

Ask HN: Getting Around University/College - Hard or Easy? - newyorker

As a freshman or recent transfer to your University, would say it was hard to find the classes/offices you needed?<p>Which university did you go to and what made it so difficult or simple and easy?<p>Any suggestions how to make the system better?
======
SHOwnsYou
I went to the University of Oklahoma.

It is very easy to find whatever you're looking for.

1) Explore campus a lot, even if you don't really have a purpose. There were
things that I was finding my third and fourth years. You will eventually learn
where all of the buildings are and the random class gifts and old meeting
places and anything else cool your campus may have.

2) People will be helpful. "Hey, you do you know where the engineering
building is?" You've found your answer.

3) My school had maps everywhere and online if all else failed.

My only complaint: Some of our buildings were too small for their original
purpose or got re-purposed for other reasons. They became a mishmash of
offices, class rooms, and every other function you can think of. If you were
looking for a building by type (say, engineering), it could be difficult,
because a few different buildings might all have overflow for that building.

------
byoung2
I went to the University of California, Los Angeles. I found it very easy to
navigate, but I had an advantage. As a Los Angeles native whose dad is also an
alum (UCLA Dental School '75), I spent much of my youth here. We always went
to basketball games at Pauley Pavillion, and since my middle/high school was
right down the street, UCLA was the closest library. It also didn't hurt that
Westwood was _the_ place to go see movies back in 7th/8th grade (usually
followed by all-night arcade free play at Ackerman Union).

But for people not that familiar with the campus, I guess it could be a little
confusing.

~~~
newyorker
would you say that as a newbie it is hard to find your way around from class
to class or to learn where all the 'scattered' administrative offices are?

also, were the building and classroom # coded normally or arbitrarily? that
can be frustrating, i know from my university, they labeled the building with
random letters - who knows how the freshman understand it!

~~~
byoung2
The numbering of the classrooms within a building seemed random. For example,
Royce 162 is next door to Royce 190. 163-189 don't exist. These rooms were
pretty small, so it is unlikely that they would be split into 30 smaller
classrooms. Similar story with the 3 massive lecture halls in the chemistry
building (Young Hall, but not named after me): CS24, CS50, and CS76. Why
weren't these named CS1, CS2, and CS3? But that confusion only lasts a day or
two.

~~~
newyorker
That's confusing, but like you said its probably minimal.

By me, on the course schedule they listed your courses and class numbers. I.e.
2304A, where A represents Whitehead building. How are you supposed to know
that?!

The building codes for the most part make sense, but some don't. The classes
make sense.

------
tgrass
The primary function of the university is to enervate the optimism of youth.
Education is a secondary goal. Learning to navigate an insufferably confusing
bureaucracy with grace and determination is thus the whole point of college.
How else would we train the bulk of our citizenry to quietly endure forty
hours a week in front of a computer screen?

