Syracuse University Top Questions

What's the one thing you wish someone had told you about freshman year?

Ariana

I wish I had known the amount of kids that were rich and made sure you knew they were, I'm not the kind of person that cares about status, I look for quality of people and when its the first thing you show off when you meet a person, I find it a turn off. For that reason alone makes me wish I went to another school.

Nakim

I wish someone had told me to make friends with people that are outside of my college. Most of my friends are also engineers and that is fine but when it comes to going out to parties we tend to go to the same place so it gets boring after a while.

Melissa

I wish I had known more about what I planned to major in. It was very easy to switch majors during my undergraduate career, but because I felt so aimless (and my advisors weren't incredibly helpful), it was hard for me to figure out where I truly belonged on campus.

Melissa

I wish I had known all the resources available on campus. i would've used them better in my first semester. Also how to make a relationship with my professors and how important it is.

Nurkurniati

I wish I knew that pending upon the department that you choose to study in reflects how great the quality of education you will receive. The lack of support from staff other than the professors and research is very sparse.

Carley

I wish I had known how prestigious Newhouse really was because I would have appreciated my acceptance into the school more at the time.

Dee

When I came it wasn't that racially and ethnically diverse. Since, the campus has gotten a bit more diverse but it's still has a very long way to go. The campus is also very segregated.

Olivia

I wish somebody had told me to go to Funk N' Waffles. It is an off campus waffle house that always plays awesome music, often has live shows and has the coolest atmosphere ever! I had always heard it was awesome but I didn't go until the end of the year, and I had gone earlier.

Brittany

Before I came to Syracuse, I wish I had known how vital it is to budget. When I first came to school, I managed my first semester with a $200 budget from summer work money. The next semester, however, I lost control and ended up spending the other $400 I had left from the summer. I ran out of money before school was over, and I had no money when I came home. Now, I am learning that there have to be spending limits and I have to learn to say no to my friends' costly plans.

Julia

I wish that I had known that the school's social life is heavily reliant on sorority and fraternity life. I do not identify myself as the kind of girl who would kill to be in a sorority so my social life is very limited when it comes to weekends.

Chelsea

I wish I had truly known how extreme the weather is in Syracuse. You have to really be able to withstand the cold weather otherwise you'll be miserable. I also wish I knew more about the type of student body the university attracts. A lot of the people are very alike, and I thought it would be much more diverse.

Kenia

Time management

Sarah

How cold it really got

Krystal

I wish I had known more about scholarships and grants because Syracuse Unoversity's tuition is CRAZY!!!

Brad

If you are going to live in a town away from home, Syracuse is not an interesting place. Pick an area more exciting with better activities outside the university unless you are only interested in an on-campus life. Also, students have very little academic curiosity. Most are not driven for anything besides grades and are not focused on their classes unless it is exam week. Many other schools know how to have fun, but also focus on schoolwork and genuinely want to learn.

Melissa

I wish I had known that many of my scholarships would only be good for one year, that tuition would increase each year, and that four year scholarships are nearly impossible to apply for when you are no longer a senior in high school. I also wish I had known that living at home with family can actually make school more difficult because of the responsibilities you still owe to those relationships even though you are swamped with schoolwork.

Samantha

I wish had been made aware of the fact that you cannot rush a sorority as a first semester transfer. Despite the fact that I am a second semester sophomore, have attended UNC-Chapel Hill for three semesters, and maintained a high GPA there, I was not allowed to rush this semester. With rush being a large part of the social scene, I felt this policy barred transfer students from a campus activity available to the rest of the student population.

Kathleen

Many of the students come from money whereas I do not. I come from a small town with average earning families and Syracuse University has taught me how extreme differences with regard to money there is in the world. The majority of students don't have to think about loans or debts and it makes me work harder to make sure I can keep up.

Catherine

I wish I had known that due to the amount of money my parents make I would be unable to get an on-campus job. This is also true of most schools I applied to.

Stephanie

That Syracuse would not give me any merit-based scholarship even though my GPA over the last three semesters here is a 3.97

Lisa

Before attending Syracuse University in the fall of 2009 I wish I had known how much you need to rely on yourself in order to get what you need. Everyone assumes that you are fine until you ask for the help that you need. It is very important to advocate for yourself, otherwise it will be extremely difficult to get where you need to be. Communicating with advisors and professors is the key to success and getting youself to where you need to be. I wish I had been better educated and prepared in this area .

Yifeng

I wish I had known that majoring in engineering is even more challenging thanI had expected in high school. Had I known this fact, I would not have wasted a minute of my time in high school and make better preparations for college.

Greg

Nothing really, I think I was aware of everything I needed to know about the school to make a decision as to where I wanted to attend college.

Kyle

I wish I had known the job opportunities within the campus and community before I went to Syracuse. I was fretting quite a bit about finding a job; a work-study job at that. I was banking on federal work study to help me out with my tution and financial aid. The job website didn't have all the options, but there were so many when I finally got to school that all the fretting was a waste.

Khadijah

Before I came to this school I wish i had known exactly how heavy the work load would be. My teachers had told us that college would be tougher and the we would get more work. They also said they would treat us like college students. They did not and I feel I was unprepared for college although I was able to keep up with my work.

Jessica

That it's freezing in the winters and the summers are just as bad! Basically the weather sucks year around!

Michael

That it was so heavily focused on drinking. There is almost nothing to do for fun at this school aside from drinking. Going out at night and going to sporting events both involve drinking. I enjoy beer, but so much enthusiasm for alcohol gets pretty boring after awhile. I also wish that I had known about the engineering building before I joined. The computer labs (where most of our work is done) are in horrible condition in comparision to all of the other schools within the university.

Alynda

Although I have no regret in my decision to attend this college, I wish I had known more about the program in which I am enrolled. I wish I had known that there were not as many classes related to my core major, Photography, than about other subjects surrounding it.

Marc

Very career oriented

Jeffrey

that my major was gonna be hell. i wish i was better prepared

Christopher

I wish had known the amount of money I need for each year. I wish I had known the financial aid earlier. I wish I had known how important it is to know what I was to major in. I wish I had known it is important to take college serious.

Lesley

I wish I would have know that the surrounding neighborhood was dangerous. There not much to do off campus. I wish I would have known as an African American business student I would be the only African American in most of my classes. Lastly there are alot of hills on this campus.

Brandon

I wish I new that Syracuse University offered a huge variety and amounts of different activities and clubs to get involved with. If I new about some of the things earlier in my first semester I would have tried to get involved. I also never knew how much spirit and pride the students and staff have for the school and I am happy about becoming apart of that atmosphere. Overall nothing I learned about this school after coming here has lessened my opinion about it. Everything that I have learned as helped me grow to like the school.

Tiffany

I wish I had known exactly how big the school was because sometimes the school because impersonal because it's so big and coming from a big school like myself its hard to find friends who you really connect with because there's so many people.

Steven

I wish I had known exactly what I wanted from college. This is a steryotypical campus, academics, drinking, and sports are all major focuses on this campus. I wish I had known how dead of a city Syracuse is, there is nothing to do outside of the campus. If I want a break from campus I really need a car to get out into nature and the mountains or a car to drive to a real, thriving city.

Catherine

I wish I had known my classes sooner so I could mentally prepare myself. SU wasn't very good about providing that information early. The transfer process was a little difficult too.

Kyle

I wish that I had known about more of the on campus activities. As a junior now im just beginning to discover some of the fun things there are to do and I wish that i had gotten involved earlier.

Charron

Before I matriculated to Syracuse I wish I would have known the extent of how important time management is. At a university like SU , you must have superb time management skills, if your the social/outgoing type, because there is something to always keep you busy. This is most important your first year because that when you will be establishing yourself. Be sure that what ever school you choose, that you go there with the intent to stay focused, while enjoying yourself. Come to SU, learn, live, and trust that it will help you in return. YEAH SU!!!!

Annalisa

Everyone kept telling me that the next four years would be the best years of my life. I wish someone would have told me to go out and make those memories happen. It's so easy to get caught up in academics, especially if you're pursuing a major you absolutely love, and not leave time for creating those small moments with your friends that you'll look back on and laugh 20 years from now.

Sheetal

About more of the extra curriculars that were available.

Francesca

I wish I would have known that they only give financial aid to a select group of people; very specific. I don't get aid and need it badly. I also wish I knew there were a lot of people from Long Island.

Enrica

I wish I knew to take my classes more seriously

Rebecca

I wish I had known how easy transitioning to my life here would be. That way I wouldn't have worried as much. I made a lot of good friends and really felt like I belonged almost immediately.

Julio

If there is anything i wish i had known before I came to Syracuse University, it would be the amount of snow this place gets. But then again, it's not that bad at all if you get used to it. I liked the fact that it was a new environment to adapt to, somewhere far from the slums.

Khrista

I wish I knew a lot more current events and that there would be alot of essay writing.

ismabel

I wish I had learned how to actually study for a class.

Mengdan

I was interested in my future major-architecture.

Gabrielle

Before coming here I wish I knew about the surrounding area's poverty and social economic. The students and community members are very seperate and are clearly seperated from one another on many levels.

Joseph

I wish I had spent more time studying Programming languages and I wish I had taken more programming courses in order to get ahead.

Harmandeep

I wish I knew how different life would be living far away from home. When I first came to live on campus it was a different experience. However, I believe I made the right choice coming to Syracuse because I don?t think I would have felt so comfortable anywhere else. There were certain time when I felt I wanted to go home and live there but the students, faculty, counselors are so helpful and understanding that now I am in my senior year here in Syracuse.