|
|
FactsSlang
- Passion Puddle - A small lake on Cook/Douglass that by walking around three times with your boyfriend or girlfriend will allow you to be engaged.
- The Quads - Three of the residence halls that are all bunched together on the Livingston Campus.
- ARC - Allison Road Classroom Buildings on the Busch Campus.
- BAMM - The BAMM freshman residence halls on the Busch Campus: Barr, Allen, Mattia, and Metzger.
- Bishop Beach - The area around Bishop Hall, Tinsley Hall, and Mettler Hall where students sunbathe, play Frisbee, and read.
- BPO - Busch Post Box, mainly for engineering students.
- CAC - pronounced “cack,” College Avenue Campus.
- CPO - Cook Post Office; Cook College students mailing addresses are a CPO.
- DPO - Douglass Post Ofice; Douglass College students mailing addresses are a DPO.
- Easton Avenue Apartments - University Center apartments on the College Avenue campus.
- Eden - Eden is the e-mail server Rutgers uses. All students’ e-mail addresses end with @eden.rutgers.edu. It’s never known as your Rutgers’ e-mail address, but rather referred to as your “eden.”
- Fat Cat - The most popular “fat sandwich” at Rutgers. Has two cheeseburgers, french fries, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mayonnaise.
- Frat Row - Mine Street, where all major fraternities are located.
- Jungle Juice - Cheap powdered juice mixed with Everclear alcohol.
- LOCO - Livingston’s Own Concert Organization, a popular student organization.
- LPO - Livingston Post Office; Livingston College students mailing addresses are an LPO.
- Olde Queens - The original Rutgers University, located at the end of College Avenue and Somerset Street.
- Preceptor - What every other university in America knows as an RA or Resident Advisor.
- RCPC - Rutgers College Programming Council, a very popular student organization that puts on concerts and student days such as Hot Dog Day.
- RPO - Rutgers Post Office; Rutgers College students mailing addresses are an RPO
- RSC - Rutgers Student Center.
- RU Screw - RU Screw is a term students use when Rutgers’ consistent red tape gets in the way of everything you want to do: long lines for every department, not being able to change your meal plan, and not knowing requirements to graduate are a few of elements of the “RU Screw.”
- SAC - Student Activities Center.
- SCILS - Pronounced “skills,” School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies.
- SERC - Science and Engineering Resource Center.
- The Barn - The College Avenue Gym.
- The Drunk Bus - The Knight Mover shuttle bus. The drunk bus can be called to pick you up from wherever you are and drive you home free of charge. The drunk bus begins running as the main Rutgers buses stop.
- The Gate - Where freshmen walk through during freshman orientation weekend. Students cannot walk through this gate again until graduation, or legend states that it will jinx their chances at graduating.
- The Kissing Bridge - The Shaking, on the Douglass Campus.
- The Pitt - Rutgers Football Stadium.
- The RAC - Where the men’s and women’s basketball teams practice. It was formally called the Rutgers Athletic Center, but was changed to the Louis Brown Athletic Center, on the Livingston Campus.
- The Trucks - The grease trucks on College Avenue.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
- Bring a fan to Rutgers. It’s very hot the first couple of weeks of school.
- Bring a pair of flip-flops for the shower and a pair of slippers to walk around in at night.
- Bring a pole lamp for the dark dorm rooms.
- Bring an Ethernet cable for your laptop.
- Buses don’t always come when they’re supposed to, so give yourself more time to travel or always look at www.whereismybus.com before leaving your dorm.
- Get the smallest meal plan.
- If you feel like you are going to fail a class, drop it with a “W”. Never fail!
- Take advantage of orientation days because that’s when you will meet many new people.
- Take Geology 101 if you are not a math or science major. Sign up for it on APA Day, the day where you sign up for classes because it fills up very quickly.
- Try out the various clubs that Rutgers offers. Join an activity that you are interested in because you’ll meet people who have the same interests as yourself.
- Try to use nextbus.com as much as you can. You will be able to find out when the next bus is coming, so you won’t have to wait outside as long when trying to get to class.
- Watch what you eat because you will gain the Freshman 15.
- You can get quarters for the washers and dryers from the vending machines in your building. If not, you can go to any of the Rutgers student center and get quarters there.
Tips to Succeed
- Always see an adviser before scheduling your classes.
- Don’t overwork yourself. Take some breaks and talk to people in your dorm.
- Don’t schedule any 8:10 a.m. classes if possible because you will most likely be up late in the dorm and won’t want to wake up that early in the morning.
- Don’t wait until the last minute to do your work. Always use good time management skills.
- Go to your lectures! Even if attendance isn’t taken, you still will fall behind if you miss one.
- If you are ever confused in a class and if the professor can’t help you, seek outside help.
- Meet with your professors at their office hours. If you show interest and dedication to the class, most likely the professor will give you a good grade.
- There are tutors for basically every class. If you need help with a writing course, you can go to the writing centers on campus for tutoring.
Urban Legends
- Cheese Whiz and the round Domino’s pizza box was invented in the Nabisco Center for Advanced Food Technology on the Cook Campus.
- If a Rutgers bus hits you, your tuition is free.
- Parties at Livingston’s Quad 4 (there are only three quads at Livingston).
- Police patrol on horseback on Cook Campus.
- Rutgers is the STD capital of the country.
- The cow at the Cook Farm has a glass side, so you can observe its digestive system. (In actuality, it’s like a colostomy bag.)
- The Dunkin’ Donuts on the Livingston Campus supplies all of the dining halls with their morning donuts.
- The Rutgers accordion bus once ripped apart when turning a corner.
Traditions
- Campus Night - Campus Night marks the end of Douglass College freshman orientation. The night features a picnic, games, and an organization fair. The night originated in 1918 after Dean Douglass banned a fashion fad of tam hats. To make the ban less debatable, she held a picnic with a huge bonfire where students could toss their tams. From then on, students would make silly costumes and hats to burn in an anual bonfire. In recent years, Campus Night stopped the bonfire, but signifies the old event in speeches as students enjoy the night’s festivities.
- Cap and Skull - Cap and Skull was established in 1900 as a secret prestigious honorary society. During the spring semester, Cap and Skull posters are everywhere featuring the eerie slogan, “Cap and Skulls are watching you.” Candidates are initiated into the society during a secret nighttime ceremony every spring. Many Rutgers deans and famous alumni, such as Paul Robeson, have been members of Cap and Skull.
- Homecoming - Homecoming is a major day at Rutgers where students, faculty, and alumni celebrate school spirit through pep rallies, float making contests, and a pre-game party on the fields surrounding the stadium and the football game.
- Queens Gate - During Rutgers College’s freshman orientation weekend, new students march as a class through Queen’s Gate onto the Old Queen’s Campus. Rutgers tradition is that if you walk through the gates again before graduation, you will not graduate. To avoid walking through the gate, students are seen climbing over the surrounding short brick wall or walking completely out of the way to the next gate at the corner. Upon graduation, students walk out of the gate to signify their start into the real world.
- Rutgers College Graduation - Rutgers College graduates literally make their mark on campus upon graduation. Since 1876, all graduating classes have their class year carved into one of the bricks at the base of the Old Queen’s College campus’ Kirkpatrick Chapel. The class brick is placed next to their “grandfather class” that had graduated 50 years earlier. They proceed to plant ivy at the base of Kirkpatrick Chapel to represent the roots graduates have made at Rutgers. Lastly, graduates break clay pipes on the cannon in front of Old Queen’s to symbolize that they have become adults, and to “break bad habits and youthful undergraduate dreams.”
- Sacred Path - It was tradition in the early 1900s to impose certain restrictions for the new incoming class. The Class of 1922 imposed two restrictions for the new class: they were not allowed to wear anything red and were not allowed to walk the path from George Street to College Hall for their entire first year. Today, the path is referred to as the Sacred Path. It is used today to signify the “moving up” of the classes. First-year students officially become sophomores when upperclass women escort them down this path.
- The Rumble - During Cook College’s freshman orientation weekend, Cook students partake in carnival games, potato sack races, and (most famously) all Cook students have to partake in one large Electric Slide. The different Cook dorms compete for the title of “Best Dorm” in a parade around the campus. A new program has just been developed to establish a network of faculty mentors for each floor of the freshman residence halls.
- Unity Day - Unity Day is organized by the Black Student Union and has been traditionally held during the first Saturday in May. The outdoor event is Rutgers University’s largest gathering of African American and Latino students, staff, faculty, and alumni. In the past, the day has featured performances by ethnic fraternity and sorority organizations, dance groups, and locally or nationally known entertainers.
- William the Silent - A statue of William, Prince of Orange has stood at College Avenue’s Vorhees Mall since 1928. The statue was supposed to signify Rutgers’s old Dutch roots. Tradition says that William is supposed to whistle whenever a virgin walks by—legend says that since the statue was given to Rutgers he hasn’t made a sound.
School Spirit
During orientation days, dorms go against other dorms on their campus in all types of activities. Some of these activities include creating the best banner for your dorm or winning the most athletic activities for your dorm. People paint their faces and bodies and have a huge amount of spirit that day. It varies from campus to campus what activities you do.
On sunny days, Rutgers organizations set up booths along the campuses and give freebies to anyone walking down the street; anything from water bottles, juice, and hair products to Frisbees, deodorant, and cookies. Major stores, such as J.Crew, Express, and Aeropostale have box sales on different campuses and sell the previous year’s clothes at incredible prices. These events make Rutgers students appreciate going to a major university. The resentment of being forced to come to Rutgers soon disappears when students get a name brand hoodie for $5.
Since Rutgers is a public university, many native New Jersians resent the fact that they come here instead of a private university. Many students originally come to Rutgers because of its cheap tuition and the immense amount of scholarships given to in-state residents. However, the majority of students that come to Rutgers with a negative outlook ended up loving it. They come because of the discounted education, but end up staying because of heavy school spirit.
University-wide spirit is prevalent during football and basketball games, when the stadiums are flooded with scarlet colored sweatshirts, T-shirts, and pants emblazoned with university pride. Since Rutgers is a Division I school, the football games attract crazed fans. Students are even known to dye their hair and paint their bodies scarlet red, black, gray, and white before football games. Although the football team has had a losing streak for the past few decades, Rutgers students still root them on in the 41,500-seat stadium. School spirit is absolutely at its best at men’s basketball games in the RAC, Livingston’s truncated, triangle-shaped stadium. Since the complex is unusually shaped, the noise carries and cheering becomes insanely loud.
Most Recent Contributing Author
Name: Jill Weiss
Hometown: Ardsley, NY
Major: English Jill went to high school with Jesse McCartney. Contributing Author Internship
College Prowler is actively seeking talented students to be "Contributing Authors," and assist with updating
the College Prowler guide to their school. This is a great opportunity for a student to gain internship experience, be a part of a nationally
recognized company, gain tremendous exposure, utilize new media techniques, and share advice with high school students about what life is
really like at your college. Read more about the internship.
|
|
