Also by Lillian Nagengast
Every school has those traditions that are basically nonsense. Everyone has to do a lap around the mascot statue after every home baseball game win? Oh, OK; sounds sane. Boston College, however, rocks some of the strangest of them all. Take a look at the top 13 little quirks that are part of every Eagle’s life.
1. Refusing to Use the Trays in the Dining Halls
BC students physically can’t use a tray, end of story–unless you want to look like an alien or an unusually clueless freshman. During orientation, the group leaders even tell the freshmen to ditch the tray. Sure, they would make balancing plates, cups and silverware a million times easier, but BC students absolutely shun the concept.
2. Standing at Hockey Games
Standing at football games seems strange, but it’s kind of the norm for most colleges. BC students protest bleachers even more and make everyone get off their butts at the hockey games, too. If you’re caught sitting, you’ll probably hear spirited (bitter) yelling until you stand.
3. Gasson Grams
If a student graduates from BC without posting a Gasson-gram, did she really attend BC at all? BC students prance across the Quad on a sunny day to stare at Gasson’s beautifully glistening white façade while listening to its bells chime perfectly off-schedule. The rich Gothic architecture makes Gasson Hall more photogenic than most of our beautiful student body, best shown by daily Instagrams of Gasson Hall with captions about how #blessed we are to attend this prestigious university.
4. Retreats on Retreats
BC students go on retreats for everything. Retreats for volunteer groups, for clubs, for religion, to “find yourself.” They’re basically a small group of students shipping off to the Cape or New Hampshire for a weekend, but if you don’t make the trip within your four years, you’ll probably feel like you need some soul-searching.
5. Not Dating Each Other
The hook-up culture at Boston College is one of the most loved/hated aspects amongst Eagles. One night you’re hooking up at the Mods, the next morning you’re giving each other the “BC Look Away” on campus. BC relationships are rare, and with the city of Boston at our fingertips, BC students visit other colleges to spread the hook-up ways and share our love for cohabitation.
6. Holding the Door
Students at BC are generally pretty chivalrous, but their door-holding practices go beyond the realm of politeness and into the land of annoying. BC students will hold a door when people are still across the room and cruelly force an awkward jog and a halfhearted “Thank you.” Maybe that’s why we’re so fit.
7. The Maloney Express Elevator
It isn’t really an express elevator, but people act like it is. The Maloney elevator is the best way to get from lower to middle campus, if you’re not about that stair-climbing life. Everyone knows that it should only be used to go from the first floor to the fourth, or the fourth to the first. If you stop at two or three, you’ll receive an abundance of death glares that scream, “ever heard of stairs?”
8. Dorm Parties
Since Boston College lacks Greek life, we turn to places besides KA houses for frat-like parties. The desire for Project-X ragers is satisfied by the occasional off campus shindig, but those almost always get broken up by the police before midnight. So the most common form of partying at BC is packing in the dorms on Friday and Saturday nights. Students come up with clever themes like “Workout Bros and Yoga Hoes,” create Facebook events and invite their entire friends lists. Clear out the tiny beds, power up accent Christmas lights or strobes and you’re ready to go.
9. Saturday Football, Sunday Mass
Boston College students love attending a Jesuit Catholic university. We may not all be Catholic, but mass is always packed on Sunday. “Work hard, pray hard” is the motto at BC. Drinking and tailgating on Shea Field has made football Saturdays the tradition they are today, but students still find plenty of time for (hungover) mass the next morning.
10. Wanting to live in temporary housing
The most coveted housing on campus was actually originally designed as temporary housing. The Mods are actually kind of disgusting, and the BC administration has plotted their demise for years. But thanks to the effort of current students and dedicated alumni, these weird housing units have remained; the run-down buildings are even the first to get picked.
11. Freshman housing fights
Housing itself isn’t the average college living situation at BC, and the arguments that arise over choosing a dorm continue well into senior year. The debate over Newton’s sense of community versus Upper’s convenience has yet to be resolved.
12. Getting turned down from community service
The abundance of community service groups at BC are oddly competitive, and most require an application. And the biggest twist, it’s very common to get turned down from almost every service group. How do you get rejected from volunteering? Either every single Eagle applies, or we just already have a perfect community *hair flip*.
13. Complaining about GPAs
BC students love to savor how difficult Boston College is, so students are always boasting about the intellectual, meaningful conversations they’ve had with students and faculty at the Chocolate Bar…Then we blame our poor GPA’s on the difficulty of the school because, unlike Harvard, we don’t have grade inflation.
There’s more to BC students than just football and boat shoes. We all come from different backgrounds and have different stories, but when it comes down to it, Eagles have a lot in common. Our collective love of Gasson Hall, retreats and dorm parties creates the very thing we Eagles love the most: Boston College.
