About Us
“So, what year are you?” the cute upperclassman girl asks me as I stand at a party that I was barely invited to. “Um…I’m a sophomore, I live in Vandy,” I lie. God forbid she found out I was a freshman. God forbid anyone at the party found that out.
I may be facetious and overdramatic with that anecdote, but there is definitely a negative stigma surrounding freshmen on campus. We are “immature” and “pests” that seek to crash your weekend plans, make loud noises in Bapst, and get in your way while trying to figure out the printers.
First I would like to differentiate the freshman girls from the freshman guys. While freshman guys are arguably the most undesirable strata of campus society, all usually receive freshmen girls with open arms. The biggest opponents of the class of 2016 girls are the upperclassmen women.
Every weekend they see some freshman girls on the Comm. Ave bus, with a Poland spring bottle that contains some suspicious pink liquid, and shirt length dresses. Does the upperclassmen ladies disdain come from envy of the youth before them? Probably not. It is most likely the freshman girls’ boisterous demeanor and lack of apparent self-respect is what ticks them off. Additionally, they see the freshman girls as thieves of all the “cute junior CSOM boys.”
Courtesy of C Jill Reed/Flickr
What I just described is not your typical BC freshman girl though. While there might be a group of girls having “one of those weekends” that you run into, most BC ladies, including the freshmen, are some of the most respectable and intelligent women around. Yes, some freshman girls date upperclassmen guys. It is important to consider though that some freshman girls are more mature than their male counterparts and therefore are looking for mature male suitors.
Freshman guys can be immature. Fact. They might drink too much on the weekends, crash your party and ruin its ratio. Then once you finally kick them out, they are disrupting your precious Late Night with their belligerent attitude.
Let me defend us. Freshman guys come to college and expect it to be a scene depicted in Animal House from day one. However, at BC we have no Greek system and therefore nowhere for some lost, party-crazed souls to be taken in. So where do you expect us to go except the Mods? We are either stuck in the far away land of Newton or cramped up in a forced triple on Upper. Besides, even when we freshmen find ourselves in one of your coveted Mods, don’t pretend that you don’t enjoy kicking us out by yelling at the top of your lungs.
I think that part of the reason the rest of the student body perceives the freshmen to be immature is the amount of Eagle EMS vans that make trips to Upper Campus and Newton Campus. It is very important that students know their limits if they choose to drink. However, even those who are experienced with alcohol may find themselves as St. Elizabeth’s the next morning.
Courtesy of ynkefan1/Flickr
Freshmen don’t live in suites, and therefore it is harder for those who choose to drink to do so in their dorms and not get caught. They drink hard alcohol as it gets them drunk faster, and is easier to hide if the RAs knock on the door. Additionally, some students feel the need to consume large quantities of alcohol so that they can at least be drunk even if they don’t end up getting into any party. Unfortunately, many of us know what the effects of hard alcohol can do and the unexpected places it can make us end up in the morning. Meanwhile, the seniors are free to throw parties and drink in their dorms without fear of the RAs. Thus, they have the luxury of drinking a non-fatal drink at an appropriate pace.
I also want to defend the apparent lack of maturity in the freshman class. First of all, while many freshmen are immature, large portions are also very composed and mature just as many upperclassmen can be immature and irresponsible at times. Freshmen are also dealing with the pressures of making friends and finding their place at BC. This can cause some people to do things that are not representative of their true selves. College is a big adjustment period, and people need time to settle in.
The life of a freshman isn’t easy, and while the year might be a great experience for some people, most say it was their worst year at BC. So, don’t pretend that you were never a first year student and that you didn’t do something you regretted that year. Many freshmen struggle their first year at school and the last thing they need on top of it is to feel unwanted by the rest of the student body. If you work with us, us freshmen will do our best to get rid of our “immature” tendencies throughout the year. Of course, by that time we will be sophomores.
School, major and year:A&S, Political Science + Classics, 2016
Hometown Garden City, NY
Favorite Beyonce lyric:"Say my name, say my name"
