Senior Multimedia Editor Jared Adelman follows four freshmen from their first day on campus until their first week of classes, tracking their thoughts and feelings during Bear Beginnings. And We’re Back is a two-part series, with this second episode containing conversations one week into classes.

Senior Multimedia Editor Jared Adelman follows four freshmen from their first day on campus until their first week of classes, tracking their thoughts and feelings during Bear Beginnings.

As new students arrive at Washington University for the first time this Thursday, they will be greeted by spacious dorm rooms, Tempur-Pedic mattresses and most importantly, a themed dorm floor. Each Residential College’s residential advisers are in charge of creating and executing the themes. While not all of the floors had finished putting up decorations as of the writing of this article, Student Life picked five of the best we found.

As you unpack your lives into tiny dorm rooms, your closets quickly overflow with what everyone told you were college staples: chunky sweaters and warm leggings. However, upon arrival, you […]

I carry my bags to my new home at Wash. U., set up my room, pack away my clothing and casually throw my depressingly empty bags above my closet. I hug my mother and say goodbye to her in a suitably emotional fashion that doesn’t reveal my excitement at her departure. As I lay on my bed I think about college life, and what is store for the next four years.

Wash. U. backed out of a partnered event with Target Corp. after the retail powerhouse received heat for a donation it made to an organization backing a Minnesota gubernatorial candidate with a history of staunch opposition to gay rights.

During those occasional, but not uncommon, moments when I find myself seeking perhaps a bit more attention than is due to me at the moment, I know exactly how to effortlessly reorient the room’s spotlight.

Move-in day felt a little strange. This was partly because I was disoriented from the 18-hour drive, and partly because my move-in day wasn’t the official move-in day.