1. The City Is Your Campus.
Unlike your run of the mill state school, where the entire town has a "college town" feel, Roosevelt is NOT a school that possesses a spread out campus with many buildings, exclusively surrounded by corn. In fact, Roosevelt's Chicago campus only has 4 buildings! Our school is truly immersed in the city. If I walk outside the Auditorium Building, (where all of my classes are held.) I am right outside on Michigan Ave, right in the middle of absolutely everything. The Art Institute and Grant Park are literally right across the street, the Magnificent Mile is just a few blocks north, and Lake Michigan is just a 10 minute walk east. We are truly in the heart of the city!
2. You Have Friends From Nearby Universities.
I cannot explain how true this is. Roosevelt is in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood, which has many colleges and universities. The neighborhood is basically a college campus in itself. Robert Morris University, Columbia College, and the Art Institute are all just blocks away, and that's just to name a few. I have found myself hanging out with kids from Columbia more than kids at my own school. I practically live at Columbia's main dorm, the UC. There are so many students from so many schools that live around here, that it's almost inevitable that you'll befriend some of them.
3. You Can Wake Up 15 Minutes Before Class Because All Of Your Classes Are In The Building In Which You Live.
This makes my life for a multitude of reasons. One, I am NOT a morning person, so not having to get up and walk all the way across campus for class definitely helps. Roosevelt's 2 main buildings are connected through a hallway corridor, so It's a really easy walk to get to the other building. Also, I don't have to walk outside, which during Chicago's blistering cold winters, is a GIGANTIC plus! It can be a negative temperature outside, yet I can still wear a T-Shirt and Shorts to class if I want to.
4. You know that Getting To Class In The Morning Is Not Fun.....To Say The Least.
The Elevators in my dorm building are very fast, which is nice, considering I live on one of the highest floors. However, the Auditorium Building, which is over 100 years of age, is a MUCH different story. The elevators are slow, and always crowded, which means they stop at every floor. Since I'm a music major, most of my classes are up on the 9th floor, which can get very annoying when the elevator stops 8 times before I can get off. This has led to me being late to class countless times.
5. You Live Really High Up In The Air, And The View From Your Dorm Room Is Utterly Fantastic.
Roosevelt Is a small enough school that all of our freshman housing is in one building, the Wabash Building. It is 31 stories tall, but the dorms start on the 15th floor, and go all the way up from there. I do not lie when I say the views are absolutely unbeatable. I live on the 30th floor, and I can see Lake Michigan, Grant Park, and the Sears Tower all in clear view. It almost makes getting up early in the morning bearable.
6. You Love The Coffee In The Cafeteria Because It's Good......Damn Good.
This might actually just be something that's personal to me, but I think the Coffee in my schools' cafeteria is amazing to say the least. If you're like me, you need AT LEAST 2-3 cups of coffee a day to survive, and that's an expensive habit to fund. I ran out of money on my ID card with almost a month left in the semester because I've bought so much coffee from the cafeteria. It's always hot, always fresh, and always gets me going. I always look forward to getting down to the cafeteria in the morning to get that first cup on the way to class!
7. You Have Trouble With Your Meal Plan.
All of my high school friends are at state schools with the traditional meal plan: You swipe your card, and you can eat as much as you like. Roosevelt does things a bit differently; They give you roughly $1,800 dollars a semester, and you buy everything that you get from the cafeteria. This is a major struggle, especially if you eat a lot. As stated above, I ran out of money with a month left in the semester, and have had to cut back on eating in a major way in order to avoid breaking the bank to get food to store in my dorm.
8. You're As Liberal As They Come.
Roosevelt University is an institution founded heavily on Social Justice, and equal opportunity for everyone, and its student body very much reflects that. We are diverse, and come from all walks of life. Everybody is accepting of one another. These are all things that I'm very proud onto be a part of!
9. You Frequently Forget That Your School Has Sports Teams.
Sports are not a big thing at Roosevelt, although we have many sports teams. (which is awesome) Honestly, I haven't heard anything around campus about how any of the teams are doing, and I only realize that we have teams at all when I see athletes walking around campus.
10. You're A Laker, And You Wouldn't Want To Be Anything Else!
You're proud of the school in which you attend, what it stands for, the people you've come to know, and everything else that comes with being a Laker. You wouldn't trade it for the world!
