Blanton is your standard dorm with two beds, desks, dressers, closet with no sink. It's generally the freshman dorm. Carothers and Andrews are a lot nicer and have sinks, which having running water in your room is a huge commodity that we take for granted. Did you live in the honors dorms? The people there are far from your WoW or D&D kids. On my floor, we had frat boys who drank all day and night on one end, the cool people in the middle, and the church group who prayed silently for minutes at night on the other end. I loved living in the honors dorms because it was a nicer community than Jester, people were generally more friendly with leaving doors wide open, and it was closer to Kinsolving which had better food and smaller lines than Jester. Enjoy living in the honors dorms. They're better than what you'll find in the Jester/Gregory area. Shout out to my Blanton and Carothers boys!
My main priority freshman year was chasing females, and I pulled my share of tail from Jester that year. So, on that front, it's a good place to live. If you're looking for a quiet place to study, then it may not be for you.
The rooms in Jester have sinks as well. Never lived in the honors dorms, but I liked the proximity of Jester to the PCL and Gregory. I was on th 7th floor of Jester West.
Most of the people you know or meet will be living in Jester. But if you don't have good time management skills, I'd seriously avoid living there.
Didn't read the other posts so I might be repeating.. But yeah, get your laptop out and register while everyone's waiting in line. They open up registration around that time, so you can register from anywhere, but just go to the FAC or whatever anyways just in case. Get there early. Join a FIG! definitelyyyy. make sure to go to advising to get the registration bar lifted. Join a FIG or do that UGS stuff or whatever. Use pickaprof!!! Look at the classes you plan to take and look and see if they're still available on the course schedule and then look at who will be teaching and check out their reviews on pickaprof and ratemyprof, and prioritize by best professors (by their rating and most favorable grade distribution) as well as best time that works for you...make sure the classes aren't at the same time. and just get the unique course numbers ready and list them, so you can quickly enter them in for registration, and if that's closed or waitlisted or w/e, then quickly enter the next course number on your prioritized list that you want to take. Keep in mind the times of the classes and make sure they won't overlap. Make sure to have backup classes beyond your 4 or 5 classes you want to take just in case one, two, or all of them are unavailable by the time you register. Sorry if I was redundant or stating the obvious. What are you majoring in?
Oh nat. sci. Honors quad will be cool. Jester's fine too. Definitely agree, go get the free stuff and go to some of the events offered! And meet peopleee
I had last registration, it sucked. But when add/drop re-opens in august, you should be able to get most of the classes you missed out on. If you dont get into a class you want, then go talk to the prof first day and they will put you in. Jester is the way to go. You have the gym and pcl right there plus jcl and j2.
I lived in San Jac my freshman year and loved it, but it is really expensive and not as 'social' as the other dorms. Also, from my personal experiences, everyone who dogs on Jester has never actually lived there. It seems that everyone who lives in Jester really loves it, and I actually know a substantial amount of people who came back to live in Jester again their sophomore year. Honestly, your dorm is what you make it. If you go in with the right attitude, you will love your freshman year no matter where you live. I'm sure you will have one hell of a year in the Honors dorms (if that's where you end up) or anywhere else.
I am an incoming freshman to Texas as well. However, I was accepted off the wait list so I found out I was accepted around May 1st and when I tried to register for a summer orientation they were all taken. My only option as far as orientation goes is to sign up for the one in August. I have a couple of questions if people wouldn't mind answering them: 1. I plan on visiting the dorms next week to find out which one is right for me, do I need to make appointments with the housing people or can I just show up and look around? 2. Do you have to be accepted into an honors program to be eligible to live in the honors dorms? 3. What is a FIG? 4. I looked at the links indof0 posted and I was wondering when am I eligible to sign up for classes online? Do I have to wait until the date of my orientation? It says I have a bar: "Admissions Office - waivered thru Fall Registration" 5. I'm planning on taking a class at HCC this summer to get a bull**** class out of the way, like Spanish. Is this a good idea, and anyone know how many semesters of spanish I have to take in order to get my foreign language credits?
Honestly, you wont have that much of a choice as a freshman. Odds are you'll get stuck with jester (which isnt a bad thing honestly) because you got accepted late and consequently will be handing in your housing contract late. Yes, I stayed in them but I honestly dont remember all the rules behind them but as far as I remember you do. They're freshman seminar classes that are laid back and casual. A great way to meet new people and get to know a professor, highly recommend you take one. You cant register till your particular orientation. Depends on your major. For example the business school (outside of international business) only required one year for me but liberal arts required two years. It honestly depends on the major and yes taking it at HCC is fine. (just dont take 1 year at HCC and the next at UT as you'll be way behind)
JCL and J2 blow, that's nothing to be excited about. (unless they changed in the last couple of years) That said, Jester is a great place to stay your first year. Anyone who's whining about it didnt live there.
Can I recommend finding an apartment, garage apartment, or room close to campus? You can find an affordable one behind the Co-Op, on the other side of the Engineering buildings, down Red River, or in Hyde Park. By the way, summer orientation is optional; and in my opinion, un-necessary. You will have time to learn about and explore the campus during the year.
Jester = most social, most fun. Blanton= honors, you its pretty quiet... Dobie= where I lived. Not bad, had some good parties but wasnt the dorm experience I was expecting
Honestly, your dorm experience will largely depend on whoelse is on your floor. As I said before, in Blanton, people had open doors, always partying it up and just goofing around on the floors. When I went to my friend's dorms in Jester, it was too big and crowded to have that kind of experience for fear of having some weirdo come in. Obviously, other people believe otherwise based on their experiences. But having the benefit of Kinsolving compared to J2 is a big plus. My Jester friends consistently took the 8-10 minute walk across campus to eat at Kinsolving.
Jester West - penthouse - 14th floor. I didn't enjoy my time in Jester at all. I felt that the people were not all that friendly (doors were closed constantly). I made very few friends my freshman year in Jester. I had to make most of my friends through other friends and in classes.
Dude, they still have that? I did it in '97. It sucked. Skip it. When I did it, they shoved you in an honors engineering section of calculus 2, and on top of the classwork, you had a special discussion section that met like 6 hours a week where you worked on enrichment problems. It was AWFUL.
