Freshmen Frontier

 

As a freshman a new campus can be pretty overwhelming, but luckily you're not the first person here too be in an unfamiliar place. Each area of campus provides a whole new experience for students and contains numerous facilities to help students in their daily affairs. If you need help with money, jobs, or even just someone to talk to, the Student Services building is the place for you. As someone with experience going there quite a bit I can say the place is very helpful. Located on the corner of Harrison and Racine, this building is very fundamental for student affairs. You may actually remember this building for holding freshmen placement tests. Now the layout of the building can be intimidating especially with its many levels but the reason for that is the building was actually at one point a mall and still leaves you with that impression. Yet it is still one of the most helpful places on campus, housing over a dozen offices. As a typical student, you'll more than likely end up going to the Office of Admissions, Office of Career Services, Counseling Center, and the Office of Student Financial Aid. Yes, that is a lot of offices, but they all play a vital role in student affairs. This is also one of the most ethnically diverse buildings on campus, or as my fellow student Nicole Gavin said "I cannot even count how many different nationalities I saw while here!"

Now if you're looking for a place to relax, maybe grab some food, or even work out, the Student Center East and Recreation Center is the place for you. In my opinion this is one of the liveliest places on all of campus, and is a great place to pass the time. If you live on campus this is where the cafeteria is located, but luckily the cafeteria isn't your only food choice. From my experience the food in the cafeteria is decent, but when you're constantly eating only a variety of pizza, hamburgers, and chicken, your appetites fades easily. This is why I was happy to find that upstairs is the Inner Circle, where there is a Wendy's, Subway, Sbarro, and Burrito Brazo. Overall the layout of the student center is very nice and easy to get around, even if you're in a hurry. If you keep heading upstairs you'll find rent-able halls to hold meetings and also a student computer lab. This is by far one of the best computer labs on campus not only for the computers speed but there are technicians there to help out if you have a problem, unlike other labs throughout campus. Downstairs from the lab you'll find a nice lounge to study and relax in. I found this lounge surprisingly quiet, and was overall a good place to study with some friends. All in all, the student center has a mall like feel to it mostly because of the escalators and wide variety of stores. The inside also contains some history, for upstairs you'll find history of UIC starting at Navy Pier and the Navy Pier Hall of Fame.

Another place many students like myself spend their time is the Student Recreation Center, located right across the street from the Student Center.  Opened in 2006, this is by far one of the nicest buildings on campus or as my fellow student Minh Huynh says "the entire facility of RC is the cleanest place at UIC." and I couldn't agree more. Especially for a student gym this place is well kept. Even when inside the locker rooms I found them unbelievably clean. The Recreation Center has yet to disappoint me as it literally provides for nearly every sport, rock climbing included! Though the campus as whole provides many things, these areas by far provide the most experience in student activities. Others places like the Quad or Academic Halls provide the more educational experience of college, but other than for class you probably won't be at them. However, places like University Hall can be vital for students, myself included. The building itself doesn't leave much to the imagination, just countless windows surrounded off by cement barriers but as fellow student Ashley Clary said "UH is without a doubt the most intimidating one there". This may be for the fact is can be seen from nearly anywhere on campus or the West Side of Chicago for that matter. Like me, you'll probably end up there to talk with your teachers during office hours which I highly recommend if you need any help. As you can see, the UIC campus is a huge place that provides for all student needs but is nothing to be intimidated by. I’m sure in no time all you'll end up having an experience just like mine.