Buckeye blunders: 18 tales from freshman year
Alumni answered our call to share their most memorable first-year missteps. Some stories are funny; some are a little cringe-worthy—in the best ways.
Let’s be honest, freshman year could feel like a wild ride. We had to live with strangers, make new friends, navigate a giant new place, do the work, and prove we could handle independence. So many changes came so fast, it made fertile ground for freshman foibles. My biggest? It involved a bottle of tequila and a bet. I’ll leave it at that. But surprise: Almost no Buckeyes sent in alcohol-tainted stories to answer this question. So, to those who did share their embarrassing moments—just know, most of you showed better judgment than I did.
“When I was on campus for orientation, my roommate and I couldn‘t find our way from the Oval to the Ohio Union to get our BuckIDs made. We wandered campus in the rain for genuinely 45 minutes. We still laugh to this day about how we were so close and still so hopelessly lost.”
— Kylee Smith ’17, ’22 MFA
“I was in a psychology class when the instructor asked a question and I raised my hand. When he called on me, I stood up and answered. He asked if he could talk with me after class, which I did. He said to me, ‘You attended a Catholic girls high school, didn’t you?’ I replied, ‘Yes.’ He told me that from now on, I could raise my hand but I did not need to stand.”
— Mary Jo Weisenburger ’63
“Walking along the Penn Central/NYC railroad tracks with a friend to get to my first day of class in October 1969, we were chased off the tracks by a railroad authority—but I still made it to class!”
— Jeffrey Franklin ’73
“Walking across the Oval at noon on my first Wednesday in Columbus, when the weekly tornado sirens started blaring. I tried to find the nearest basement!”
— Debbie Melser ’86
“Slipping down the stairs at Papa Joe’s”
“My first winter quarter, I had a 7:30 a.m. physics lab. Pretty early in the quarter, I was coming back from the lab on a particularly snowy morning, and as I was waiting to cross the street, a bus ran through a huge puddle of slush and completely soaked me! I saw the wave coming in slow motion and couldn’t do anything besides brace for it. My roommates wondered why I came back to shower so early.”
— Josh Bodner ’13, ’15 MS
“I was a Freshman at ATI in fall 2012. Week 3 of class, I went to my 8 a.m. class and then came back to my dorm. I realized I had forgotten my keys and the front and back doors were locked. My roommates were all in class. I wanted to eat and go back to sleep, so I removed the window screen with a neighbor and jumped in through the first floor window. It was comical!”
— Rebekah Salyers ’16
“After a quarter break, we were driving back to Columbus. It was evening. Coming upon a car, we decided to ‘moon’ the passengers. Unfortunately, the car contained a state of Ohio representative taking his daughter back for the next quarter. He did not think it was funny. The following Monday, we were in the dean’s office for a tongue lashing and six weeks of shrink evaluation.”
— Vic Gallese ’71
“Made the mistake of taking a class at 7:30 a.m. Expected the first day we would just get the syllabus and call it a day. The prof ended up giving a full lecture. I nodded off and when I woke up, the room was empty and the lights were off.”
— Brandon King ’09
“Completely freezing during my first midterm. This straight-A student got his first D. Quite humbling.”
— Ethan Brewer ’12
“Freshman year, 1987. I was living with my brother in a house on North Neil Avenue. I stayed up all night studying for my first midterm. It was in a technical drawing course. Next thing I knew, my brother was waking me up. I looked at my watch … I had slept through my first midterm! I totally wigged. I ran to see my professor and, God bless him, he let me take it in his office.”
— Bradley Barborak ’92
“In my first week of living in Lincoln, I was trying to find the C store in Morrill. I misunderstood the directions given by the person at the desk and somehow ended up in the basement instead. There, I found that the door to the stairs was locked, and the elevator needed access that my ID didn’t have. I had to call my roommates to come and let me out!”
— Megan Banks ’23
“I was one of the last people to walk into orientation. As soon as I sat down, the chair collapsed (in a loud way!) and I was flat on the ground with dozens of eyes on me. Good news is everything went up from there the next four years as a Buckeye!”
— Aubrey Mckee ’20
“It took me about two quarters (we weren’t on semesters back in the ‘90s) and lots of missed classes (failing grades) before I made the conscious decision to never schedule a class before noon. I ended up taking a lot of evening classes (and passed) the rest of my college career.”
— Erin Gerace ’01
“Walking around campus with the paper campus map UPSIDE DOWN, and having someone grab it, turn it the right way up and stuff it back in my hands!”
— Neeraj Saraf ’92
“I was living in West Baker Hall with two classmates from my high school, John Marshall in Cleveland. Homecoming weekend was nuts—people screaming, young women shrieking in the darkness, and someone playing old [1940s] speeches from one of the dorms nearby. I went out with my accordion and began serenading the girls dorm. A lot of other guys joined in. The women thought it was very sweet.”
— John Waldorf ’74, ’79 MBA
“In February 1972 the draft lottery to determine the order of those that would be drafted in 1973 occurred. Yes, it is the only lottery that I ever won (?), as my birthday of March 6th put me first in line to be drafted. Fortunately, no one was drafted in 1973, and I dodged a bullet.”
— Christopher Wilson ’75, ’77 MBA
“For a botany class project, we were given a soybean seed and a container of soil to grow the plant and write a report on its progress. A few weeks went by and my pot was barren. Having an ag background, they kidded me endlessly about not knowing how to grow a plant. Turns out, they had switched the containers. They showed me my beautiful plant and also gave me a report to turn in.”
— Richard Stentz ’65
