If this is your first semester, congrats you're almost done. If you've been to this time of year many times, you know the feeling. There's many things that make Loyola one of the most wonderful places, and also sometimes the most frustrating places.
There are just a few things that make us a little bit different than other schools, which sometimes feel like the biggest struggles of being a student at Loyola Maryland.
1. No one else has the same Fall Break as we do.
Face it, whether you knew it or not. The Jesuits don't believe in Columbus day (and rightfully so). So while all you're friends are home having cookouts, you'll be at school mad that we get the following weekend off. It is a nice restful weekend, but you still always ask yourself why all your home friends aren't home, too.2. Boulder and Iggy's get progressively worse throughout the semester.
Don't get me wrong, we don't have the worst food in the country, but it's also not the best. I remember at first thinking it was the best thing ever, but my Thanksgiving there is nothing I would like more than my mom's home cooked meals.
3. Registration is basically the "Hunger Games" but for classes.
Registration is survival of the fittest. If you get a bad time, you're basically done for. Just hope that you have some luck on your side with overrides, and if not, Add-Drop might be your new best friend, or else you might just be stuck.
4. The walk from Newman/Campion to CVS is just unreal.
Even though we aren't that big of a campus, walking from one side to the other feels like it takes an eternity. Staying on your couch just seems like the best option.
5. The Core feels never ending.
We have all faced it that we will be in our last semester senior year still finishing the core. It's mind boggling having to add on 16 additional classes on top of your actual major classes. Maybe in the end, it'll help me be a more diverse applicant when applying for jobs or graduate school, or so all my core professors have told me. At least now you're a well rounded student with both knowledge in philosophy and some sort of math and natural science.
6. Housing registration is as dreadful and sometimes even more dreadful than class registration.
Housing registration has many stages of frustration, first it's within finding your housing group, since you can't have a random roommate after your freshman year. Next once you get your registration time, it can make or break your group. Literally though. There's a chance you can be a group of six and get broken up, from that point is when you see where your friendships lay. Housing registration is real life survival of the fittest part two, right next to class registration, and a rollercoaster of emotions.
7. Finals.
There aren't many school who have final exams on Saturdays, but we are. Not only do we have Saturday exams, but our exams get spread apart through nine days. Embrace it, you have over a week of not sleeping and basically hating yourself for not being ahead of your game.
There are many medium sized Jesuit schools, but it's just a few things that make us Loyola. In the end, though we have all theses struggles and things everyone hates, we still love Loyola. I know there is no other place I would want to call home for four years.
