College, Tips anyone? Options

[hockeygod]

I'm going to college this fall: Michigan Technological University. Actually, I leave the 19th of August, move in the 20th and orientation starts the 21st, with classes beginning the 29th. Anyone have any advice for me or for anyone else starting college this fall?

[zyguh]

Meeting the RA (or whatever version of Resident Advisor your dorm has) for your floor as soon as possible is a good idea. Make sure to ask find out if s/he is a sports fan, and what kind of movie's they like. That way you can all chip in and get them tickets to a game or movie tickets if you want a night where you know the RA will be gone for a few hours. If you have a cool RA, they can be bribed.

If the RA is a ...well, not cool, you know.....then remember that supergluing them in their room is only really effective if you also glue the windows shut, and take their phone so they cant yell or call for help.

Attaching a car battery to someones door, pouring water on the floor so it goes under the door, and then knocking really loud so they will answer is only funny if its a tile floor, and you know they will answer barefoot. Otherwise they are insulated and it just makes them mad when they open the door and see what you were planning.

Talcum powder in a manilla envelope. You can slide the opening under someones door and then drop a book on the part sticking out on your side. The more powder the bigger the cloud that coats everything in their room.

If your dorm has a speaker system in each room (so the front desk can let you know someone is downstairs to visit) it is possible to pull the speaker out, strip the wires and hook them up to your stereo. YES, this does cause the entire dorm to turn into one giant speaker that can probably be heard miles away...........but as long as you can get the wires hooked back up right and put the speaker back in the wall before they have time to search every room they cant prove it was you.

No matter what they tell you in the dorm orientation....the fire alarms dont really shoot out an invisible ink, and or a blue liquid, that will stain your hands and let them know who pulled the fire alarm "even days later".

While a twister board can be made to fit perfectly on the floor of the dorm elevators, gluing it in place actually makes the dorm staff rather angry.

When popping the screens out of your windows make sure to save the rivets that held them in place so you can replace them at the end of the year when they do the final room check before you leave.

No matter how good your carpentry skills, and no matter how strong the pool liner claims to be, if you attempt to turn your closet (and or one corner of your room) into a hottub/mini swimming pool chances are its gonna leak. So its really not feasable to do this unless you live on the ground floor and wont have the guy who lives under you whining about how the water was ruining all his posters.

On a related not........a hot plate CANNOT be used as the heating element for a hot tub you are trying to build in your closet. You cant put it in the water or you'd get electrocuted, and if you put it underneath it just melts the pool lining you were using.

You can replace the towel racks on your closet doors with something sturdier, and with the right planning build a nice little "mini-bar" that can fold up and be stored in the closet in minutes. If you do this, its not a good idea to place an ad in the school paper advertising your new bar........even if you dont get caught running a bar out of your dorm room for 3 weeks......someone does eventually notice. And you get in LOTS of trouble.

oh yeah......and study hard. That is why your there after all :-)