Dude, That’s Rude: Prefrosh

It’s that time of year again—Visitas. It's impossible to miss, with the aggressive emails asking current students to host and the swarms of prefrosh in nametags around campus. A note to the upperclassmen: we all remember the awkward struggle that was Visitas, so cut these prefrosh a little slack—Harvard can be a scary place.

And to the prefrosh: there are a few things that just don’t fly with us, and we’d rather you know what not to do. Watch out for these Visitas mishaps and you should have a relatively pain-free revisit experience.

Travelling in Packs So Large That No One Can Pass

We see you coming from a mile away with your bright red drawstrings, lanyards, and slightly terrified smiles. If you see us coming—look out for jaded, hung-over people rushing to the library—please form a single file line to pass. The paths in the Yard are wide enough for both of us if you don’t travel in six-person-wide lines.

Crowding the Dining Halls

It will be literally impossible for freshmen to go to Annenberg this weekend without waiting a half an hour for food. We get it, being a prefrosh is hungry work and learning the ins and outs of the Berg's social life is a key skill. But please, don’t stroll around checking out the food options for ten minutes; there’s nothing that great, we promise.

By Jennifer Y Yao

Getting Too Drunk/Rowdy at Your First College Party

We’ve all experienced the excitement that comes from your first college party. Your parents aren’t around (we hope—see next point), the world of alcohol is new and exciting, and it’s time to prove to yourself that you will be more fun in college than you were in high school. But we beg you: don’t overdo it on the alcohol, or the fun for that matter. There are plenty more opportunities in your future for bad decision-making.

Judgmental Prefrosh Parents

There’s nothing worse than taking out the trash—we’re talking over 100 beer cans—from the night before and seeing prefrosh parents staring at you in judgment. We understand the judgmental looks: You are afraid to let your star student go into the world of PBR. But please cut us some slack, we promise that we have our life together. Also, don’t sit down next to us in Berg when we’re trying to work and start grilling us about the academic rigor of Harvard. Take our word for it when we say that this is a hard place.

Keep these few tips in mind and we can safely say that you won’t make any upperclassmen enemies before you arrive in fall. But if you pull any of these moves, don’t be surprised if we say: dude, that’s rude.