I am currently going to be a senior at Bentley College in Waltham, MA, so I have a lot of experience and know how things work at Bentley. As a freshman at Bentley College, you will live in the Tree Dorms, Slade Hall, or Miller Hall. If you have a choice, I recommend that you choose to live in the Tree Dorms because this is where most of the freshmen will be living, so there will be more activity in the building and you will meet more people. Slade Hall is across the parking lot from the Tree Dorms so it would be my second choice and Miller Hall is small and somewhat isolated so it would be my last choice for freshman housing. If Bentley offers you the chance to live with upper class men, I would decline his offer and live with freshmen. It will make the transition to college life much easier.
I signed up for classes during orientation and it’s a hectic time. The first two years at Bentley are typically focused on satisfying general education requirements, so registering for the first two years is fairly easy. The classes you take will be chosen by you, but you will still have the opportunity to select which teacher you would like to take. I recommend that before you attend the Bentley orientation you go to RateMyProfessors and SyllabusCentral and do some research on the professors so that you end up with some great professors in your first year.
As a freshman, you will eat primarily at Season’s Dining Hall, Harry’s Corner, Boloco, and A&W. Their dining plan covers unlimited entrees at Season’s Dining Hall, but the quality of the food isn’t great. At Harry’s Corner you can use your discretionary money and Harry’s is good to get a sandwich, pizza or fried food like mozzarella sticks or chicken wings. Harry’s is also close to freshman housing, so you’ll probably be going there a lot. Boloco and A&W are on the lower campus, which is quite a walk, but I think Boloco is worth it. Boloco is my favorite food on campus and once again they take discretionary money.
As a freshman, your classes should be pretty easy. After the first year, your classes will become much more difficult, so I recommend that you work hard and get good grades to increase your GPA in the first year. It will be hard to get your GPA back from a bad first year. There are two very easy things you can do to increase your GPA as a freshman. The first is just going to class and the second is always doing your homework. Even if your homework isn’t going to be collected, I strongly advise you to do it yourself and try to stay disciplined. It’s too easy to procrastinate and then fall far behind and not be able to learn everything before a midterm or final. Make sure you keep up the pace throughout the semester and you should do just fine.
