Warren Towers – COM Ambassador Blog

Dany: Things to Look Forward To

First off, congratulations to all you new COM kiddies! I can’t tell you how excited I am to meet all of you next fall. I’ve been able to meet some of you already at our Open Houses and you are all so wonderful. I hope you’re as excited for next year as I am!

Wait what am I talking about? Of course you guys are excited. Why wouldn’t you be? You have so many fantastic things coming your way in the next few months. Prom, graduation (graduation presents!), parties, summertime, orientation, the list goes on and on. Believe me, once you come for orientation, you will never want to leave Boston. But here are some more things to look forward to once the year starts.

1. That amazing moment when you successfully do your laundry for the first time.

Now I know some of you probably do that already, but for me, this was one of the first “independent” obstacles I had to overcome. I had my mom write out on an index card the basic directions plus a few helpful tips so I wouldn’t ruin any particular items. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I finished and nothing was ten times smaller or ten times pinker than it should be.

2. The Friday after your first full week of school.

This is a different sort of accomplishment. There is always excitement that comes with the first day of school because everything is new. In college, this excitement is magnified. That first week will make you feel like you’ve been here forever. You’ll know your professors and classmates, and most importantly, the exact time it takes to get from your dorm/dining hall to your class. Minutes are not wasted here at BU, especially when those minutes mean more food in your stomach before a lecture!

3. Your first college all-nighter.
Self-explanatory.
(ProTip: Sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. Also, the buddy system.)

4. Spending an entire day sitting in the Warren dining hall because you are running out of meals and each swipe counts so you bring everything you have ever needed to work on for all eternity and leave your seat only to go to the bathroom in what I like to call the BU Hunger Games.

….No? Just me? Okay.

Anyway, I could go on forever with everything you guys are going to experience once you get here. These are just the basics, but there are so many awesome opportunities you’re going to have that you can’t even imagine! For example, this year alone I have held an Oscar that was awarded at this year’s Academy Awards, met the producer of Mad Men (she’s a COM alum!), interviewed Gym Class Heroes, and fulfilled my lifelong dream of filming the Friends theme song intro, couch and fountain and umbrellas and all (as most of you saw in our Open House video!)

I never imagined I would have the chance to do all those things, and I’m so excited for what the next few semesters have in store for me.

In short, I hope you guys are prepared to have the best four years of your life. Welcome to BU!

Alexa: Looking for a Place to Live?

So you’re going to Boston University? Congratulations! After I submitted my enrollment deposit I know the next thing on my mind was, where am I going to live and whom am I going to live with? Housing selection can be somewhat of a stressful process so it’s helpful to know a little bit about the perks of living in each housing offered.

West:

Cough. West is best. Cough. This year I lived in Rich Hall located in West Campus. Even though I knew COM would be on the other side of campus, I still had West as my first choice. I wanted to be able to go to class and then get away from the chaos, which is exactly what West lets me do. West is great because it’s located right next to Fit-Rec, Agannis Area, Nickerson Field and Case Gym. The dining hall is arguably the best at BU. The only downfall is it’s about a 15 minute walk to most classes, but there’s a free BU shuttle and two T stops at West so when the cold comes you don’t have to walk. Plus, exercise is great anyway!

Warren:

Warren is a great choice if you want to wake up ten minutes before class starts and make it on time. It’s mainly freshmen and each floor has a common room so it’s easy to bond with your floor. The dining hall is located on the fourth floor so there are some days where you will never have to leave the building if you don’t want to!

The Towers, Danielson, 575 Commonwealth Avenue

These are also places where freshmen typically stay and are a lot like West and Warren except for a little bit smaller. 575 Commonwealth Ave tends to have more triples and Danielson has bigger rooms. The great thing if you live here is that there will be a new student center in East Campus with a huge, amazing dining hall. Even though I’ll be living in West again I will definitely be coming to eat there when I can!

You’re probably thinking, ok I chose where to live, how do I choose whom to live with?

BU lets you request a roommate or you can also choose random. Personally, coming from California I didn’t know anyone coming to BU and didn’t want to rely on Facebook or Roomsurf to pair me up with a roommate (Although I know a lot of people who did and it’s great option!) I chose to have a random roommate and don’t regret it at all. I know on one end of the spectrum it could have been the worst or the best, but luckily it has worked out and we are rooming again together next year!

Overall, if housing comes around and you don’t get your first or second choice I promise you it’s not the end of the world (that’s December 21, 2012 ;)). You will make friends and have a great experience as long as you want to. BU is what you make it and housing is just one aspect of the BU experience.

Jason: The Last Month of School

So it looks like the weather won't be getting warm any time soon, but I figured I'd talk a little bit about what I'm looking forward to as we enter the last month of school. Coming up next week is a Boston holiday when the Boston Marathon comes through the streets of Boston. You guys may recognize it from an episode of last seasons COMlife. But this isn't your regular old marathon. There are runners from all over the world and the entire city of Boston (including the schools) close down to celebrate the big event.

Just before that though we've got our first open house for COM! On Saturday many of you will be coming to Boston to hear about all the awesome things we've got going on in COM. It's a great opportunity meet and chat with current students, faculty and staff! You'll get to have lunch in Warren Towers and hang out with the COM ambassadors and fellow perspective students. It's going to be great weather and I'm looking forward to meeting you all.

Looking ahead to the summer, I'll be staying in Boston and continuing my internship with WGBH. By that time we'll be underway with production of the JFK documentary so I'm excited about that. Also by the time you read this I should have found out whether or not I'm going to Madrid for the documentary film program!

Anyway, that's all for now! Hope to see some of you in the next couple weeks at our open houses!

Jason: Best Late-Night Food (As Promised)

So I’m back with another entry to give you guys my opinion on everything BU. Like I promised, this post will be about Late Night Cafe. For those of you who don’t know, Late Night is an afterhours dining option separate from your regular meal plan; instead, you’ll be paying with dining or convenience points. Most students take advantage of this on nights when an essay or studying for an exam leaves you awake until the wee hours of the morning. For this reason, some late night cafes are open as late as 2am! For the most part, each facility will have a similar menu, although there are some differences between the options. The standard choices include pizza, various kinds of sandwiches and wraps, quesadillas, salads, etc. Any who, here is my break down of the different locations that offers Late Night Café.*

Warren Towers: As my home base last year, Warren Towers was my M.O. for Late Night. Being one of the largest dining halls on campus, it’s only fitting that they have a large array of options on the menu. Their most popular items are the quesadilla and the grilled chicken wrap. There’s a fresh fruit smoothie bar where you can order a custom made drink, a huge selection of Pepperidge Farm cookies, and a cooler filled with every energy or caffeine drink you’ll need to battle those late nights.

West Campus: West has their own version of late night. While they used to offer a similar experience to Warren, this late night option is now brought to you by Extreme Pita. Although this is a real establishment (as in not completely affiliated with BU dining) you can still pay for the food with your dining and convenience points. Personally, I prefer Extreme Pita over the other locations because they offer much healthier options.

Towers: I’ve only been to Towers a few times for Late Night but I would say that they have a pretty similar selection as Warren, the standard late night menu that I mentioned above. In addition, the times that I’ve been, the chefs have prepared other selections such as enchiladas and empanadas. They also have a smoothie bar.

The other dining halls that offer Late Night include Myles Standish Hall and Shelton Hall, both of which have the standard late night menu. HoJo (575 Commonwealth) also has a Late Nigh option called Café 575. I have never been there but according to Tom, “they offer muffins and stuff; maybe coffee too.”

*These are in no particular rank as Late Night Café is similar across most locations

Jason: Best Campus Dining Halls

After experiencing BU for one entire year I figured I’d sit down and write about something practical, something you guys might find useful. So here is my list of the top five residence dining halls at BU.

• West Campus- West gets my vote as the number one because of sheer variety. West campus has the most options by far and although I have never been able to say with certain that it tastes better than the food in warren, having more options allows for a better chance that you’ll find something that’s healthy and tastes good. I’m also pretty sure they always have a make-your-own quesadilla bar, which is awesome. The only downside is that for me the dining hall usually seemed more crowded than others

• Warren Towers- My home base would have gotten the number one vote except for this last month. I think whoever runs the dining in Warren Towers may have checked out a little early because the selection (and quality) of the food over the last month has not been on par with its usual high standard. Regardless, the food here is usually exceptional with plenty of choices. The desserts are so good they’ll probably kill you and the dining hall is much more spacious than West campus.

• Myles Standish Hall- Although the building itself might need some work, the dining hall is in pristine condition. There are two sides to this dining hall (separated by a hallway) One is a more lively, social setting with several flat screen TV’s and the other reserved for more intimate, quiet dining. While smaller than both West and Warren, there are usually enough options and the food is pretty good. There’s nothing really bad about the dining in Myles but I guess there’s nothing that great either. But hey, average isn’t that bad.

• Shelton- It has just about as many options as Myles, the dining hall is pretty nice, and the food was good. I’ve only eaten there once though so I don’t have much to talk about.

• The Towers- Ok, honestly, who decided to build a dining hall in a basement? As much as I love eating next two ceiling high industrial sized fans or radiators, or I don’t even know what they are, some windows would be nice, no? The choices here are fairly limited and I don’t know, I mean its not gonna kill you but there are better options than Towers.

I hope you guys find this useful. I am not endorsed by any of the five residence dining halls so my opinion of each is honest and unbiased. Stay tuned for my next piece on the top five places to eat Late Night.