I have the ugliest room, freshman Dawn Taylor said. The curtains are Chartreuse, the walls are a different, uglier greenI don’t think Crayola makes colors that ugly. I’m going to have to get a lot of posters for my walls.

The18-year-old from Burbank said there are a few comforts from home that could not be packed up for her life at the University.

If I could, I would take all of downtown Chicago with me, Taylor said. And I will really miss my 2-year-old sistershe thinks I’m leaving her.

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Nick Jones, an incoming freshman, said the thing he will probably miss most while at SIUC is his car.

My car will have to stay at home, Jones said. I bought a junker car just to drive down to Carbondale, and it broke down on the way here.

Jones said he had not met his roommate yet, but had talked to him on the phone earlier in the week.

I don’t think we’ll have any problems, he said. He seems pretty cool.

Head resident Keith McMath, who supervises student resident assistants in the Thompson Point dorms, said incoming freshmen will have to overcome the initial stage of adjustment to feel comfortable living away from home.

It’s not so much being away from mom and dad, but more like I’m here by myself’, McMath said. Everyone has this belief that it is a big jump from high school to college, but it’s just a transitional step that includes time management and finding your priorities.

Freshmen will have a lot of exposure to free time, he said. In high school, it was 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. nonstop, but in college you can take classes from 8-11 and be done for the rest of the day.

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McMath said the campus offers freshmen safety and wellness lectures that play a big part in helping students get acquainted with others as well as the University.

We provide sports, career opportunities and a chance to learn about a student’s inner character, McMath said. They need to develop a routine and get to know people. That way homesickness does not become a problem.

Our concern is for the people who don’t fit in right away, and those are the ones we watch out for so we can help them fit in.