My fellow fresh-eyed Demons: the next few weeks will be the craziest moments of your young lives.

By now you have already experienced Move-In Day, Color Chaos and your first week of classes, and I hope you have mentally prepared yourself to get through those long seminars for UNIV 1000.

As I mentally prepare myself to find textbooks for as cheap as possible, I figured I could give you some tips and cheat codes to get you through your first official set of Demon Days, the first 42.

First thing all freshman need to know is that there are lots of ways to get free stuff on campus. I’m sure you have heard the phrase “free is a college student’s favorite word.”

The Student Government Association office, located on first floor of the Friedman Student Union, and Watson Memorial Library give away free scantrons.

You can get free t-shirts and NSU-related prizes by just showing up to events. The number of free shirts I got my freshman and sophomore year is so insane that I have a full drawer in my dresser just for purple NSU shirts.

Go to the Demon Days events! You meet lots of different people, mostly freshmen like yourselves, and get free stuff like prizes and food.

Next thing to know, my young Demons is your way around classes. The custodians know the buildings better than anyone on campus, so ask them for directions.

I will be honest with you, I don’t know much about IncludED because I opted out of it. I do know, however, about two little websites called Amazon and Chegg that offer access codes for textbooks. Most professors let you use your laptop in class, so not only are you getting your books for cheap, you also don’t have to carry that big textbook around all day.

Speaking of professors, introduce yourself to them. Most of them are nice and really want to help you succeed. I’m still bugging my freshman year COMM 1010 professor (shout out to Elaine Eaton).

Professors have office hours posted on Moodle, and I suggest taking advantage of them as much as possible. It’s not a big deal asking for help.

Now that I’m mentioning help, talk to your advisors! Do not, I repeat, do not schedule your own classes because you will screw yourself up.

Sure, talking to your parents and other students is helpful (it’s how you get the easy professors). Scheduling classes by yourself will put you behind, and you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Last thing to know about classes is to not schedule them all at one time. Taking classes 15 minutes apart is super tiring, and it doesn’t matter if you bought a ham sandwich from Vic’s because you won’t have time to eat it. Trust me on this one.

Here are some other cheat codes I learned during my Demon Days:

• Vic’s is slow around 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 6-7 p.m. The Café is slow in the mornings between 8-9 a.m. and just before dinner.
• There are computer labs on every floor of Kyser and one in the Student Union, so don’t walk across campus to the library.
• The elevator is slow in every buildings. Just take the stairs.
• Maggio’s signature pose is the Fork’em, so you never have to ask what to do when taking a photo.

New Demons, I hope you have a great first semester and never have any roommate problems. Enjoy your newfound freedom and experience college to the best of your ability.

In the words of President Dr. Maggio himself, “Fork’em Demons!.”