What's your favorite UAlbany quad? Indian? Dutch? State? Colonial? The Apartments? Gee, living uptown is awesome–you're so close to everybody else! If you're feeling a little hungry you can head right over to the 518 Market and grab a quick snack. Podiating can be twenty-four-seven if you so feel like it. The University Library is right in your backyard, and if you're trying to beat the crowd, Minerva aka Athena is waiting to bestow her knowledge to you in the Science Library.
Yes youth, nourish that mind. But don't forget your body! With gyms in Indian Quad, Dutch Quad, Liberty, Empire, and the awesome one in the SEFCU arena, there's no reason you should be skipping leg day.
Yeah, Uptown living is good living. Till your year finishes and you're told: "Hey your lottery number is not that high. "So?!" Well if you're not buddies with someone with an awesome lottery number, like someone who's a freshman but should be like a junior, you might be in for a shock. Or could it be that you waited a little too long to fill out that application? Shucks. Short on tuition money? You know Universities need their dough. And if you have an academic hold on your account that WILL stop you from filling out that housing application. You're probably wondering what's next.
Well they won't kick you out the school. You fool.
A fate much dire lies in wait for you.
You now face qualifications for the banished, the forgotten and the excluded. Welcome to the dreaded Alumni Hall.
A place most Uptown students don't even know exist to be honest. Be prepared with a map of the campus when you're forced to explain where exactly you live. Alden, Pierce, Sayles, and Pierce are your new dorms now. That cluster of buildings that you passed on the route 11 CDTA bus in your drunken excursions? You know. Remember, that lawn you used to gather yourself? That was probably Alden.
Spending all your weekends downtown probably got you that low lottery number in the first place. Now you get to live there for a year. Feel the Karma young scholar.
But in all seriousness Alumni Quad can be the best experience of your life! Seriously Alumni quad has to be one of the most underrated quads on UAlbany.
As the general default dorm of most transfer students, alumni is a great place to meet new students with a very diverse background. A few of my really good friends that I still hang out with today are from Alumni. In Alumni you can meet student's who have been to other SUNY school, CUNY schools, or even private schools. This calls into play a way more diverse palette of background stories to exchange.
Students abroad are definitely hitting Alumni first, students from all around the world find their new homes in Alumni. Now look at you, surrounded by culture. This is a great time to dip your feet into the rest of world and expand your horizons as a human being! Party with the British, parle with the French, drink till the break of dawn with people from all around the world and see what college truly has to offer.
You ever wonder where most of the restaurants you've ordered from actually set up shop? Downtown guys! You're dead in the middle of tons of new food spots now. Lucky! D'Carlito's, D.P Dough, all the Bodega's, Madison Pizza, and the legendary Chicken Joe's, Mexican food spot/ bar Bombers, and many more are open to you! Luxuries you only ran across when you were stumbling downtown are now yours at the tip of your iPhone, or a few minutes walk from Alumni.
If you though the science library was quiet wait till you check out where the graduate students study! Dewey Library boasts the same hours as the science library and is a short distance from Alumni Quad, making it a getaway from all distractions conceivable.
And hey you're inches away from the lush Washington Park and Hipster-haven Lark Street which are great places to to spend your downtimes.
So don't despair banished one, you're exile is actually a blessing in disguise. Welcome to Alumni the first step in discovering what Albany truly has to offer.
