Orientation Week @ CMU: Days 1, 2, 3 & 4 (in brief and very fragmented)

If I’m honest, keeping tabs on orientation week, especially one at CMU, is a bit like…taking notes while skydiving. You are evidently having too much fun for your own good, there is a slight chance that you won’t survive if something good, and well, taking notes isn’t really your first priority. As isn’t taking photographs unless you really want to.

That’s pretty much the same story with me – I’m to busy trying to live through orientation week to bother trying to document it with too much precision. It makes little or no sense to write about lectures and presentations, well, mainly because nobody wants to hear about them. I’m pretty certain about that.

Now, first thing I should declare is the fact that orientation week is not designed so that you can attend each and every event. (As a matter of fact, it isn’t really designed to give time for you to blog about either) This is because from the moment you wake-up to the moment your head hits the pillow the next time around, you are occupied nearly 100% of the time.

It also means that keeping track of what’s happening where and when is a bit of an issue for the disorganized. I’ve already met a number of people who’ve accidentally ended up missing a few events. Of course, there are many who miss them on purpose, but that’s because that specific event might be of little or no interest to them.

However, in my case, I try to go to each and every event, simply because Carnegie Mellon University has such a vibrant and bustling campus that it would take me much longer to discover everything on my own. So a little help from the odd presentation or two isn’t really a bad thing at all.

As I may, or may not, have mentioned earlier, the campus is a place where, if you have a specific interest, no matter how niche it may be, you will be able to find someone with a similar interest within a 1 mile radius. It’s people from all around the country, as well as all around the globe, coming together to form one community of entirely unique individuals, each of whom is able to contribute something special to the CMU community. (I’m pretty sure that a lot of that spiel was borrowed from one of the many, many speeches I’ve heard over the past 72 hours.

That said, I should probably try to highlight some of the main events that were organized. Now I should point out that things get so hectic during orientation week that using some sort of an organizer to remind you about where you need to be and when is a good idea, which is where iCal on my MacBook Pro comes into the picture. Syncing it up with Google, which then conveys the events to my phone is a great way to not get overwhelmed by everything.

The actual first day of orientation (or 3rd day of orientation for in’l students and even longer for students who attended Origins – the multi-cultural mini-orientation at CMU) was mostly moving in, with a sprinkling of signing up for things such as the Clipper Cruise which is essentially a party boat on the Allegheny river which will run on Thursday night. Turns out it’s extremely popular and because I ended up with ticket #001 because I wake up early and prioritize procurement of limited resources…

CMU has a PNC Bank branch on-campus, and I’ve opened an account with them thanks to the special concessions they offer to CMU students: no minimum balance, the ability to use the student ID card as an ATM card. In addition, stuff, like VirtualWallet which is an online account management and monitoring system, are all welcome features.

Of course, there were a number of information sessions, including ones on student affairs and my school – Carnegie Institute of Technology, but elaborating on them would be stupor-inducing for…well…anyone.

The intro to greek life was something worth attending mainly because I’ve got zero real world exposure to it. But advantages include stuff like connections, scholarships, an enhanced social life and, oh, a bunch of people to fall back on when you’re particularly bogged down.

Anyway, the second day began with a lot of house activities. I should probably talk a little about my house, floor and roommate. I’m in Boss 311, which is to say that I live in Boss House, which is located on The Hill (THE HILL IS ILL! – re: orientation house wars). I live on the third floor in room 311 with my roommate Juan Acosta. Though of course, in college, living in a dorm means that you occasionally wander in to catch a few hours of sleep. And its where your stuff is. But that’s about it. Anyone who spends too much time in college is probably doing it wrong. “It” refers to experiencing what college has to offer.

Boss House isn’t your average dorm. It’s smaller than others, with just about 72 residents. But it’s also motivated towards global citizenship, leadership opportunities and community service – which are the programs under which all residents got admitted into the residence hall. The orientation activities we had as a group were all geared towards kickstarting our house experiences in the right directions. Be it demonstrating global awareness, demonstrating teamwork or just making PB&J sandwiches for underprivileged kids, it was all character building stuff carefully disguised as fun activities.

I think it would also be fair to put in a word about food at CMU so far.

• The helpings are great.
• There is pretty good variety.
• There are enough options – though they are a bit limited for vegetarians.
• I think the food will really help me gain a Freshman 1530.

Food’s been served in the gym so far. And the gym is also the most common site for starting house cheers. The campus housing is divided into a number of houses, with The Hill being one of them. Our team color is red, and we are, in my not-so-humble opinion, simply the best team on campus. We cheer the loudest, irrespective of who’s around and where we are.

The cheers we have are pretty awesome, and yes, my voice has been reduced to a soundless croak thanks to the vocal exercise I’ve been getting over the past few days. It did earn me the right to use the house’s red baseball bat to lead cheers for a day, which was a great surprise. Of course, it would be prudent to describe who gave me the bat in the first place. At CMU, each floor with freshmen residents has an RA or Resident Assistant who is responsible for orienting them to life on campus. Neil Abcouwer, my RA, is a really great guy, with a wicked sense of humor – stuff which includes playing music in the hall lounge and hammering people’s doors to wake up anybody who doesn’t wake up as per schedule.

Oh, and an integral part of orientation was Playfair. The RAs, OCs (Orientation Counselors) and other upperclassmen involved in freshmen orientation were super-secretive about it. They just told us that it is the biggest ice-breaker in the world. I was a bit skeptical about that, but then again, they were insisting that it was something that was to be seen to be believed.

They were right.

At around 7:30, all freshmen marched up to The Cut, which is a landmark lawn on the campus. Divided into groups based on teams, but all wearing the same orientation t-shirts, we began the biggest cheer war that I have ever experienced. A good part of my lost was lost at this particular event. This was followed by jogging along a path lined with fellow freshmen, high-fiving everyone on the way. There was so much more, including

In addition, I had heard rumors that CMU doesn’t really have a social life so to speak. Well, whoever said that obviously forgot all about their orientation week. Not only do icebreakers such as Playfair offer an opportunity to interact with total strangers in a bewildering setting, the dance and partying at Rangos Hall shortly after Playfair offered an insight into just how much a wooden floor can flex when ~200 people are dancing and jumping around. This 2-hour party, replete with DJs, strobes and other paraphernalia, may not be extremely common on campus, but it’s good to know that such things exist. (More on how I participated later, on a more personal note)

Tuesday, was just as packed, if not more so, as Monday. Things kicked off with Community Collage which was a showcase of talent and personal stories of the varied and diverse student body on campus. Most of the dance and music performances were a pleasant reminder that despite being well renowned for its technical prowess, the university also had students with a variety of artistic and creative outlets. Point to be noted: not all of the perfumers were arts students. There were enough computer scientists and engineers on stage.

There was also a conversation on The Last Lecture, a book by Randy Pausch, who was a professor at CMU. He wrote this book shortly after being diagnosed with a terminal case of pancreatic cancer. CMU, at the time, used to organize a set of lectures by professors, who would treat the lecture as the last one they’d ever give. For Randy Pausch, this was an unfortunate reality, and the book is a real opener on how to live a life free of regrets and unfulfilled dreams. The conversation I had with Boss 3 (the third floor community in Boss House) was a real eye-opener, offering a variety of perspectives. The book is a must read and the videographed lecture a must watch.

Making your Mark at Carnegie Mellon University was the next presentation, led by Ms. Gina Casalegno, Dean of Student Affairs (an extremely approachable person who I’ve had the pleasure of conversing with on more than one occasion). The session was mainly about how to use the resources at our disposal at CMU to realize the dreams of our inner nerds. I was one of the 4 people in the hall who volunteered to share their inner nerd’s dream with the rest of the freshman class. This was after a bunch of ice-breakers to help us realize what our actual dreams were. After a bit of thought, I had a bit of an epiphany. I realized that the thing that really stokes my fire is music. Not composing it, but what can be derived from it. Be it music videos or montages with frame synced to-the-millisecond, or devices aimed at interpreting audio, identifying beats, syncing lights, motors, anything to said beats. Heck, I even enjoy grooving to beats! (More on that in another post) I realized that I subconsciously analyze music on the fly, and react. Which is why I was standing in front of ~700 students with the sign “The Beat Analyzer” held up high as I attempted to explain what my idea was about. And the best part is that Dean Casalegno was immediately able to direct me to a bunch of resources, from departments as varied as the music school, as well as the Activities Board Tech team to help me take my dream forward. It was a whole new experience to be able to share stuff like this in an environment where it’s all appreciated.

There were a bunch of sessions in the afternoon, such as a video interview of Herb Simon, a professor who taught many subjects at CMU for over 25 odd years. He isn’t around (in this world) anymore, but the interview sure did a great job of getting across how to go about the task of becoming an expert in a field. There was also a workshop on undergraduate research and fellowships – stuff that interests me greatly. I’ve already got a bunch of ideas floating around in my mind, and am sure that the faculty and resources I will discover at CMU will help me put those plans into action.

The Activities Board managed to rope in comedian Amy Schumer to do a show at CMU. The comedy was brutal, uncensored, and mostly, pretty much LMAOish. This was followed by free food at an event hosted by the sororities and frats of CMU. Though greek life at CMU is no comparable in size to that of other universities, they still do a pretty good job. And yes, free food attracts everyone. But probably not as much as a good DJ and a dance floor with glowsticks, white tees, and blue-light markers attracts me. Which was the case. After grabbing a bunch of snacks, I simply had to get cracking on the beat again – my internal beat analyzer guiding me through the music. (Again, this belongs to a different post, so I won’t elaborate much).

As for today? Wednesday? Well…a glorified, yet completely direct sex-ed lecture called Under the Influence was a great experience, with a sex skit, free condoms and a demonstration on how to put one on a dildo. Also advice on alcohol consumption that I hope will be taken seriously. This then paved the way for more discussions on community standards – discussions that were held by each house independently, with anonymous voting on questions, the results of which were displayed on real time via a projector, which I thought was great.

The evening mainly consisted of bowling, laser tag and arcade games for all the CIT students – a sort of pre-academic-orientation event. I’m pretty sure the real reason why they’re showering all these fun events on us is because we will have hardly any time at all to have fun once the academic semester begins. I know this because everyone, professors, deans, upperclassmen, everyone, is repeating the same refrain – that once you are at CMU, sleep is a luxury, and free time becomes a rare commodity. I just hope I have the time to keep this blog up and running.

There’s a lot more to talk about, such as facilities, people, and the rest of orientation, but I feel that’s a tale for another day. If you’re actually reading this line, and haven’t fallen asleep, wow, just wow…