottles. The water at Michigan State is really weird. I guess that it's unfiltered, something like that. I don't like it, and I didn't drink it. You have a few options for water. There are two re-usable water bottles in each dorm when you first move in, so you can refill them at the water stations. Supposedly (according to my roommate, because I never did that), even that water tastes a bit odd. Sparty's sells water, a small styrofoam cup for free and a large plastic cup for $0.25. Also, they sell bottles of water (some of them sell Dasani, which I love, or Absopure, which I hate), that you can use as part of your Combo X-Change. They also sell 12-packs of Absopure water, which my roommate would usually buy but, since I'm a brand snob (not really. Absopure just has a weird taste to me), I usually would buy myself a pack of water bottles at Meijer since I had a car. An even cheaper option (which we used at the end of the year) would be the plastic milk gallon-size water that is sold at the store, or the "tank" size ones.
I guess that's all the suggestions that I have for now... I'll update if I need to. Other than that, I just had a bunch of snacks and stuff. Just remember that you can always send me a message or leave me a comment if you have a question about Michigan State! I'll do some posts on each of the dorms that I've been in, since I know that incoming freshman will start getting their dorm assignments soon. A hint: I had my AOP on July 16-17, and on the 17th, they had put dorms on StuInfo. Note that these aren't permanent as they are used for billing purposes, but mine was correct. So around the middle of July you can check and then find a "Michigan State Class of 20--" on facebook and search your roommate. Before the official room assignments went out, I had already found one of my roommate (back when I lived in Akers).
Hope this helped! I know stuff goes on sale at random times throughout the summer, which is why I'm putting up posts like these.
`Rakuzen
Now, if you're a freshman at Michigan State or if you live in the dorms, you are required to buy a meal plan. These meal plans are awful (in my opinion) because they are ridiculously expensive, and they have 100 meals/week, with no other options. Unlike other schools, you can't swipe other people in unless you have guest meal passes (which requires opening a Sparty cash account on your meal plan). And seriously, what kind of person actually goes to the dining halls 100 times a week? I don't think that I ever went under 80.
That said, the list of kitchen appliances allowed in the dorms is very small. No rice cookers, no "George Foreman style grills" (I was so bummed, I really wanted to bring my panini grill). No crockpots, no toasters. You can have a microwave and refrigerator, though. I will also mention that my roommate had a rice cooker in our room (as did a lot of her friends, or so I am told), and even though we were suitemates with the RA, we never got in trouble for it. (We also had a ginormous space heater, against my will, and we never got in trouble for that, either).
Anyways! Here are some items that I personally had in my dorm, that my friends had, etc. I also included some foods that are well-suited for dorm life.
My roommate had a coffee maker kind of similar to this. This is a Mr. Coffee 5-cup coffeemaker. The point was, she had a small and cheap coffeemaker for first semester. Neither of us drank coffee, so she used it for boiling water for tea/ramen. I know a lot of college students do drink coffee, so I'm including it on the list. Make sure that you buy filters, coffee, creamer, sugar for it. (Actually, you could probably get away with taking some from the caf.)
I also want to mention that my kuya from Pilipino American Student Society apparently uses his to make ramen in. And my friend's roommate used it to boil eggs in. Multi-use? I never tried either, because I always used her rice cooker to boil water since it wasn't as loud or annoying.
Also, the university offers a microfridge program through the University Activities Board (UAB), but I can't find the price on the site since it's summer, so take a look later. My friend's roommate rented the microfridge through the year, and it was pretty nice. It has a freezer! Also she didn't have to bother with taking it all the way home (although we did have a small duly to carry the thing all the way to Wilson on a very hot day).
Get a minifridge. This is a Culinair one that I found online, not the one that I used. You have to make sure that it is 5 cubic feet or less. My dad brought mine home on the day that I was set to move in (about an hour before I was going to leave), and it was huge, probably not 5 cubic feet. So, I don't recommend that. My car is super small, so it was a pain to move in and out with it. I will admit that I didn't really use my fridge, and if I lived in the dorms again, I probably wouldn't bring one. I only used it to keep my waterbottles cold since I hate warm water, and also to keep my apples. Other than that, my roommate filled it with a bunch of random things (she hated the dining hall food, so she filled it with food.)
These are really the only items that you might need/want. The rest of the items are just stuff that were useful to me, but are definitely "optional" on the packing list.
 |
| credit: motherjones |
I guess that's all the suggestions that I have for now... I'll update if I need to. Other than that, I just had a bunch of snacks and stuff. Just remember that you can always send me a message or leave me a comment if you have a question about Michigan State! I'll do some posts on each of the dorms that I've been in, since I know that incoming freshman will start getting their dorm assignments soon. A hint: I had my AOP on July 16-17, and on the 17th, they had put dorms on StuInfo. Note that these aren't permanent as they are used for billing purposes, but mine was correct. So around the middle of July you can check and then find a "Michigan State Class of 20--" on facebook and search your roommate. Before the official room assignments went out, I had already found one of my roommate (back when I lived in Akers).
Hope this helped! I know stuff goes on sale at random times throughout the summer, which is why I'm putting up posts like these.
`Rakuzen
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