Excited for the school year, students move ‘smoothly’ onto the Boston campus
The campus is bustling with activity as students unpack boxes and socialize with friends.
Moving into her room in East Village, California native and first-year Northeastern University student Elsey Ruane said she is excited about what her freshman year of college will bring.
She said the move-in was seamless, and she has already developed friendly relationships with her two roommates.
“Everything went pretty smoothly,” she said. “I feel like everyone is here to help and everyone’s happy and excited for people to be here.”
“I’m from a really small town, and that made Boston seem really fun because it’s really different and it’s a really big city,” she says.
The support on campus was tremendous, she said.
Ruane was one of thousands of students moving onto campus this week to kick off the start of the academic year. The campus was bustling with activity as students prepared for classes and socialized with friends — new and old — after a long summer.
One of the major reasons Ruane decided to study at Northeastern is its Explore Program, which is designed for undecided students looking to learn about different majors and subjects of interest.
“I feel like it would have been easy for a university to just lump me in and tell me to figure it out,” she said. Explore “feels like a very supportive program. I can lean on specific support staff to figure things out, which I love.”
Madison Oxnard and Giuliana Nazznaro, both first-year students and new suitemates in East Village, came into the school year feeling prepared. Coincidentally, they met each other while at freshman orientation over the summer.
That made the process of getting to know each other much easier. They were also glad for the move-in support this week.
“Everybody was really efficient and very nice about getting our stuff in pretty fast, so it was very comfortable,” said Oxnard.
They are excited to participate in the Explore Boston Living Learning Community group as well.
“I chose that one because I really like the city,” Nazznaro said. “I live close to the city, but I wanted to be able to explore it more and thought the LLC would be a great opportunity to do that with new people.”
She’s particularly excited to visit Faneuil Hall and Haymarket with the group.
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Shane Jasco, a second-year student, picked up some tips from moving in last year.
One of the first things is not to stress, Jasco said. Northeastern’s move-in team does a lot of the heavy lifting — literally.
He also made sure to pack fewer items this time around.
“There was a lot less stuff that my mom bought for me last year that I don’t need,” he said. “This year, we were much smarter about bringing stuff that I was actually going to use.”
Alexa Elliot, a second-year student, implemented the same strategy as she moved into The Fairwoods at 337 Huntington Ave.
“I brought fewer clothes and also rented a storage unit so I could bring all my stuff pretty easily,” she said, noting that she received numerous emails from the university over the summer to keep her updated for moving day.
Elliot, who is a pharmacy major, added that she is excited to live with a few of her roommates from last year.
As a third-year student, move-in day is old hat for Thomas Mourier, but it’s his first time back on campus after a six-month co-op at Raytheon.
“It’s good to be back,” he said. “We’ll see how the adjustment goes because I haven’t been back to Northeastern for close to a year now.”
He’s excited about his living arrangement for the year. He is staying in an apartment-style dorm in East Village and is sharing a common room with two other suitemates. Move-in this year was a breeze, he said.
He is friends with his suitemates, he says, and ready to see how the living situation will play out.
“I still think it will be a great experience, and I’m really happy about that,” he said.