We all know it’s April when the Quad is bustling with prospective students, running from model classes to RSO fairs as their packed PSAC schedule show off the interesting and quirky parts of campus. While it’s exciting for the recently admitted students, so many things interrupt the daily schedule that we try to follow and get in the way.
- There are people everywhere. There is no quad lull between classes, there is no space to eat at Cathey or Bartlett. There is a long line at C-shop.
- Dining halls try to make it seem like they can cook fancy meals. Bartlett had a "Games of Thrones" themed dinner? Please, you are not fooling any of us.
- There are free shirts being given out for almost any occasion. Host a prospective student, sign up for Peer Health Exchange, attend an RSO performance act show, everywhere.
- No seats in your classes, even in the huge lecture hall. Today, I walked into my lecture in Kent five minutes early, and there were no seats even remotely near the front or middle of the room. Prospies find the need to go to every possible class they want.
- Libraries are out of service. Harper may be hosting a fancy reception for prospective students’ or the Regenstein might just be too loud to go, as students weave in and out, touring through all of the rooms and seeing the buildings that they will be spending a lot of their nights in the next few years.
- UCIDs are required to get into any sort of party. Especially right now, frats do not want any more liability issues, so if you are going on Wednesday or Thursday night, do not even think about leaving without ID that proves you are a student, or the night might not be too fun.
- Pictures. Pictures of red ‘UChicago’ folders, pictures of parents, pictures of scarves, pictures of everything. Chances are, as you walk from your dorm to class, you will be in the way of at least one parent’s proud picture of their child as they pose in front of the gate or in front of Rosenwald.
- Countless lost students studying the tiny maps on their lanyards. Hosts are not always the friendliest people and will abandon their prospies, who find themselves walking down University, thinking they’re headed towards Cobb, and wandering past Bartlett. Help the poor student out, and spin them in the right direction.
- The sound of rumbling suitcases. As prospies come, their stuff comes with them too. We all hate having our toes squished by bags way too big for a night's worth of clothing.
Yet prospie season is exciting. Other than the suffering of squeezing into far too few seats, never finding a seat to eat at in any dining common room, and not being able to live at any regular convenience, the anticipation of the incoming class is thrilling. The season will only last so long, and while it seems like forever for us, these few days here will completely change the lives of so many incoming students!
