College: Truth? or LIES?

The year before I went to college,  I had people constantly giving me tips on how to survive in college, and telling me what it would be like. I listened eagerly in the beginning, interested in learning how to navigate the wide variety of experiences I was sure to encounter.

However, after hearing for the tenth time how I was going to have drastically shorten my showers because I was going to be living on a floor with two hundred other girls, I decided to take action. I looked up the floor-plans for all the Barrett dorms, and, lo and behold, it was two to four people sharing an in-room bathroom, with the toilet, sinks, and shower all separated. I informed all the people that had given me horror stories about communal showers the actual room plans and...

None of them believed me. At least, that's what I'm assuming, seeing as I continued to get told about communal showers almost daily.

This experience (among others) has inspired me to write a post about what college life is really about. So, with no further ado, I present to you:

College: Truth? or LIES?

Story 1: "Trying to do homework on the weekends at college is terrible, because people ignore the quiet hours at night and you will want to hang out with your friends during the day, but you won't be able to because of your homework, and it will be terrible and no fun at all, so get your homework done before the weekend."
VERDICT: LIES!
Quiet hours? What are quiet hours? They don't seem to exist on my floor. The amount of noise on the weekends merely peters out around two or three am. But there's always going to be people sitting in the hallways doing  homework, so don't worry. You won't be alone doing your homework at midnight in the hall.

What? You don't sit in the hall with everyone else to do your homework? Whats wrong with you? Are you some sort of antisocial freak or something?

Story 2: "If you take eighteen credits, you'll have soooo much homework. You'll have to get up early to finish class at a decent time, or sleep in and come back really late at night."
VERDICT: Truth
I am taking eighteen credits. I have a manageable to insane amount of homework (depending on the day), and while I do have to get up around seven to make sure I have time to do everything I need to before I head off to class, I have a few hours in the evening to do more homework. Other people have it easy. They get the teachers that don't assign that much homework. I have crappy luck, and have teachers that assign homework every night (but I seem to have gotten all the coolest teachers, go figure). I talk with people every day that say that they have their first paper for English and/or Human Event due in a few days. When they ask me if I've done any papers yet, I usually respond like this:

"B*tch, I got papers for Human Event AND English due after every class. Don't you be askin' me about writin' no papers!" 

Or something like that.

Story 3: "You have to be careful about sleeping in. In college, the professors won't care if you come in late, leave early, or even skip class entirely. Try not to miss to much class, because it will put you behind."
VERDICT: LIES!
Here is a basic outline of my professors' rules on missing class:

• If you miss 3 or more labs, you fail.
• If you miss 4 classes or more, you fail. 
• The only reasonable excuse for missing class is some sort of grievous bodily harm. Having your arm in a sling isn't enough of an excuse, you have to have a note from the hospital. 
• Weddings are not an excuse.
• A death is not an excuse (unless you can provide a corpse).
• If you miss more than the allowed number of days, you fail with no do-overs. The only second chance you get is to take the class over again. 

And people say you can miss class without anyone caring...

Story 4: "College food is crap. Its like cafeteria food, so most days you'll go home and gorge on Twinkies, pizza, soda, and Doritos to fill the void that is created by not wanting to eat canned spinach and 'mystery burgers' again. "
VERDICT: LIES!
I don't know what your college food experience was like, but I gorge myself on gourmet food every morning, noon, and night. The dining hall here can make anything. Flank, New York, or strip steak? No problem. Lobster? No problem. Tacos? No problem. Freshly baked cookies, brownies, cake, cannolis, and muffins every day? No problem. We have a freaking stir-fry station people! Make your own stir-fry every night if you so desire! The people at the pizza station will make gluten-free pizzas on request, and the omelet station can make you an omelet with any topping you desire, and you can choose from regular eggs, egg whites, or organic cage-free eggs.

What? You don't go to an honors college? Well then you're screwed. Enjoy your fried spam, peon.

Story 5: "You'll have to share a few showers with a ton of other people, expect to get up really early or go to bed really late so you can have a hot shower."
VERDICT: DIDN'T I ALREADY COVER THIS?!?
 I already said this once, don't make me repeat myself. One shower between two rooms, two people per room, one of them is me, so how many people do I have to share a shower with?

Three. That's one less than I had to share with at home. And everyone has a different schedule, so we all shower at different times. There hasn't been a single issue yet.

So far, this has been my experience at college. I have disproved many myths about college life, and confirmed others as (partially) true. As I experience more, expect there to be more rounds of...

College: Truth? or LIES?