Rachel Beinus

“Remember that time during NSOP when…” Some people will finish this statement with a crazy story from a Carmen party, their first wild night at Mel’s, or a trip to Dumbo with a random assortment of people they haven’t seen since. NSOP, though, elicits so many complex emotions aside from those that feature in the funny narratives some people may tell. During this transitional week of your life, you all may feel homesick, insecure, lonely, or uncomfortable. Here is how these emotions may manifest themselves during NSOP.

You’ve done the standardized testing, written the Common App essays, gotten into the college of your dreams, and now what? College has always seemed so far away, but as the time to move in gets closer and closer, you may be getting nervous and trying to gather as much advice for college as possible. Here are some tips that I wish I knew before going to college that can hopefully help you have an amazing first year.

Nervous about sharing a room with someone? Whether you handpicked your roommate on the Facebook page or are waiting for your roommate assignment from ResLife, living with a random person (or multiple people) can be scary. After all, most first-years have never even shared a room with a sibling let alone a stranger. Do not fear; Required Reading wants to help make your experience with your roommate is the best possible. A roommate can be a best friend, an acquittance, or the bane of one’s existence. To give you some hope, some roommates do end their first year as best friends and have been inseparable since the New Student Orientation Program. Other roommates maintain a friendly relationship without being super close and are able to coexist with one another. There are, of course, always some scenarios where roommates do not get along, but here are a few topics to discuss with your roommate prior to move-in day to avoid conflicts.

Let’s face the truth: We’re never going to get our hands on some “Hamilton” tickets. Sure, “Mean Girls” and “Frozen” also sound like interesting prospects, but the tickets are crazy expensive and definitely sold out four months in advance. Here are six lesser-known Broadway shows to check out, all of which have much better prices than other shows.

As Columbia students, opening a book to read over break can seem like too much work. After all, reading hundreds of pages in small print is all we ever do here. Thankfully, podcasts exist to ensure that our tired eyes can take a break in the midst of midterm madness. In fact, even after midterm season is over, we all need spring break to recharge. So why not do that by listening to a podcast all about self-growth? You can then come back from break more productive and positive than ever and (hopefully) become the type of student Columbia is in dire need of this time of year.

As if the 10-odd-block area of Columbia’s Morningside campus weren’t small enough to find a match, the advent of dating apps in recent years has made potential hookups even easier to track down. And for those who aren’t on dating apps, don’t be fooled: The relative smallness of our community—and the consequent statistical likelihood of eventually running into someone you met on a dating app anyways—has not yet deterred a huge chunk of our own from signing up. Indeed, dating apps are a cornerstone of many Columbia and Barnard students’ love lives, and if we’re anything like most other American college students, they are also a huge source of entertainment for us.