Jared? Ja-Read My Blog!

[northeastern-jaredstone]

Hi! I've been receiving letters and emails from Northeastern University, and I was wanting to find out what this school offers. I've gotten a few emails from other schools, but they're primarily copy and pasted emails, and I was just wanting to see if these emails and letters mean anything special. I personally have no clue how they got any of my information, seeing I never filled anything out for this school, but oh well. What is the dorm life like? Are there apartment style dorms? What about ~

“~ a Mechanical Engineering course? I personally chose you out of everyone because we share a last name so I figured, "eh, who better to ask". Thanks for your time -Nicholas”

Hey Nicholas! I added the second part in so the reply would show as one post :) Thanks for your message! We love to see the Stone surname making new connections~~

So, first, many universities receive students’ info from the College Board after you take your PSAT. Even if you’ve never opted into any Northeastern-specific messaging, my best guess would be that’s how you started getting our emails. Either way, I really am glad you found our blogs and reached out!

To your questions: you may have hit the jackpot asking about housing as I have worked in Residential Life as an RA for two years (!) and I’ve lived in 7 (going on 8) buildings across campus. Northeastern has both traditional residence halls and apartment-style, though you won’t be in an apartment during your first year. The closest you’d get to it in your first year is a suite-style building; I actually lived in one of these (153 Hemenway St) my first year. This blog is a great resource for photos of the actual set-ups of each building. You’re required to live on-campus for your first two years and can get into an apartment by your second year.

In terms of community, each first year hall has its own perks and quirks that vary with the different groups of Living Learning Communities (LLCs) that are there. LLCs can be thematic/interest-based or college-specific and are really geared at introducing you to like-minded people with similar interests and/or classes. They’re also used for RAs to put on community programs that fit in with the interests of the residents. When I lived in Smith Hall with the healthy living and pre-health LLCs, my first program was to take a group kayaking on the Charles (side note: this remains one of my favorite summer/fall Boston activities). We really try to make them worthwhile for people to attend (read: free food) so I definitely recommend going at least in the beginning of the semester to get acquainted with your new living space. Overall, if you keep an open mind to the new experiences and new people, the sense of community will easily follow.

Sadly my knowledge of engineering courses is very limited, aside from there being many of them. I’d start by checking out this site of the course catalog for a MechE degree where you can click on the individual courses and see their descriptions.

Since you’re early in learning about Northeastern, I’d also recommend you check out this site for an overview of co-op, which is by far the cornerstone of the Northeastern experience and I could spend pages discussing it. If it’s feasible for you, visiting campus is also one of the best ways to learn the ins and outs of the university, and you can meet other Husky Ambassadors like myself in-person to get more detailed questions answered.

I hope this helps! Feel free to reply or send along any other questions that come up! :) Jared

[northeastern-jaredstone]

Muffins, plays, trivia - oh my!

Hi folks! Welcome to the next big thing, the newest kid on the block, the eighth wonder of the Ancient World. There’s so much time and so little to do -- wait a minute. Strike that, reverse it. 

This won’t be a standard intro post discussing my major, reasons for choosing Northeastern, etc. -- those will certainly come in due time! Instead, I want to "hit the ground running” as the youths say and tell you about my last couple days living life as a Northeastern student.

Sunday afternoon, I was struck with the sudden desire to bake. Something, anything, needed to be baked. A few weekends back, I went apple picking at an orchard ~45 minutes outside the city and still had a lot of apples left over. See below for my latest attempt from that trip at trying to pose for an artsy-ish Instagram photo:

I walked with a friend to Whole Foods to pick up ingredients (and paid with my dining dollars! huzzah) and made some truly bomb apple crumble muffins (https://sugarspunrun.com/apple-crumble-muffins/). You’ll just have to picture what mine actually looked like ‘cause, uh, I gave them out too fast before taking a photo... 

I ventured out into campus later that evening and made plans to see a show titled “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” by the student organization Acting Out. They are Northeastern’s “only acting company dedicated to promoting social change through the work it produces” (read more on them: https://web.northeastern.edu/actingout/). A friend of mine was cast as a main performer, and both he and the other cast members did not disappoint! 

Lastly, after co-op yesterday, I went with some other friends to support the Northeastern Triathalon Team at their annual Harry Potter/The Office trivia night. We shared some great nachos, and then I instantly regretted eating so much of the great nachos. But, you know, YOLO. Also, I was the only one on my team who remembered that Aberforth Dumbledore was the barman at the Hog’s Head Inn; that was a real win for Team Jared.

In short: I try to use my free time whenever possible to attend events on and off campus, especially when they support student organizations. Most of the time, they’re incredibly fun and I’m only disappointed in myself that I didn’t attend them sooner. :)

‘Til next time!