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FactsSlang
- ArtSci - College of Arts and Sciences.
- Blue Hill - A popular bar on Delmar; the full name is Blueberry Hill.
- BME (or Whitaker) - The Biomedical Engineering Building on the east side of campus.
- Center Court (CC) - The all-you-can-eat cafeteria in Wohl Center.
- Cheap Chinese - Wong’s Wok, a very affordable Chinese stand in the Market in the Loop.
- Filmboard - Student film series, screening movies off campus on Thursday nights.
- Floorcest - Engaging in sexual relations with a member of your dormitory floor.
- Olin - The main library on campus.
- Pre-Frosh - A visiting, prospective freshman.
- Pre-School - A derogatory term for the John B. Olin School of Business.
- Sexiled - To have access to one’s room barred because of sexual activity inside.
- South 40 - The residential campus, located across the street from the Hilltop Campus.
- Stud Life - Short for Student Life, the independent school newspaper.
- The AC - The athletic complex; the main sports facility on campus.
- The Bunny - A startling, bizarre, centrally-located sculpture of an emaciated bunny, commonly used as a meeting place.
- The Gargoyle - The music venue in the basement of Mallinckrodt.
- The Hilltop - The main campus, site of the majority of academic buildings.
- The Loop - A shopping district next to campus.
- The Quad - The big grassy area enclosed by Brookings Hall and Ridgley.
- The Rat - The Rathskeller, once the campus bar, now a big Subway shop.
- The Row - Fraternity Row, the fraternity dorm area.
- The Swamp - The big athletics area on the South 40, with a big grass field, beach volleyball courts, basketball courts, and hammocks.
- WUPD (pronounced “woop-P-D”) - Wash U Police Deptartment.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
- A quiet place to study and relax makes midterm and finals weeks so much easier.
- Don’t take the maximum number of courses first semester (or any semester thereafter).
- Get off campus as much as possible.
- How to manage my time better.
- Learn meditation so that you’ll be chilled out and have everything in perspective when everyone around you is worrying about a Geo-Microbiology midterm.
- Take time off. Study abroad, or simply take a year to travel and make sure you know what you want to do with your education (after all, it’s pretty expensive).
- That I should learn to cook for myself, not use the meal plan too often, and sell my points towards the end of the year.
- That it’s more important to meet people in the first year than to get straight As.
- The academic rules are never as strict as they seem (e.g., you can design your own major).
- There are a lot of superficial, snotty people here, but you can avoid them.
Tips to Succeed
- Do a really good job on one major, rather than a shoddy job on two.
- Don’t be shy.
- Join a million clubs, be open and friendly, and meet lots of people. You can always decide later on what clubs to drop and what people you want to avoid.
- Keep your eyes open for events on and off campus by reading Student Life and the Riverfront Times.
- Pick classes you actually will enjoy.
- Seems obvious, but read the assigned material before class, and discussions will become infinitely more engaging.
- When choosing between work and something fun, go with fun.
Traditions
- Boxapalooza - Wash U isn’t sponsored by Anheuser-Busch for nothing. Every year, student groups, including fraternities, KWUR radio station staff, and RAs, organize teams to compete in this very healthy relay event. Each runner must drink a beer following every lap of a race, until a case of beer is finished. Whoever manages to actually finish this event without puking should receive a medal of honor, although only the first three teams receive official recognition.
- Dance Marathon - Participants dance for twelve hours straight to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network, which provides services for kids with cancer. The marathon commonly brings in professional dance groups, like the Rams cheerleaders, and includes other entertainment events. The event usually raises as much as $50,000 and includes 150–200 dancers.
- EnWeek - The most unusual members of the University (yes, I’m referring to the engineering students) finally show their pride (and their pale, pasty faces) in spectacular fashion for one week in the spring semester. They stage all kinds of bizarre and cool events, including three-dollar pizza lunches and a popular contest in which volunteer engineering students are duct-taped, feet off the ground, to one of the columns in the engineering complex.
- Powder Puff - The Alpha Phi sorority stages a full-tackle football game between two teams entirely made of its own members. It gets good when conditions are muddy, since the game will essentially deteriorate into an all-girl mud-wrestling match. This brings out the shameless chauvinist in all guys who walk by.
- Streaking the Row - On the first night of Frat Row’s opening, fraternity and sorority members like to show what they’re made of, literally. Since a number of fraternities have moved off of the Row, this tradition might slowly fade, but there’s still a hard-core group that should keep the tradition alive.
- Thurtene - The nation’s biggest student-run carnival, Thurtene has all kinds of rides, a ferris wheel, funnel cake, a haunted house, and goofy skits written, produced, and acted out by members of Wash U fraternities and sororities. It’s for the kids, but a great time for the people who organize it, too.
- WILD - It stands for Walk In Lay Down, although We’ll Imbibe Like Dubliners and Wash U Incited Licentious Drinking also fit the bill. Twice a year, the University pays for a top band/performer to play a free outdoor concert for the entire student body. Past stars have included Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli, the Roots, Counting Crows, Jurassic 5, and the Black Eyed Peas.
School Spirit
Rather than specifically expressing their pride as Wash U students, students like to show how proud they are to be members of their specific fraternity or sorority, residents of such-and-such dorm, writers for a newspaper, athletes on a team, and so forth. Every club/team/sorority/dorm/class/religious group has its own T-shirt, party, visor, or memorabilia of some kind, and people tend to define themselves more specifically along those lines. The only events at which Wash U students gather and celebrate their pride in unison are perhaps convocation And the big sports games like basketball and women’s volleyball games.
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