1) Read this first: Welcome to the New Student Guide

Don’t throw this guide away when you’re done reading it.

Seriously, hang onto it for… Don’t throw this guide away when you’re done reading it.

Seriously, hang onto it for your first semester at Pitt. The New Student Guide is 76 pages long, and there is no way on Earth anyone would ever expect you to glean all that information at once, let alone when you’re most likely so busy registering and testing and going crazy to begin with.

We put this together every year for students that are new to Pitt (hence the name), and it may very well be the most comprehensive guide to Pitt and Pittsburgh anyone could ask for. But then again, I’m biased.

Speaking of me, let me introduce myself. I’m Greg Heller-LaBelle, Editor in Chief of The Pitt News (as you can tell from the picture) and, on behalf of our paper, let me be the first (okay, 436th) person to welcome you to Pitt. I hope, by the end of your time here, it’s been as good to you as it has to me.

Whether Pitt was the only place you applied, your ‘reach school’ or your last-choice ‘safety school,’ the New Student Guide is designed to help you make Pitt and Pittsburgh huge parts of the best time of your life. We put in everything that we think anyone who’s about to become a Pittsburgher should know, and anything that we think a native ‘Burgher about to become a Pitt student should know.

And we try not to stop with this issue.

Let me introduce you to The Pitt News, Pitt’s independent, student-run daily paper and — with a circulation of 14,000 and a readership of more than 30,000 — the second-largest daily in the city of Pittsburgh. We’ve been around since 1906 and we are here primarily for you. We try to be your source for information about all things Pitt — good and bad — while at the same time providing an enjoyable read.

Our paper is split into four editorial sections: News, Arts and Entertainment (A’amp;E), Opinions, and Sports. Our New Student Guide is split up roughly according to those sections as well, in order to better help you find and read those pieces which most interest you and skip the stuff you know or don’t care about.

If you have questions, concerns, problems or compliments about this issue or any of the 151 others that we put out during the course of the year, let me know.

Seriously. Send an email to editor@pittnews.com and say ‘Greg, that column was unhelpful and stupid’ or ‘Greg, I really liked that story on zebras’ or ‘Greg, you missed a comma on page 36.’ We’re always looking for input, and you are the audience. Let us know how we can do better.

And we want you.

Everyone who’s ever joined a student group will advise you to do the same, and it’s my entirely subjective viewpoint that your student newspaper is a great place to start. You can get paid to do something you like, from photography to business to writing, and you can learn an incredible amount about the school you’re attending.

Now that the shameless-plug portion of the program is over, we’ll move onto to the ‘free and unsolicited advice’ segment, in which I’ll limit myself to three pearls of wisdom:

Don’t feel like you need to have it figured out. College is a place to find out who you are and where your strengths lie. Take the classes that sound good to you; you may find your niche unexpectedly.

Remember why you’re here. Some classes are good, some are awful. All require some amount of attention from you. And if you don’t give them that, they can really get in the way of your ability to enjoy yourself. On your taxes, under ‘occupation,’ you write ‘student.’ It’s your job, so do it before you move onto playtime.

Open your dorm room door. People are what it’s about; they’re all that you’ll care about in the long run. Opening the door to your hall is a small thing, but it makes all the difference in the world. And if someone has their door open, poke your head in to say hi. You may just stumble onto a friend for life.

That’s it for now. Enjoy yourselves, class of 2007, and welcome to the giant family that is our University. I hope that this guide and our newspaper can play some small role in making the experience every bit as rewarding for you as it has been for me.