I didn't have a dream school. I didn't like any particular place. All I knew was that I wanted to establish a career in the fashion industry...but as what? A fashion designer? Market merchandise? Personal shopper? People always tell you if you have a passion for something, you should go after it. Get a job you enjoy and you will never have to work for a single day. But honestly, to actually go after your dream is terrifying. At least for me it was. Mainly because I have no connection in the fashion industry. I have no experience, and with all the competition, someone more knowledgeable than I am in the field could easily take me down and take the lead and I could be a hundred feet behind them, panting, trying desperately to catch up but failing to do so. Yes, we all want to pursue our dreams, but I also need to be able to support myself financially with my career, and the fashion industry could leave me hungry and homeless. Because of my internal struggle, I ended up choosing Seton Hall University for my first year of college.
It wasn't hard choosing Seton Hall University--because I had no dream school and I decided that I wasn't going to attend a fashion school since I was afraid of the risks, I went for the school that gave me the most finical aid and went for majors that had potentials.
All I knew before my official move-in day about SHU was that it was located in New Jersey, 15 miles or so from New York City and that New Jersey gets reaaaally cold in the winter. When freshmen move-in day arrived, I packed my luggage, grabbed my passport and headed off to the airport.
After 16 hours of flight, I finally reached John F. Kennedy International Airport (I'm an international student btw). After I exited the airport, I hopped into a cab and got dropped off at SHU in front of my dorm (Aquinas) for 160 bucks.
SHU definitely didn't impress me at first sight, in fact, I'd hated it. I've never lived outside of a city before and South Orange, New Jersey was way. too. much. for me. The airport to SHU was about one and a half hours (there was traffic) and I was exhausted and hungry. As my cab was closely approaching my destination, I realized there were no buildings around me, only small, ratchet-looking houses. The area was plain, dull and lifeless. And it really, really didn't help when my cab driver said 'ooh looks like there are a lot of ____ people here'.
Long story of my first impression of SHU short, I basically felt very upset...I felt lost, confused, lonely and was actually a tad scared when I'd first reached SHU. I think it was because I reached SHU around midnight and the campus looked really empty and dark and I was just overwhelmed.
Blah blah blah, sorry for talking so much. I will now list out some things I'd learned so far about SHU.
- In my opinion, the campus is rather small compared to public universities and other private schools. You most likely won't get lost and will be able to find your classrooms fairly easy. At least...for me it was!
- My cab driver drove through East Orange to get to SHU. East Orange is a ratchet neighborhood(seriously). The campus is located in South Orange, a clean, pretty and safe town.
- The Aquinas Hall is the newest co-ed residence hall on campus. It is a lot better than Boland, the other co-ed residence hall for freshmen. In Aquinas you'll have bathroom in your dorm to share with your roommates and suite-mates, in Boland, you don't have private bathrooms. The cost to live in Aquinas is higher than it is to live in Boland. But this is just because Aquinas is so much nicer.
- Textbooks are expensive. If you are sure about taking the classes you've registered, try to buy the textbooks from eBay or Amazon at a cheaper price or better, see if they are available in the library to be checked out first! You could also rent the textbooks from the bookstore but still...it'll cost you around $100 to rent (per textbook) anyways so that's still a lot.
- I know I said get the textbooks beforehand but some professors are so annoying. They tell you to buy the textbook but never assign anything from it! Instead, they make you purchase another thing called the 'Web Assign access code' from the bookstore and assign work there. So be careful. Don't waste money.
- There's this religion course called 'Journey of Transformation' and you have to take the course in order to graduate from SHU. All freshmen are assigned this course I believe. However!! If you are planning on transferring, do try to drop the course because unless you are passionate about religion or your career might require knowledge on religion, it really, honestly, is a waste of time. Not to mention the Journey of Transformation book is around a hundred dollars and you won't find the same edition on eBay or Amazon as it is a SHU edition book.
- If you are an international student and took the IB exam and passed, you'll need to make sure the registration office receives the transcript before the add/drop date or you won't get credit even if you tell them you can show them the scores online on the official IB website.
- If you are planning on taking the art 2D/3D course, you'll need to know that this course requires students to buy their own art supplies, which will cost you around $130-160 collars. It's weird because SHU charged me $25 art supply fee and I paid (it's included in my tuition cost). What's the $25 fee for then, SHU??!
- There really isn't anything to do around SHU because it's not a city. You could go to the frat parties that happen on Thursday nights, Friday nights and Saturday nights. Once you get to know people they might invite you over to apartment parties. Idk. Life is pretty boring here tbh. There's no football field either so no football games.
- You could always head to NYC by taking the NJ transit. The NJ transit is about a 12-20 walk from campus. The train ride is about 35 minutes I think and you'll find yourself in the city.
- SHU provides this transportation called the SHUfly. It's basically a free shuttle that takes students around the town. On Saturdays the shuttle goes to the mall and on Sundays the shuttle goes to Target.
- Always pay with electronic routing or something on your busar account. Never choose to pay with credit/visa/mastercard or whatever. If you don't choose to pay with the electronic routing thing then you will be charged with $400 or more of service fee or something. That happened to me.
- You won't be needing to bring your own laptop. You will be obligated to pay a certain amount of fee for the school assigned laptops($650 per semester I believe). The assigned laptops aren't bad. They are Lenovo and touch screen (the one I have anyways) but they are no MacPro.
- As an incoming freshman, there is no way for us to register our classes by ourselves. There is this Pirate Adventure (I think that is what it's called) in June and that if you can make it, then you'll be able to register your classes then along with the rest of the students at Pirate Advendure. If you miss it and if you are an incoming international freshman then you must contact the freshman studies office, and they will connect you with an academic adviser to register for classes(remember, once the appointment is scheduled, you must call the office at the scheduled time, they won't call you). The number of the freshman studies office is 1-973-761-9740. If you are not an international student, the office will contact you.
- If you register for your classes late...say, in July, you might run out of options. I was not informed by anyone that I had to call the office to register for my class and I had to figure out everything by myself. I ended up registering towards the end of July and by then most of the classes were full so I had limited options for example I had to take English at 8am and art 2D and 3D from 5pm to 7:30 pm.
This is all that I can think of right now. Hope they help!! And p.s. the campus is very very pretty. It's very clean and so instagram-worthy.
