Emerson College Top Questions

There are groups for every major and interest. Some popular ones are the Emerson Revies (lit mag), Frames Per Second (film) and Musical Theater Society. Next year I plan to be involved with Gauge Magazine. In the Little Building it is much more social. In Piano Row you make friends with everyone on your floor if you try. It's all based on how much effort you put forth. Athletic events are not very popular at all, but there is always something interesting to see or do. People party mostly Fri/ Sat nights. A Saturday night w/ out drinking might involve seeing a movie or a comedy show, shopping, eating, ect with friends.

No realy frats. But that's not the crowd here. Most people can be found smoking outside the dorms in a large pack. There's your drinkers, smokers, and the people with the money for it find the others for the coke. But people are mostly friendly, freshman year all the dorm doors are open, people always up for a walk around the common or just hanging out in the common rooms.

Theatre is a huge draw here since we own five theatres, one of which hosts the Boston Opera performers since it was recently renovated and one of the most beautiful theatres in the country, the Majestic. A new sports gymnasium was also recently added, but I don't think sports are nearly as celebrated here due to the arts-inclined students. I don't drink, so a typical weekend for me includes doing homework, maybe shopping and watching movies in my downtime.

I;ve never lived in the Emerson dorms, but I heard they are a fun time. Lots to do on and off campus, city living helps here.

Orientation week rocks. If you have an ounce of sanity in your brain, go to every sponsored event that remotely interests you. Nine out of ten of them are wicked exciting, and every person there is looking to make friends just as much as you are. For a school that has a ton of motivated print journalism students, the school's paper is almost universally hated for its biased stories and lack of fact checking. If you are a film/TV major, and legitimately want to be come out of this school with enough hands-on experience to survive in the real world, you need, NEED to be a part of the Emerson co-curriculars. Play your cards right, you can work on a TV set every weeknight, and a film set every weekend. As a freshman, I worked my way up to a director position of a TV show going up in Studio A, and at least four producing spots on film sets. By comparison, the earliest I would get into Studio A on the normal track would be some time junior year, and the earliest I would be producing anything film related would be my Film II either late sophomore or early junior year. Best of all, you just need an interest in the organization to become a part of it, as opposed to registration for class, and you'll get taught by a bunch of students who probably have more experience than most of the professors. In short, join co-curriculars. Dating happens more frequently than students will ever admit, but everyone has at least two or three incidents where the girl/guy you've been scoping out in History of Media Arts will A) have a serious drug problem, B) will judge you permanently based on your taste in music, or C) will be gay. Don't let that disappoint you, but if it does, hey, there's about thirty other colleges in Boston to try. Drugs happen at Emerson. A lot. If you're in a lecture class, I promise you at least three of the kids in the back row are high as kites. That said, it's also totally ignorable, should you want to stick to partying with booze, or skipping it altogether. Emerson kids have a good habit of not forcing any substance on anyone, save the natural peer pressure of a situation. If you're doing your job right, sleep doesn't happen at Emerson. That said, it's now 2 AM, and you're hungry. You have a few options. New York Pizza is delicious, cheap, fast, and close; open until 1 AM on weekdays, 3 AM on weekends. Chinatown, though notoriously sketchy, has restaurants open 24/7. The food is hit or miss, depending on where you go, but it's almost all for dirt cheap. Find upperclassmen to give you their personal recommendations for takeout and delivery. Finally, your year is not complete without a trip to South Street Diner. Open until 5 AM, the food is amazing, the servers hip, and the clientele varying quantities of insane. You won't realize how much you missed it until you get there. It's more than possible to spend your four years and never attend a greek function, but most freshman at least go to the SAE frat house in Allston for a stereotypical "college party", complete with cheap beer and frequent cop busts. That's not to say there's nothing worthwhile about the greek scene, but if you fit the type they're looking for, they'll find you, not you find them.

As an acting major all of my friends are either actors or film majors but from all different years. It's really easy to make friends with upperclassmen just from working on plays or films. I also don't have very many friends that I made from class, it's mostly from outside stuff I auditioned for. Your first week at Emerson will be all about getting to know people, some of the get to know you events are fun and some of them suck. The truth is I met most of my close friends that week from a couple of the events and also at New York Pizza, which is a popular place right next to campus. A lot of people also make close friends with people who live on their floor. And a lot of people don't meet any close friends in the first week and it just takes getting involved to meet people. The first two months everyone is really friendly because you're all in the same boat, trying to make friends and form groups. The people at Emerson are generally incredibly nice and open so I wouldn't worry about making friends. No one goes to sporting events, I mean no one and everyone goes to the plays. Every little student show has a packed audience and usually the shows rock. The party scene at Emerson is difficult. I guess the main party place would be the SAE house, pretty much our only social frat. They suck and are gross so after the first month you stop going and it's pretty much the same group of people who go, you shouldn't be one of those people. The best parties are just at peoples apartments or houses. Also a lot of Emerson students go to BU, BC, MIT, and Berkley parties which are really great, especially MIT parties. If you don't drink don't worry, you could see a different student show every night and a lot of kids do other things on the weekends. People go the the Rocky Horror Picture Show a lot although i'd say it's probably way more fun drunk, you don't have to be. Weed is probably more popular than alcohol on campus. Students smoke up and then do creative things.

The theatrical scene is what I know the most about. The Emerson Stage season is very inclusive; everything from the big spring musical to the Newfest play festival, featuring the student winner of a playwriting contest. Most Emersonians don't sleep. There's always something going on, but more often than not it's off-campus at an apartment. Many students move off-campus sophomore year, and the majority move junior year to the surrounding neighborhoods. The fraternity/sorority scene exists, but I personally don't know much about it. It's fairly small compared to other colleges, but it is part of the student activities. Without going drinking, there are hundreds of other things to do on the weekends. Emerson is right in the middle of the Boston Theatre District, and there is a movie theatre right up the street. The Boston Public Library is within walking distance for those who like free movies every now and then, and the Boston Common is usually covered with students as soon as the weather improves, or in the dead of winter snow. Off campus, there is no limit to the possibilities. The T will take you anywhere you want/need to go.

There are lots of organizations that account for many different interests. The organizations can also be very helpful towards learning for students' careers, as well as fun. It's not difficult to start one, either. Students tend to be very friendly. It's easier to fall into a group of friends living in doubles or triples in the Little Building as opposed to suites in Piano Row. The college doesn't provide many interesting events or speakers, but there are a lot of good student performances. RA's are very strict and it is really difficult to drink on campus, and parties off-campus are usually inconveniently far away (a 25-minute T ride to Allston) and overcrowded. Boston is very much a 21+ city, so it can be hard to find things to do on weekends.

I was on the newspaper staff when I was a journalism major a couple years ago. It was a great experience because it helped show me that I did NOT want to be a journalist, and I still had plenty of time to switch majors. I left my dorm room open all the time when I lived on campus because I wanted to socialize. Emerson students are very social, even though some of them tend to emphasize image and the way they dress a lot. I met my closest friends either freshman year when I was on campus or when I went to the Kasteel Well program in The Netherlands last year. That is another thing I recommend to you--GO ABROAD. The Castle is one of the best experiences a college student could possibly ever have. I'm glad I went....I almost passed it up.

I am involved in an extracurricular activity called the "Emerson Review" which is a fiction/poetry/nonfiction literature book/mag that is annually published and backed-up by school funding, and it pretty popular on campus. A lot of students are involved with the SGA which is the governmental hierarchy our school has come up with, and there are a couple of sororities/fraternities, but they are not dromed together, it's more like a meeting/gathering of the students in them every once in a while. There is usually a "party" once a week, in select suites (at least in Piano row where I live) but they are very low-key where one or two suites get together to "drink beverages that have no alcholoh in them" and "behave properly towards each other." I don't go off campus much, but when I do it is to either go ice skating at Frog Pond, go walking in the commons, or lay out in the sun at the Public Gardens or the Esplanade, which is a stretch of park/dock before the Charles River.