| School Slang | |
- ACR: Short for Alachua County Resident, this term is a less-than-complimentary term referring to non-students, usually ones unkind people might call "hicks."
- The Alligator: Well, this can mean a lot of things, but if it’s preceded by “read,” it’s referring to the Independent Florida Alligator, the University newspaper.
- Barbie House: The Pi Beta Phi sorority house off Frat Row; it’s big, bright, and pink and looks just like Barbie’s mansion.
- Bat House: Just across the street from Lake Alice is this structure that looks like a roof and four poles. It houses an enormous population of bats. People gather at dusk and dawn to watch the bats leaving for dinner and coming home after a good night out.
- Belt Buckle: The big silver sculpture/fountain thing outside the Fine Arts building across Southwest 13th Street from Alpha Tau Omega.
- Big Potato: A gigantic rock in Turlington Plaza which looks so much like a potato that a group of art students once covered it in tin foil, shined red lamps on it, and had people dressed up like cooks standing around it. Its real name is the "GPA Rock"—not grade point average, but "General Purpose A," which is what they called Turlington Hall before it got its name.
- Discussion Section: Called recitation at other schools, this is the part of those huge lecture courses where you meet more personally with an instructor, generally a TA, and only about 30 students. It’s usually where you take quizzes, turn in homework, and ask questions.
- French Fries: The common name for the gigantic yellow sculpture behind the Computer Sciences and Engineering building and Marston Science Library. It’s really called “Alachua.”
- Gator 1: The technical name for your student ID, and, in fact, the only thing you’ll hear it called—nobody says “student ID.”
- GDI: People who are not associated with Greek life (God Damn Independent)
- Growl: Short for Gator Growl, the world’s largest student-run pep rally. It has a laser show, crazy cool fireworks, dance teams, skits, the Homecoming pageant, and comedians.
- ISIS: Short for Integrated Student Information System, use it at www.isis.ufl.edu to register for courses, find your grades, check on financial aid, pay University fees, look at your transcript, and do all kinds of other useful stuff.
- O’Dome: This is the more common name for the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, where basketball games, volleyball games, swim meets, guest speeches, concerts, graduation, and other events take place.
- Plaza: Short for Plaza of the Americas, a big grassy lawn—the closest to a traditional “quad." The Hare Krishnas serve lunch here.
- Preview: UF’s version of summer orientation
- Racquet Club: A dining area near the student rec center; the Gator Dining Services office is in the building, too.
- SNAP: Short for Student Nighttime Auxiliary Patrol
- Student Ghetto: The area just west of Southwest 13th Street and north of University Avenue—famous for inexpensive housing and loud parties. Don’t walk around this area at night by yourself.
- Swamp: Depending on the context, the Swamp is either the nickname for Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field (“where only Gators get out alive . . . ”) or a popular restaurant across the street from campus on University Avenue.
- The Wall: Common name for a long wall on the East Side of Southwest 34th Street, just south of University Avenue. It’s covered with enormous graffiti messages that change every day. By all means, paint the wall sometime before you leave, but have a little respect for the black, white, and red section that pays tribute to the students murdered in 1990—it’s really inconsiderate to paint over that when there’s so much other space to use.
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| Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School | |
- “Oh, I’ll just transfer to UF if I don’t like it at [insert other school name here].” It’s a lot easier said than done. UF is not a big fan of underclass transfers, which basically means if you started at another school and have less than two years worth of work done there, you need a 3.9 overall high school GPA and a stellar SAT score before UF will even consider letting you in. Of course, after you’ve made it past those first two years, it’s a whole lot easier to become a Gator—if you haven’t already gotten used to your own school by then . . .
- During the first few days at the beginning of each semester known as the “drop/add period,” people change their schedules a lot. It’s very possible that the course you were dying to get into but which was already full will open up a little at this point. Use ISIS to put yourself on a wait list for the class, and don’t forget to put yourself back on every morning until the end of drop/add—the system empties the lists every night.
- It’s OK to change your major, and there’s a good chance you will. Fortunately, you can study just about anything at UF, so it’s not like you’ll have to change schools or anything.
- Most of the kids at this school are from Florida, which means not much more than a six-hour drive home, tops. Some people make that drive every weekend, but the problem is that leaving town every few days is a good way to prevent yourself from learning what’s cool about G’ville or getting used to life on your own. Don't go home for at least a month after you first get there, and even after that, don’t ditch campus for the weekend more than once every several weeks or so.
- The campus is positively enormous. Get a map—you can pick them up in the Hub.
- There are two main “money” offices at UF—Student Financial Affairs and University Financial Services. Though it seems like their names may as well be interchangeable, they are definitely not: SFA is the office that likes to give you money (financial aid), and UFS is the office that likes to take it away (they send you the bills.) Fortunately, they’re right next to each other, so if you head to the wrong one, the other is only a few steps away.
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