fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3455 ]

[ SECRET POST #3455 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3455 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

Notes:

Early because places to go!

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 66 secrets from Secret Submission Post #494.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Context: I recently read an AU set at a [US] college, and some of the depictions of college life weirded me out. Only two places to eat, the single crappy dining hall and the student union food court? All the seniors living in on-campus townhouses? Bumping into all these people you're trying to avoid? I wondered if the author was still in highschool or maybe from a different country.

But I realized maybe my own perspective was off. The fic was set at what sounded like a small, private college; I went to one of the largest universities in the US and graduated with 10,000+ other students. So tell me, F!S, what was it like where you went to school?

Avoiding people was super easy outside of the dorms; even in my two tiny majors, I almost never had classes with the same people unless we deliberately scheduled it like that. Half the sophomores and virtually all the upperclassmen lived off campus, many spreading out into the nearby suburbs. Campus itself had lots of green space, but the architecture was a mixed bag: plenty of old brick and stone buildings but an unfortunate number of soviet bloc monstrosities. You were spoiled for choice with food, most of which was pretty solid.

It was easy to find friends who did party, or who didn't, who were sports fans or music fans or LARPers--anything, really, just because there were so many people. But as big as the school was, it rarely felt crowded, and there were plenty of places to hide when my social anxiety got to be too much. I never had a problem scheduling classes, but then, I was was lucky enough to come in with enough credits to schedule like a senior halfway through my freshman year. Supposedly the competition for certain sections and classes was tough, otherwise.

Well, it's a state college, no dorms....uh, I go, do work, go home, try not to talk to others.

I went to a medium-sized private college, in a residential neighborhood of a large city. Almost everyone lived in dorms the first 2 years, and then most people (probably about 70%) moved to off-campus apartments for junior and senior year, mostly into apartments within, like, a half-mile or so around campus. There were three dining halls, divided up by dorms, and all of them were pretty shitty, which was one of the reasons people wanted to live off campus. The campus itself was pretty centralized and most classes would be right around the quad, so it would be pretty likely that you'd run into people just from going to class or the library. Very leafy gothic campus though which was nice.

That said I do think it depends massively on the college, because really every college has a specific arrangement. I wouldn't expect anything in particular to be "standard".

Not quite related but this reminds me of the person who wrote a college AU set at my university but knew literally nothing about it. Like, apparently just chose the name at random or something, hadn't been there, didn't know anything about the area or what the school was like. It was, like, a really long fic, too. It was so strange.

Small, private women's college. First, second, and third years were in suite style dorms. So two people to a room that share a bathroom with two other people. My senior year, I was lucky enough to get a low lottery number and got into the private rooms set up in little houses. So two people with their own rooms sharing a bathroom and "dining room".

It was easy to avoid people except for your roommate. We just had a small cafe and a student dining hall. The food selection was good so it never bothered me. We could also just order food delivered from a nearby place.

medium sized state college here.

There are a few dining halls here, (mine has more dining halls than other ppl I know actually, 5, and one is vegan) and avoiding people is hit or miss - it can be hard if you're in the same major as someone but if you're not its pretty easy. Senior on campus living exists but people rarely use it - but I have heard that in some private schools they are way more commonly used?

I know, first post in ages,but anyway.
Land-based college in south west of England. Two on-campus cafeterias, some on campus accomodation, and a decent 30-minute walk to the nearest village, which was pretty touristy. Problem was, I had to deal with some bullying that should have ended several fucking years ago.

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

(Anonymous) - 2016-06-19 19:43 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

comradesmiler - 2016-06-19 19:51 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

ketita - 2016-06-19 23:05 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

(Anonymous) - 2016-06-19 20:00 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

comradesmiler - 2016-06-19 20:02 (UTC) - Expand

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

caerbannog - 2016-06-20 07:34 (UTC) - Expand

Small, private college. I commuted, but can vouch for the limited places to eat and fairly strong likelihood of running into people you knew, although it wasn't constant. (Also, everyone knew each other, which I learned the hard way when I complained about a student employee on Facebook, only to later learn she was friends with literally all of the friends I had on Facebook.)

We did have two dining areas, but one was more of a deli for commuters. The other was a cafe. You could also get snacks in some buildings.

There weren't townhouses; everyone lived in two dormitories. The first one was for freshman, the other was for everyone else.

Pretty standard. Large public university. Lots of students. (I hated it, but not because of the place itself. The place was actually pretty cool. Nice campus, big and vibrant - I like that sort of thing.)

Heh, I went to a mid-sized college on the smaller side in the US, and that sounds pretty accurate to me. Until my final year, there were only two places (on campus/accepted meal plan money) to eat, there were pretty good apartments where upperclassmen lived (although probably only 50%, not all), and you really had to be careful who you hooked up with at a party because they would def. end up in a 15-person seminar with you next semester.

For the most part, quite pleasant, even during the sportsing season. You had the occasional douchebag (I once had someone threaten me because I was wearing a blue shirt the day after Election Day 2008) but other than that it was very quiet. I never went into the more traditional cafeteria but the student center (where the cafeteria most people went to with fast food outlets was) was super-busy a lot of the time and you could expect to wait in line during peak meal hours and struggle to find seating.

Also, it was possible to go from my parking garage to classes almost entirely indoors.

I think it varies so significantly depending on what type of college you went to.

I went to large state school that was founded back forever ago and so the city developed around the university. I could avoid most people if I wanted to but I definitely did run in to a lot of people and I knew which bars not to go to if I didn't want to run into them.

Meanwhile, what you're describing sounds a lot like the small private tech school my sister went to. Everyone knew everyone and would run in to each other constantly. I was friends with most of her friends and ended up crashing on one of their couches for a week once. When I was wandering the town that night, I ran in to 3 other friends of hers on the way from the train station to my friend's apartment.

that description would work for the small private arts college I went to my first year, but then I transfered to a large state-run university. worlds apart.

I never lived on campus at state-U because they had too few dorms and first priority went to out-of-staters and such, so living in town and driving out to campus was far more cost-effective and less of a headache. I lived and worked in town and was only on campus for classes, so I had zero of the "college experience." all of that stuff you see in movies and on TV, I never experienced it.

I went to a small to mid-size university (graduating class of around 4000). Class sizes themselves were between 20 and 250, depending on the lecture hall and whether or not it was an upper level course. The campus itself was a fairly decent size, designed to be walked from one side to the other in ten minutes (really it was more like 7 if you walked fast).

Lots of buildings which weere in good condition; most of them older but a few new ones. Beautiful grounds. I never lived on campus, which was the norm for most students. The common thing to do was to rent a basement suite near the university with friends. For those who did live in residence, I heard the dining facilities were adequate. There were honestly more options than I can count for getting food, including 5 grocery stores very near the campus.

Lab space was ...not the best lol but it was certainly adequate. We had enough equipment for proper teaching even though some of it was fairly ancient.

Honestly, I loved where I went to school. It was just small enough to feel intimate when it needed to be, with profs who were easy to approach for the most part and a very open, welcoming community if that was your goal. Networking seemed to occur pretty naturally (but that may have simply been my experience as an honours student). It was also just large enough that it was possible to totally retain your anonymity if you wanted to. On that note, running into someone you didn't want to run into was something that almost never happened, and you could easily pretend you didn't see them and continue past with the way the campus was set up (the grounds between classes were huge and open, and so were the halls).

tl;dr my undergrad was absolutely lovely.

Well, it was sort of very laid back? It was a small school with several campuses over the city - in some places it still felt more like highschool. Also no dorms on site, so not really a typical college.

My first college was pretty small. There were five buildings of dorms (Freshmen men/women, honors, athletics and general) but only one dining hall and a snack bar with a grill. I've always been pretty reclusive outside of the two organizations I was in, so I didn't have much trouble avoiding people unless we shared classes or whatever.

I went to a small town college where they discouraged kids to have cars, no public transportation, and there was no alcohol on the premises. There was another college in the same town, which did allow alcohol. The two colleges had rival sports teams and music programs but otherwise most small extra curricular groups were joint between the two colleges.

We would requisition a college van if we wanted to go over to the other college, and a lot of kids did still have cars, but there was very little off-campus housing so most everyone was in dorms. My parents were shocked at how quiet my first dorm was. I was in the "basement" with a handful of other girls and it was super, super quiet.

My second dorm had 10 floors and was more "typical" I imagine. You'd see other girls in the joint bathroom and there would be a rush for the elevators/stairs at the start/end of periods but otherwise there were only ever a handful of kids in the hallways ever. My first dorm was a women's dorm but my second one apportioned gender by floor so you'd see guys and girls around but rarely guys on my own floor.

My third dorm was an upperclassman dorm. There was a meeting area that got a little more use than the meeting areas in my other dorms but it was still pretty quiet most days. All of these were 2-people rooms, but I know that there were 3 and 4 people rooms available when people signed up for dorm rooms. The most prestigious senior dorm had suites.

For food, there was one main dining area but the food was award-winning. It was really excellent with a full vegan area as well as Chinese, Mexican, pizza, etc. There was also a "home" section which served stuff like lamb. You could also get bagged lunches if you needed to. Other than that, there were some restaurants in the town nearby (nice Chinese buffet I really liked) but it was hard to get to for those of us without cars so we'd mostly get pizza if we weren't getting food on campus. There was also one tiny convenience store where you could buy snacks during the day.

/Midwestern US

I lived about 1km off campus in a share house. I was going to be in a dorm but the atmosphere depressed me (tiny room, one drawer in a fridge, wasn't even allowed a plant...) that I bailed and found a place on day 1 lol.

Flipping running into people and professors all the time. It was a big Uni. Google says they had 21,113 students in 2013.

Food court? Ppl I knew. Walking paths? Ppl I knew. Classes, "mall" the flipping botanical gardens. One time I came home to someone from high school, in a different state, in my lounge room. The third day of moving there I also ran into a dude from the year above in high school at the new campus.

So. It's believable in my books

Fun fact according to google today was first day of my 33 days in a row work marathon.

Went to an enormous public college. Had such a miserable experience that I shotgunned my education in half the usual time, just so I could GTFO.

(Some of this was me realizing I was queer and trans and not having any outlet except my sophomore/senior roomie. Unfortunately, said roomie turned out to be attracted to me, and when I turned her down, it got abusive, and there was no avoiding her because all of this happened months in. It was awful. I think it says something about the situation that I managed to get my housing switched almost at the end of the year, out of sheer desperation.)

Went to a small, private, rural US college. On-campus there were only two places to eat--the dining hall (surprisingly not crappy under the right management. I got to experience it under bad AND good management--having even worked in there under the bad management), and the campus cafe, which was lovely and had great drinks and great snacks. Had quite a few great eateries off-campus within walking distance that even offered student discounts--to the point that the weekend of my birthday, I was able to walk to a pizzeria and get a cheap but DELICIOUS pizza...and get a chocolate cake slice free.

Living situation: depended on dorm or if you were lucky, on campus apartment. Apartment: had pretty good amenities according to a couple underclassman friends who lived there. Residence halls--a couple of them were the kind where rooms were just one self-contained little suite with a shared community bathroom. One had the suites where two rooms would share one bathroom.

I've lived in one of each of those residence halls and I vastly preferred the ones with the bathroom between two suites? At least I never had to deal with an unflushed toilet there. Just had to dry out the shower floor so that I could take a shower and not have to worry about dying by breaking my neck in a tiny shower that was made for women half my height.

And it was damn near impossible to avoid people that you didn't want to deal with because it was a small fuckin' campus and literally my only reprieve from a few of those folks was off-campus walks or drives with my roomie to restaurants or certain shops.

awful. I was expecting it to be this great intellectually stimulating experience but I just got bullied as badly as I did in high school, only with worse, meaner drunks and I couldn't even go home at the end of the day.

I went to a state college with 40,000+ students both undergrad and post-grad, and we had the choice of maybe 4 dining hall/food court places, plus the student union. Not bumping into people was dead easy, even if you lived in campus. I rarely had any classes with any of my dorm mates, and most seniors lived off campus... in which case you REALLY had to try hard to even see them.

Large state university. I think it was required that freshmen lived in dorms, but after you could do dorms or there were a fair amount of apartments nearby. I don't remember any townhomes, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some not too far away. There were some "single-family" detached houses pretty close (if any of them had less than six students living in them, I'd be shocked). There was also a frat row with houses. It could be pretty easy not to run into anyone you're trying to avoid, but that kind of depended upon your major - if you were in the same major as someone, a lot of your classes would be in the same general area of campus, even if you weren't taking the exact same classes and sections. We had a big student union, but in the same building there was a convenience store, a sandwich shop, a pizza place, and a McDonalds. Several dorms had dining halls, but not all of them. There were these little coffee kiosks dotted in certain places across the campus and I think almost every class building had vending machines. There were a couple of restaurants and a grocery store just off campus.

State college, around 23,500 students.

-There were 3 sets of dorms (8 buildings total) with 3 dining halls. New freshmen generally lived in one set of dorms (the main 5 buildings), and transfers and select other upperclassmen in the others. The college also operates 4 apartment buildings just off campus available for grad students and students with families.

-Most non-freshmen (including a majority of grad students) live off-campus either in the little college-town community right by campus or a little ways away where it's quieter and more suburban. That's where I lived after I left the dorms, it was about 15 minutes by bus.

-LOLWHAT at nowhere else to eat. There were about 6 restaurants in the student union plus the big coffee shop there, a large convenience store with many options (and a microwave if you wanna reheat your own food there) and a Subway by the main library, a good little cafe, and then like 3-4 more restaurants by the science/engineering department in the far north end of campus where I basically never went. That's where you go if you want CREPES! And then there's coffee carts all over the place, and dozens of options just barely off campus in college-town. I'm probably forgetting someplace. IDK, Jamba Juice?

-Bumping in to people... maybe. My freshman year roommate was a psych major. We took a general ed history class together and it was a big lecture so I never saw her there or anything; we had different discussion sections. After that year, I never saw her again except for once we ran into each other at the coffee shop. We went on to focus on the classes for our majors. But if the two characters are in the same major (mine was theatre, so it was an especially small department), yes they might see a lot of each other.

-I also think there might be more potential for awkwardness if the characters are living in the same area, be it dorms or off-campus housing very close by. I didn't have much of a "community" of college neighbors because I lived in suburbia with mostly grad students and young families. But I know people who did.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3455 ]

What was life at your college/university like?

OP

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?

Re: What was life at your college/university like?