Originally Posted by AelyaS

More electronic mishaps?? My first year hasn't even begun yet, and MUGSI/SOLAR have already turned me off of all electronic programs. I also hate the number 45 now.

And I dont think I could come early-ish. My first class is at 9:30, and I'm a commuter kid for now. So sleep>walking around campus. I'm just going to use the foggy memories of welcome day to aid me.

You're all going to hate me, because I won't let this thread die (I have questions still!), but Clubsfest occurs alongside/at Welcome Week, right? and does anyone have any idea about Titles job openings? I can't seem to find employment related links on the site.

I meant you should go to campus a few days early, before school starts, to check all the classrooms.

ClubsFest happens on September 8. Here is the MSU site for it:
http://www.msumcmaster.ca/calendar/allEvents.htm

As for Titles, I'm guessing all their job openings are filled for now. I think they hire a month or two in advance. They usually need people for the start of term rush, so your next best shot would be to apply for jobs that start in January. The applications will most likely be on the Titles homepage in November or December.

Originally Posted by AelyaS

More electronic mishaps?? My first year hasn't even begun yet, and MUGSI/SOLAR have already turned me off of all electronic programs. I also hate the number 45 now.

They changed the application again this year. Not sure why they got rid of ELM, it really sucked for a while because it couldn't handle the traffic and professor didn't know how to upload or couldn't upload because of ELM being so slow. But in the end it was working perfectly fine.

This year we have Avenue, so I expect it to be similar to last year's experience. But hopefully I'm wrong.

Originally Posted by AelyaS

and does anyone have any idea about Titles job openings? I can't seem to find employment related links on the site.

Titles applications for this Sept were due at the end of February last year. There are definitely job opportunities for first-years, but Titles isn't one of them

i thought classes dont start till te 13... yea they say 9th but what prof will do it then....?

Originally Posted by Zuchowski

i thought classes dont start till te 13... yea they say 9th but what prof will do it then....?

There are like 5 posts that tell you...

Originally Posted by Zuchowski

i thought classes dont start till te 13... yea they say 9th but what prof will do it then....?

If they say classes start on the 9th, why would they start on the 13th?
Depending on the prof, you might only go over the course outline in the first class (and find out when labs/tutorials start), or you could start actually learning stuff (as it says several times in the previous posts). Also, your first classes will occur between the 9th-15th, depending which days you have them.

Originally Posted by nerual

Titles applications for this Sept were due at the end of February last year. There are definitely job opportunities for first-years, but Titles isn't one of them

That's bogus :(

Hopefully MSU posts more job opportunities soon.

Also, apparently The Sil is a joke, which is kind of sad because I was considering writing for it.

Originally Posted by AelyaS

That's bogus :(

Hopefully MSU posts more job opportunities soon.

Also, apparently The Sil is a joke, which is kind of sad because I was considering writing for it.

Well, since the rush periods (especially in Sept) are full of first-years running around having no idea what they're looking for, it makes sense that they want people with some experience at how buying books at Titles actually works. You can apply for next year, though--they tend to like people going into 2nd/3rd year because that means they'll be around for longer than a year
(I have some experience with their hiring process, since I'll be working there in Sept )

Just because people say The Sil is a joke, doesn't mean you shouldn't try writing for it. You can help make it better If you enjoy it, what does it matter what everyone else thinks?
Also, it will look good on a resume

Originally Posted by AelyaS

Wow, thanks guys. This really helped.
... I was just thinking "Screw this, I'm asking Macinsiders"

haha, good choice We're always here to help!

My own answers to your questions, which were all very good by the way...

1) First off, your first week will be very relaxed. Remember, it's add/drop period so you'll be going to classes to try them out and see if you want to stay in those elective classes you picked. There's no tutorials or labs as mentioned. I also want to make sure to note that YOU DO NOT NEED TO PURCHASE TEXTBOOKS AHEAD OF TIME. DO NOT BUY THEM! Wait until after the first week before you buy any textbook so you know you're not looking to drop a course before buying the text. However, don't wait too long to buy your textbooks because you'll also want to get good USED textbooks from Titles before they sell out and you'll have to buy the 'New' ones which are usually 20-50 more than the used ones. Also note, you can buy used textbooks from many other places and save a LOT of money. Don't rush into your textbook buying since there's ways you can get used ones for much better prices

2) Honestly, bring a laptop and that's it (assuming you have one). You don't even need paper and pencil. A laptop gets you through everything at Mac. 99% of your courses will be online so you can download the course outlines and everything you need onto your laptop and save paper and carrying around clunky binders.

3) If you don't buy a macpass you're not going to be able to get into only a handful of events out of dozens of free events that you can attend without a macpass. I outline what you actually get with a macpass and what you can do without it here: http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...2.html?t=29542

4) Most have answered this, so thats great You buy from Titles. And yes, they are very overpriced.

Originally Posted by Chad

2) Honestly, bring a laptop and that's it (assuming you have one). You don't even need paper and pencil. A laptop gets you through everything at Mac. 99% of your courses will be online so you can download the course outlines and everything you need onto your laptop and save paper and carrying around clunky binders.

3) If you don't buy a macpass you're not going to be able to get into only a handful of events out of dozens of free events that you can attend without a macpass. I outline what you actually get with a macpass and what you can do without it here: http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...2.html?t=29542

So I'll bring my laptop on the first day of classes. Got it. I know some people who only use their computers for everything, which is something I could never do. I'm an avid note taker.

I always wondered about the Mac Passes. People make it sound as if you can ONLY attend Welcome Week with a pass. Thanks for the clarification. You're all life savers

Well thats how they promote the macpass by alluding to it being an 'all access' pass, which gets all the first years to buy it, but they don't tell anyone that most of the WW events, even some that are advertised on the FYEO website under macpass are actually free and don't need any pass at all. In other words, students that actually see what they are getting (by reading MacInsiders) might not buy the macpass once they see what they are actually getting out of it.

Originally Posted by Chad

Well thats how they promote the macpass by alluding to it being an 'all access' pass, which gets all the first years to buy it, but they don't tell anyone that most of the WW events, even some that are advertised on the FYEO website under macpass are actually free and don't need any pass at all. In other words, students that actually see what they are getting (by reading MacInsiders) might not buy the macpass once they see what they are actually getting out of it.

Thank you for posting this after I bought it.. 125 buys some nice jeans

Oh yeah I read somewhere they hired for the January rush but I bet it mostly cashiers from the September rush

Originally Posted by MacPack

Oh yeah I read somewhere they hired for the January rush but I bet it mostly cashiers from the September rush

Yeah, we were told that we're hired for the Sept rush, with the possibility of being asked back for the Jan rush depending on our job performance and how many people they need. So, they might hire if they don't have enough people returning from the Sept rush. I don't think it would be very likely, but this is my first year working there so I don't have any direct experience with how many people return for January.

Originally Posted by AelyaS

That's bogus :(

Hopefully MSU posts more job opportunities soon.

Also, apparently The Sil is a joke, which is kind of sad because I was considering writing for it.

I'm sure we don't want to hav another Sil bashing thread, so I'll keep this short.
If you want to write for The Sil, you should. I volunteered writing for a little while and it was fun. It looks good on your resume and you learn a lot! But I wouldn't suggest writing for The Sil if you plan on applying for a job after some volunteering. In my opinion, it'll be a waste of your time since they usually only hire their inner circle of friends to be on the paid staff. There is a lot of favouritism in that office.

Long story short: if you want to get some writing experience and learn how newspapers work, I definately suggest it! Just don't get your hopes up if you plan on applying for a job there.