Your first few weeks in college can be overwhelming. During Orientation, an incredible amount of information is thrown at you, and it can be hard to keep track of all the important details. Here is a how-to guide for navigating some of the most common challenges first-year students face.
How to Buy Your Books
If you're stressed about purchasing your textbooks as soon as you have picked your courses, slow down and relax!
First of all, there is a decent chance that your schedule will change in the first few weeks of the semester, so you shouldn't buy your books right away. In addition, professors are often aware that students do not always buy their books immediately and will make copies of the first few assignments available online.
You can usually purchase your textbooks online for a lower price than you would find in the bookstore. Look at GetchaBooks.com, a website that compares the cost of a particular book from a variety of online vendors and tells you where to find the lowest price.
How to Find a Job
Whether you want a resume-building job in the admissions office or a more laid-back, study-friendly option, the most important thing to remember in your job search is to start early.
First, talk to your pre-major advisor about potential job opportunities.
Then check out the following online resources: TuftsLife.com and JobX. TuftsLife maintains a daily-updated listing of open jobs and opportunities to make money. JobX lists jobs all over campus, including everything from nanny jobs to administrative assistants.
If, after following these steps, you have trouble finding the right job, talk with a financial aid advisor in Dowling Hall or with your academic adviser.
If you're still having trouble, consider participating in a study at the Department of Psychology! You can find opportunities on TuftsLife, and they are a fun way to earn quick cash while you search for something more consistent. A typical study will pay $10-$20, though studies that require a longer time commitment will pay more.
Just be patient. With time comes connections, and with connections comes the coveted desk job in the Lilly Music Library.
How to Drop a Class
Congratulations! As a freshman, you will have unlimited time to drop a class. Well, almost.
This fall semester, undergraduate first-year students will have until Nov. 15 to drop a class without record of enrollment. You can do this online, using the Student Information Systems (SIS) website where you enrolled in classes. Simply sign into SIS, and under the "Registration" heading, click "Register." This will bring you to a page where you can drop a class.
After Nov. 15, the process of dropping a class becomes more complicated. Read: It cannot be done completely online.
If you want to drop a class after Nov. 15, you must go to the front desk in Dowling Hall, where Student Services can provide you with a drop form.
One of three people must sign the form: your academic advisor, your academic dean or the professor of the class you are dropping. After this form is signed, bring it back to the front desk at Dowling Hall.
Keep in mind that if you drop a class after Nov. 15, you will receive the dreaded "W" on your transcript — in place of a grade — for the class you dropped. In this case, W does not stand for "win" but rather, "withdrawn."
How to Regain Access to Your Room
Some of you will never have the misfortune of being locked out of your room or losing your key, but others may not be as lucky.
If your roommate is unavailable, call the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) non-emergency number at 617-627-3030. During business hours, they will have you walk to the Residential Facilities Office at 520 Boston Ave.Facilitieswill give you a spare key free of charge with strict orders to return it in three business days. Then you can march back to your dorm and regain access to your room!
If you are unable to walk to Facilities — for example, if you just got out of the shower and are clad only in a towel — TUPD will send an officer to unlock your door.
TUPD will also send an officer when Facilities is closed, after 5 p.m. or on weekends. When TUPD unlocks your door, it always costs $10 — even if it was your roommate's fault!
If you lose your key, Facilities will require you to change your locks before you can obtain a new key. Changing your locks costs $55 and is a semi-complicated process: Facilities will notify you by email or phone of a range of days when they may come to your room to change your locks. At one of these times, they will send someone to replace the lock on your door. After they change your locks, you will have to walk to their office and pick up your new key. Plan ahead on that day and of course, let your roommate know so he or she won't be locked out.
How to Transfer AP/IB Credits
Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) test credits are kind of like the Monopoly Chance card that sends you straight to GO. They can enable you to place out of freshman writing seminars, into more advanced language classes and to earn credit for distribution requirements before you even arrive at Tufts.
Before this happens, however, Tufts must have an official copy of your scores.
If you have not sent your scores to Tufts, call APAutomated Score Reporting Services at 1-888-308-0013 with the AP number from your exam booklet — one number per test — a credit card number and the Tufts four-digit code (3901). If you provide this information, College Board will send an official record to Tufts for $15.
Depending on which AP or IB tests you took and what scores you earned, Tufts can give you either acceleration credit or class credit.
Acceleration credit places you in the appropriate level of classes but does not serve as credit toward completing distribution requirements. For example, a relatively high score on an AP foreign language exam may allow you to place into a higher level of study. This will enable you to complete Tufts' six-semester language requirement faster, but will not earn you any credits to count toward graduation.
Other scores for certain exams will give you a distribution credit that will actually count towards graduation. For example, if you scored 4 or 5 on an AP History exam, Tufts will count it as one humanities or social science credit.
Tufts will accept up to five pre-matriculation credits, which include AP and IB scores.
Students who qualify for more than five credits can specify which credits they wish to use on a pre-matriculation credit form, which is available on the Student Services website. After your academic dean signs this form, turn it into Student Services at the front desk in Dowling Hall.
Remember that some graduate programs, such as medical school, will not accept AP or IB credits in place of a lab science class in a university.
The complete guide to AP and IB transfer credit is located in The Bulletin, which you can find on the Student Services website.
