Facts for freshmen concerning the University of Illinois; intended for young men about to enter college

Front matter

CONCERNING

LD

X6

Index

PAGE

Getting Started 7

Choosing a Course 11

The Problem of Living 20

The Freshman in College 28

Class Attendance 41

Studies and Other Things 44

College Activities 52

Class Organization 75

Historical Sketch 81

The Organization of the University 90

The Campus and University Buildings 92

Miscellaneous Information loi

Calendar 104

Getting Started

Presuming that you have decided to enter the University of Illinois, that you are a graduate of an accredited high school, and so do not need to take entrance examinations, that you have chosen your course, and that you have a permit from the Registrar to enter the college you have selected, there are still a few directions which it might be well at the outset to give attention to.

You can come into Champaign or Urbana by the Illinois Central, the Big Four, or the Wabash rairoads, or by the Illinois Traction System. Whichever way you may come, a local electric car will land you at the University grounds within a few minutes. You will be met at or on the train by all sorts of commissaries or representatives, each of whom will offer to conduct you about, and will at the same time solicit your patronage of his boarding club or lodging house, or other particular pet scheme. Go slowly.

As to the choice of a lodging place.

1. Be sure that your room is clean, sanitary, well heated, and wxll lighted.

2. Do not take a room without making a definite contract, and it will be better if this is in writing.

3. Do not make a contract for more than one semester, and it is better that your agreement be such that you can give up the room at the end of any month if it does not prove satisfactory.

4. Be sure that the bedding is clean and that the linen will be frequently changed.

5. The fewer lodgers there are in the house the better.

6. Have a definite understanding as to whether or not you are to pay for vacations.

As to getting registered.

1. If you have obtained a permit to register before coming to the University, go first to the office of the Dean of your college.

2. If you have not obtained a permit, go first to the office of the Registrar.

3. At the office of the Dean of your college you will be given help and specific directions for registering. Follow these carefully, and ask questions if you are in doubt.

4. Fill out carefully the coupon blank given you and be sure that in the part you retain for your own reference you have the instructors^ names and the numbers of the recitation rooms.

5. After having turned in your study list you can not change a subject or drop a course without the approval of the Assistant Dean of your college.

6. Class attendance is supposed to begin at once and to be regular.

7. Students are not expected to cut class at all.

8. You will be measured for your military suit at some time during the week of registration.

9. Military drill and the lectures in personal hygiene begin the week following registration. You must not miss the first of these.

10. If you do not find your name posted consult the Dean •of Men.

As to the management of your money.

1. Open a bank account at once, even if you have little money; it will establish your credit and teach you business methods.

2. Set out to live within your income; don't borrow or go into debt.

3. Don't join everything. The Athletic Association, the Y. M. C. A., the Students' Union, are all good. Join the Hospital Association whether you can afford it or not.

4. Don't buy everything that is offered for sale, or subscribe for everything that is published.

5. Take the Illini and other college publications if you can afford them, for they keep you in touch with college life.

6. Don't pledge yourself to a fraternity until you have had a little time to look around and to study the fellows who may ask you; you can always have time if you insist upon it.

As to general suggestions,

1. If you wish to drop a subject after registration do it regularly. If you *'cut" out of it you are very likely to get into serious trouble.

2. If you want information or advice of any sort call at the office of the Dean of Men.

3. Don't select a physician except upon the advice of some reliable University officer.

4. Begin to study as soon as your lessons are assigned.

As to getting a job.

1. Don't try to work unless you must, and don't do it then unless you have more than average ability, concentration, and physical strength.

2. You should be on hand a week before the University opens if you want to be sure of a job.

3. Go first for suggestions to the Y. M. C. A. or to the office of the Dean of Men, and then strike out for yourself. You can get a job if you keep at it.

lO UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

4. Washing dishes, waiting table, and tending furnaces, are the jobs most easily obtainable by freshmen.

5. You must see to it that your study schedule and your outside work do not conflict.

6. If such a conflict arises see the Assistant Dean of your college or the Dean of Men.

7. If you have to work for more than your board, you should seldom carry a full schedule of studies.

8. If you get a job, no matter how menial or insignificant it may be, do it as well as possible. You may want another some day.

Choosing a Course

When a young man announces to his friends in any unmetropolitan community that he is going to college, the first question he is likely to be asked is ''What are you going to study for?'* And when he goes home at Christmas time the first query with which he will be confronted is ''What are you studying for?" Education, at least in the minds of the majority of people, is for an object; looks forward to a definite future.

There are a number of high school graduates, no doubt, who should not go to college; those who do not care for books or study, those who have no intel- Some Not lectual outlook or ambitions, those who

Fitted for have heavy home obligations, or those

College whose ambitions are chiefly to make money

quickly, those who have little money and less talent, and the morally and physically weak — all these, or the most of them, at least, would often be better off if they went immediately to work rather than to waste their ow^n time, and the time of every one with whom they associate, in trying to carry a college course. Some must still toil with their hands, and reach success or failure without the training of books and why not these?

As matters are now there are certain professions into which one is not likely successfully to enter without a college education. It is true that in the past men Some Profes- have often made a success in the ministry, sions Require in teaching, in law, in medicine, in scien- College Training tific investigations, and in engineering, without the exact and rigid training which college offers, and it is also true that men sometimes will still reach distinction in these lines of work without such training, but the number is growing gradually smaller. If one is to distinguish himself in any one of these lines he will do so most readily by giving himself the most thorough college training possible.