Entries tagged with “beat” from Hawk Talk - Hai

After looking back upon my first year here at UML, I notice that the school gives a lot back to their students. Almost every week, there is some school sponsored event in the common room of each building where students have a chance to win great prizes. I’ve gone to several of these events, sometimes walking away with a prize. Each time I went, they had us sign in with our names; something I thought was pointless. But , contrary to my belief, putting my name down for each event, was useful.  It turns out, if you signed your name into 4 of the school events you automatically get a free trip to six flags! My friends and I have been to about 6, so we were pleasantly surprised when we found out we could all go to six flags, FOR FREE! Such a great way to end the year, plus I found out that I got my room in Donahue that I wanted, so the end of this year is just turning out better than I could expect! Now all I have to do is survive through finals…

-Hai

So last night was reslife's little extravaganza where they explained different aspects of housing, the different buildings, and explained steps that current students had to take in order to complete the housing sign-up process. Alongside the informational part of the event were many entertainment stations such as street sign making, frisbee painting, foam dance station, and moonbounce/sumo rink.

Rumored weeks before was UML buying hotel rooms that students could live in, but this time not in Nashua. This year, to accomadate the massive enrollment number, the schoold had to buy out some rooms at a hotel called the Radisson, a hotel some miles away that students would live at and take a bus back and forth to campus. At the Beat The System event, we found out about The Double Tree, a hotel in downtown Lowell that is suppossed to be very nice and not too far from campus. They didn't have actual pictures of the rooms, but they sketched out drawings that made the place seem very nice. At the event, students got forms where they could actually request a whole floor to themselves and their friends.

The main event of Beat The System was the raffle. Every half hour they would pick a ticket and the person who had the corresponding ticket would win their pick of any room on campus. There were 12 winners so ever half hour they picked 2 winners, starting out with the 12th moving up to the 1st. the person who won first would get the 12th pick of where they wanted to room, and the person who got picked at the very end of the whole event would get the very first pick. I actually ended up winning! Out of all the students that attended (most of the freshman who live on campus attended) I won 8th pick! Right now, I'm aiming to pick a 6th person Suite in Donahue and then pull my friends in to live with me. People who have suites have the ability to "pull-in" whomever they want to live in the suites with them. A good thing about this is there's also something called room retention. Room retention is when a student that lives in a suite reclaims the spot for the following year. This means that the suite i win from this raffle will belong to me and my friends untill we graduate!

Being a freshman, I feel like I've done so much with this school already, and winning this raffle just adds another notch on the experience belt. I'm so glad that I won the raffle and congrats to everyone else who also won!
-Hai

I was surprised waking up Sunday morning to a rush of buses piling into East campus, unloading waves and waves of parents and students. A huge banner carrying the, “Gotta Be Here!” slogan was hung up across the Fox Tower, and it soon became clear that it was welcome day for the incoming students. Seniors from high schools came excited and parents came full of questions. I could see many of my fellow classmates rushing into the area where they served guests food, taking advantage of the free food and avoiding the obligation of swiping a meal plan. I was wearing a UMass Lowell sweatshirt, and had no intentions of being a tour guide, but I had families actually follow me up the Fox elevators and come visit my friend’s room. I didn’t mind it since it wasn’t my room and thought it would be funny to embarrass my friend by unexpectedly show up at his door with random families looking to see how college students live their lives. Campus was pretty crazy until around 2, at which time I believe the tours and welcome day ended.

An upcoming event to note is the “Beat the System” event that is going to be held tomorrow I believe.  This event is supposed to help students learn the do’s and don’ts of housing sign-ups, a process that has me confused. I’m not so much confused of what to do, but just unsure of what further steps I should take. As a freshman, I’ve filled out the application before, but I’ve made friends that I want to room with, and am unsure of how to request them. As told to me by the RA’s, the event should have lots of entertainment and free giveaways, but the most important part of the event is the raffle. Reslife will be raffling off the first 10 spots in housing, meaning if you win one of the 10, you will be the first of 10 to choose where you live on campus. If I win the raffle, I’m aiming to secure a suite in Donahue, an upperclassman suite, and then attempt to “pull-in” my friends.

Important dates to remember:
Housing Deposit due April 17^th
Last day to withdraw from a class is April 13^th

In a previous post I mentioned being able to upload videos that I took of the Hockey East Finals, but unfortunately, it seems that I left all my cables back at home and won’t be able to upload any of the videos.

That’s it for now, till next time,
-Hai