Undergraduate Admissions

This journal is an archive of the experiences of a UB student in the 2006-2007 school year; it’s no longer being updated.  If you’d like to read about some current UB students, please check out this year’s bloggers.

Well graduation is in 2 days and I’ve gotten through 4 years of college in a blink of an eye. And no matter how many great memories I had from high school, none could compare to the last four years. I’ve done everything from win gold medals as a varsity athlete, be a teaching assistant, my internship running a fitness program that real professionals planned to follow after I was gone, participate in many clubs, run a marathon 2 years in a row, go through Gross Anatomy, explore the city of Buffalo, visit Canada a few times, help inner-city school students study for the math Regents exam, meet the most amazing people, have lunch in the president of UB’s home, see tons of big acts take the stage for free and a few Bulls wins…..the list could keep going. There is so much to do here!

The best advice I have for anyone coming here or looking at the school is to not doubt all it has to offer. As much as it does take your own initiative to become involved there are so many opportunities  it is difficult not to attend something. I didn’t know anything about UB before I showed up in August as a freshman except that it was a nice campus, big dorm rooms and had the major I thought I wanted to go into. Luckily for me it is still the major I want to go into and that chapter starts next August!

Buffalo has a charm that makes you fall in love with it. From Main St., to Chippewa St., to Elmwood, Allen and Deleware, there is something for everyone. Bored? Go visit the Albright Knox Gallery, ice skate in Rotery Rink downtown, see a show at Shea’s, see the Sabres at HSBC, visit friends at the other universities and colleges in the area, run/bike along the Amherst Bike Path, see a movie in the Student Union for free, take the shuttle to the mall….the opportunities are limitless. Are you staying in Buffalo for the summer? Go to Thursday in the Square to catch a live band for free downtown, or how about Shakespear in the Park in Delaware Park near the Albright Knox Gallery, Elmwood and Buff State. From first hand experience of all the above there is always something to do in the free time.

Four years may seem like a long time but once it starts it never stops and soon you’ll be sitting in your room 2 days before your graduation wondering where the time went. Enjoy your last days in high school and look forward to the future in college because after the first two days of being in your dorm those butterflies will fly away and the fun will begin.

Good luck everyone…..& CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2007 WE DID IT!!!! 

It’s that time…that I have been very reluctant to jump on on-time…its time to find a student loan and finance the graduate years. I have been spoiled for the past four years to have my parents cover the cost of my undergraduate education. What first started as a two year plan then got stretched out for another two years after a series of unfortunate and fortunate events. But at the end of the day (or today) I have been thrown into the deep end of the financial institution world without a life raft (or even those cute floaties you used to wear on your arms when you were little).

As I read through countless bank websites looking for key words that would clue me into what loans were good and the best for my situation I got very intimidated and now feel hopeless. I know that if I had done some of this earlier I would have been able to go to the drop in Financial Aid office hours this past week and I wouldn’t be fearing that I will lose my Stafford loans because I didn’t call BIRD on time. However, I don’t feel like I am the only one out there wondering what the best deal in the student loan world is.

My plan of attack is to go to the Student Response Center and hope for the best. They are the office that deals with financial aid, residency, tuition bills…etc. And then hopefully by tomorrow night I’ll have a better idea of what I am doing for next year.

So for the past week I have been having some awful luck with my car, luckily some of my friends are from the area so they were able to point me in the direction of a mechanic. One big suggestion I have when you get here is become friends with the locals because they will show you all the best places to hang out, eat, haircuts, mechanics….you name it and they should be able to help you make Buffalo your home too. But after a broken exhaust sytem and blowing a tire all is well again with my little Honda. She’s still chuggin’….well for now…lets hope for awhile.

There was a lot going on at UB too this week like Senior week, Al Gore doing two speeches for the students and last week of classes!! For senior week there were a lot of activities going on (so I heard) and one of the biggest was the Champagne toast brunch were we could get an engraved glass. Unfortunately when I got there there was a mob of seniors trying to get in and they had stopped allowing students in because the atrium was full and they ran out of glasses to hand out . I have to say I was very dissapointed that I couldn’t get in. But I went out with three of my best friends to a diner and we had our own celebration.

This week I also went to my boyfriend’s flag football team’s playoff game. Its Monday night football UB style complete with refs in the pinstripes. After some great catches in the endzone their team won and now are going to the next game in the playoffs this weekend! There are two different leagues..they are in the advanced one where it is suggested your team has experience in high school varsity football and then the carefree league. Either way it was fun to watch and the guys had a good time this semester getting on the field and working out any agression that had built up from classes.

Here’s a pic from the game:

For everyone else this is the last week of classes so chaos, late nights and stress are in abundance. However, I am sitting back and relaxing. My internship was done last Friday so I am all ready for graduation!  I was really stressed last week because the other intern and I had to give a presentation to all the people in our office about our project and some research we had done but Lauren got sick so she was absent, which kind of slowed down the prep period. But it was a success in the end and all is well. We even had a small goodbye get together Friday after work.

This past weekend was Spring Fest and for what I got to see it was amazing.  The total bill was Juxtaposse (a local band), Finger 11, Guster, Jason Mraz & the Roots. The concert was on Sunday and there was a mini event prior to the big show outside in one of the parking lots with food and games. On Saturday I had to work at my catering job and it ended up being a 15 hour shift and I didn’t get home until 5:30am and then I had to go to my other job at the admissions office on Sunday so after work I came home and took a nap instead of going straight to Fest. When I got there Finger 11 was just finishing up their set. I did get to see Guster and Jason Mraz, which were both great performances. They also both seemed to be in awe of how diverse the play bill was and how such a large amount of people had come out to see the various bands. However, that is what UB is about, the diversity. There was a little something for everyone and I think it was a success. It was also bittersweet since it was the last Fest I’d be able to go to for FREE. I remember my first Fest in freshman year, it was Nas, Lil’Kim and Godsmack.

Overall this weekend was eventful and a good end to senior year.

    This week the school that I intern at was on Spring Break but I was just as busy, if not more busy. After dealing with being sick and going to work last weekend on Easter I decided on the way home that I would take a random road trip home for as long as I could. So I packed my bag and hit the highway home to New Jersey Monday morning. As much as I love Buffalo and all my friends here it was a much needed break to go back to NJ and see my parents. Unfortunately the break was very short and I had to leave early on Wednesday morning to get back to Buffalo so that I could go to work. However, my one full day home was completely worth driving 6 hours one-way.

Thursday I worked at Discovery Day, the smaller version of an Open House, escorting potential UB engineering students and their parents around to different presentations in the engineering buildings.  One thing you will learn when you get to UB is that you will never step foot in every building on campus. I must admit that the engineering buildings are the ones that I have not ventured into prior to that day. Despite the small problems we had finding our way to each of the rooms things didn’t go so bad. After that I spoke to some students and their parents in the Center for the Arts about different things until I had to leave to lead a tour bus around South Campus. The tour bus portion of the day went really well.

Then last night (Friday) I went to a party that the Doctor of Physical Therapy students were throwing for all the new students that got accepted this year. YAY class of 2010!!! I got to catch up with old friends that I haven’t seen in ages and got to meet other students that I will be starting class with in the Fall. I totally had a moment where I felt like I was a high school senior again and I was getting ready to go away to school. With all my close friends leaving in a couple weeks to start their “real” jobs or grad school its going to be different.

Ok well that its for now…keep enjoying your last moments in high school because you’ll never get them back again!

I made it to the 14th week in my internship and hadn’t caught any of the many different bugs travelling around….until this week. I think it had to do with the sudden change in weather (going from 60s to 20s with snow), stress and everyone around me being sick. Of course it also happened on a weekend when I couldn’t afford to be sick either. It’s Easter weekend and the start of my spring break (based on my internship’s school schedule). I also had to work Saturday and Sunday. Oh well.

Other then this awful cold and high fever nothing much has been going on. I have one week left of my internship and our big presentation coming up. Last week my professor from UB came to observe what I was doing and loved our program. She was so impressed that she started talking about it to other professors and students the next day at Preview Day (or so I heard when I ran into her at the mall a couple of days later). And then this past Thursday two first year students in the DPT program (Doctor of Physical Therapy) who happened to also have been in all my classes until junior year came to observe my program as well so that they could do a presentation on it for one of their classes. I felt so important to have other people coming to do presentations on a program I created.

This past week I also attended a  Seder to kick of Passover. My friend Fara invited 15 people to attend and asked that we each prepare a kosher dish to share with everyone else. I made a modified bruschetta with three different peppers, onion, fresh cilantro and basil, and of course tomato. Instead of using italian bread rubbed in garlic we used matza. At the beginning of the night Fara explained what Passover was, the traditional plate with all the different foods that symbolize the culture and read a shorter version of what is traditionally read at the Seder. We had so much fun. She even had us go on a hunt for the Afikomen (a piece of matza) in her apartment building. Although the majority of the guests were not Jewish I felt that everyone was equally exicited to be there and participating in a tradition that was very important to Fara. It just goes to show you that even if you can’t be home for the holidays there is no reason not to bring the holidays to yourself.

Well that’s it for now! Have a great Easter everyone or Happy end of Passover to others!!!

Happy April everyone! As school starts to wind down for everyone I’m sure you all are looking forward to things like prom, yearbooks and graduating but dreading finals. Here at UB things are just as busy. All my friends are starting to prepare for their last few weeks of classes and the start of finals, while I am just preparing for my last two weeks of my internship. On the last day of my internship Lauren (the other intern) and I will be doing a presentation for all the PTs (physical therapists), OTs (occupational therapists), Speech and Hearing therapists, my supervisors and the teachers/ aids of the students that participated in our project. It’s huge. But I am excited because I feel like there is a lot to say.

Other then school stuff there is a lot to look forward to this April on campus. Some things I can’t wait for are Oozfest and Springfest. Oozfest is the annual mud volleyball tournament  that students and alumni can participate in. We even have a special Oozfest field nestled near the bike path. I have never participated but this year I am planning on it! Springfest is also coming, which is the free concert the undergraduates are able to see thanks to our Student Association. This year Juxtaposse (a local band), Guster, the Roots, Jason Mraz and Finger 11 are on the bill. Once you come to UB I encourage everyone to see atleast one or two of the Fest concerts because its FREE so why not? I remember my freshman year seeing Lil’ Kim, Nas and Godsmack share the stage for Fallfest at Baird Point (near those pillars on the lake that you always see in pictures of our school).

Good luck with making your decisions on which school to pick for next year and hang in there…only two more months left!!

Spring officially made an appearance this week bringing the sun and enough heat to bring all the UB students out of hibernation and into the fresh air. Even at my internship we took walks with all our classes and played on the playground with them afterwards. Yes, when the warm weather comes to town its a celebration. And even though there is a rumor going around that it is supposed to get chilly again later in the week, I’m soaking in all the sun I can for now.

Other then basking in the sunlight all day things have been hitting me when it comes to the whole senior celebration deal. I still can’t believe that 4 years are almost over! It went way too quick. Even my internship is going way too quick. I only have 3 more weeks left.

To add to all the final-ness of graduation, this past weekend I took a random road trip to visit Syracuse U. because there is a 99.9% chance that my bf will be going there next year for grad school. The campus was beautiful (even in the rain) and I felt like it would be a good fit for him too. After walking around exploring the area for a few hours we decided to go to the Dinosaur BBQ restaurant/bar for dinner. All I can say is that there was an hour and a half wait but I and all the other patrons standing around didn’t seem to mind a bit. The atmosphere was fun and when we finally got to sit down the food was delicious.

Ok sorry this was random and short but its another hectic week and I got to get going!

Sorry for the lack of updating lately…but things have been beyond hectic. To quote someone else, its “controlled chaos”. Everyday is a regimented schedule of events. Wake up, go to my internship, go straight to work while probably eating in the car (Note: I do not promote unsafe driving habits) and get home sometime ranging between 8:30- 11:30pm on a week night. Thankfully for the past couple weeks I’ve somehow managed to have a day off at one of my jobs a week so I am not doing this all 7 days. However, because of all the working and lack of time in between I have been having a difficult time getting regular errands done. Such as ordering my cap and gown for graduation. Still haven’t done it and I hear that they only have XS and XXL, not good. Today I was excited just to be able to go to the bank and cash the checks that I work so hard to earn.

Like I said in my last blog…if you need to work when you get to school try to find a job on campus first and then venture off if need be. Also, don’t expect it to be easy to balance a job and school at the same time. I am learning that even though I only have my internship to worry about, and no exams, it is still a handful to have 3 other jobs. Once May rolls around I will be officially no longer an undergrad and unable to work at one of my jobs any longer. So for the summer I really only need to worry about balancing the two other ones.

Well my bed is calling and it’s an early wake-up call in the morning for work. Night!