Close Quarters with the Opposite Sex

Depending on your perspective, I have a pretty unique living situation. The typical guy might say, “Awesome dude, how did you work that?” or the more homophobic guy might say, “Uhh, are you gay?”

You see, I live with four girls. And to answer both the typical and homophobic questions, I don’t know how it happened, and no I am not gay. But living in the basement of a house with four members of the opposite sex directly above me has been a very educational experience for me. Unlike my previous roommates, all males, these roommates give me a different perspective of college life.

Before I lived with these ladies I only knew the man’s approach to college:

“Drink lots of beer. Attend at least 3 classes a week, but no more than 6. Watch as much sports as possible. Eat Taco Bell when hungry. Pretend you are still moderately athletic even though you rarely play anything but Cornhole.”

The woman’s approach is significantly different:

“Watching Grey’s Anatomy even if it is raining fire outside. Compare boyfriends disgusting habits. Talk about getting married occasionally. Study and attend class regularly. Plan for the future daily. Drink Socially and under control. Go to Bob when you have a clogged toilet or rodent problem.”

Outside of the obvious, I have learned that women take criticism MUCH more seriously than men and they also hold endless grudges. However, women stick together and stay in contact more regularly than men, and also are significantly cleaner.

Do I miss being able to knock on my old roommates door at 2 PM on a Tuesday and shove a beer in his hand? You bet. But these roommates offer their own kind of support. The type that makes you feel like you don’t have to bottle everything up if something is wrong. And I will miss that too.

Academic Advisers

This will be my lone crying blog. If there is one thing this school has completely let me down on, its the academic advising staff. Up until this year I had scheduled all my classes on my own and figured out what I required on my own. I never visited my communication adviser until the beginning of my senior year here at Ohio State. Most of my friends felt I was crazy for not checking in at least once a quarter but I am a very independent person and like to handle my problems on my own if at all possible.

As it turned out I did a pretty damn good job of staying on top of what I needed to schedule and staying relatively on time. These days not many students make it through a school that runs the quarters system in four years but I am one of them….or am I?

After three years of avoiding the advising staff I finally went in to clear some up some muddles I had. Firstly, I had joined the school of communication in Winter of 2006, however I was required to fulfill the requirements of a student that joined in Spring of 2006, after there were some academic changes. It took a screaming match to actually get one of the advisers to look and see that I was under the wrong requirements and I finally got that changed.

So after that problem I became suspicious of the competency of the staff and continually checked upon things. Recently they placed a course I took under the wrong requirement and insisted I would have to return for Autumn quarter to complete that requirement. Of course all they had to do was move that class out of my general academic credit dog pile and put it in the integrated communication requirement.

Then they tried to convince me I needed another language course even though I have taken four and do not need anymore. They were so stubborn about this that I had to go above their head and have an Arts and Sciences adviser look and see that I was in fact, correct.

In summary, going to the communication advisers office here is an enormous pain in the ass and I equate it to a visit to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. I had better luck on my own and probably would have been out of here by the end of Spring quarter if I hadn’t actually consulted them for help.