Visit MSU!

Last Friday, the 29th, was the second of three MSU Fridays we have throughout the year. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a huge day of events centered around helping prospective students learn everything they want to know about MSU. There are sample classes, tours of campus and the residence halls, info sessions on things like study abroad , financial aid, and the Honors program, to name a few. You can see one of our physics professors, Jeff Adams, doing a demo during a physics sample class on the right.

Last Friday we had a good turnout, between 600 and 700 people I believe. There is still one more MSU Friday on March 12th and you can register on our website and learn all about it at http://www.montana.edu/admissions/msufriday.shtml.

One thing I noticed during the Phone-A-Thon was that a lot of people haven't come to visit MSU/Bozeman yet. I would strongly recommend doing so, especially if you're a little iffy on whether you want to come here or go elsewhere. I know that as soon as I visited, my mind was made up that I was coming here. You don't have to go to MSU Friday, either; you can schedule a visit any time and we offer regular campus tours twice every weekday. So come visit! You're sure to have a good time.

Study Abroad!

Something MSU advertises a lot but still doesn't get as much attention as it should is their Study Abroad program. You may have heard the statistics: over 200 programs in about 50 countries around the world.

I have heard study abroad-related presentations countless times both before I came to MSU and while I have been a student here, but it wasn't until recently that I started to seriously consider it. It takes a certain amount of bravery to completely move to a foreign country for almost half of a year, and sometimes for a whole year. Then there is the whole question of how expensive it will be, and the social factor. I'll be honest: after making a lot of friends during my freshman year, I was not about to leave for a whole semester so soon. The prospect of having my own house off campus with my friends was too exciting for me.

This year, when faced with the prospect of studying abroad again, more excuses arose. I'm going to be a junior next year; won't it be hard to take classes relating to my major without getting behind? And the money...always the money.

But now I'm serious. This fall I heard about a six-week summer program in Costa Rica and decided it was the very least I could do to immerse myself in a Spanish-speaking country. My plan was to go to Costa Rica for the first part of the summer and then take summer school for the second summer session. Then, this week in my Spanish 102 class, a representative from the Study Abroad office came to talk to us; she was a senior who had spent a year in England. I realized that going to Costa Rica for a measly six weeks was not the real deal. Besides, going for only six weeks would almost be as expensive as going somewhere for a whole semester—a lot of the programs cost exactly the same as MSU tuition, and scholarships still apply. Furthermore, for out of state students, they could be cheaper than attending MSU for a semester.

On Thursday, I attended a Study Abroad info session and now I have an appointment with the Study Abroad advisor on Monday. I'm really excited now; I went to Ecuador with my family over the summer and I loved it, and I really want to go somewhere in South America, hopefully Chile. My newly revised plan is to attend both sessions of summer school and get somewhat ahead that way (and hopefully improve my Spanish proficiency), and then not worry about what credits will apply to my major when I'm actually studying abroad, because it's more about the experience, and the grades are pass/fail. Furthermore, I would still be back in Bozeman just in time for the ski season! Could it get any better? Probably not...

Anyway, I would highly recommend looking into the study abroad programs when you are a freshman and plan on going as a sophomore, because I have heard that many people come back and want to go somewhere else, which gets less and less plausible the further they are in school.

If you're interested, check out MSU's study abroad website: http://www.montana.edu/international/studyabroad/.

Have a good weekend!

Advocats!

It's been a while since I posted — I guess I've had writer's block of sorts. The past couple of weeks my life has consisted mainly of snowboarding, work, and now school...and I have a feeling it's going to stay that way for most of the semester.

But, I decided to tell you about AdvoCats, which is basically the reason I write this blog. AdvoCats is a group of students who work with the Office of Admissions and give campus tours, among other things. We have class once a week for about an hour, in which we learn a lot of cool things about MSU and organize our upcoming events and activities. Anybody can join, although there is an application process. I have really enjoyed being an AdvoCat this year and will probably continue to be one in years to come. The next thing we will be doing is a Phone-A-Thon, in which we will call people who have expressed interest in MSU and answer any questions they may have. So in the next couple weeks, you might get a seemingly random phone call from an MSU student if you have applied to MSU. I remember getting one of these calls as a senior and not knowing what to say, so I'm interested to see how it goes when I'm the person making the call.

As I briefly mentioned, being an AdvoCat has given me the opportunity to write this blog; there are other jobs available in relation to the Office of Admissions that AdvoCats hear about first. So if you like being involved in your school, this is a great way to do it!

Moonlight Basin!

Today was $20 day at Moonlight Basin, and I had never been there so I decided to go up with a friend. We elected to take the bus which picks up from the Strand Union Building (SUB) on campus as well as the mall, and drops off at Big Sky and Moonlight. This was the first time I had ridden the bus, and I really liked it. The stress of driving was removed and I got to listen to music and attempt to sleep. The Skyline Bus (Your link to the peak!) runs multiple times a day, every day, and it's free. I'm going to start taking it more often. The only downside was waking up at 7:00 AM to catch the 8:10 bus from the mall, but it allowed me to get a longer day of snowboarding in than usual, which was nice.

It was a really good day for snowboarding, and I had a blast. Moonlight is a really cool mountain, located on the backside of Big Sky and lesser known than its neighbor. Because of its name and the fact that its slopes have mostly northern exposure, I always assumed it didn't get much sunlight. This is false. It was a sunny day and the lower half of the mountain was sunny all day, which was awesome (I'm hoping to develop a goggle tan early in the season). Moonlight's most used chair is the Six Shooter, which seats six people per chair and goes fast, as its name suggests. There was still a lot of powder to be had from all of the snow we got earlier this week, and I had a great day. Moonlight is actually the best deal around at just $495 for a college season pass—cheaper if you buy it preseason. I think I'm getting my season pass there next year; they may or may not stay open in later years because of financial issues.

The above pictures were obtained from Moonlight's website, http://www.moonlightbasin.com/.

I've been back in Bozeman since Monday afternoon and the week has flown by! I can't believe the semester starts on Wednesday...