Etiquette at College 

CHAPTER III A HOME AT COLLEGE
The student who lives outside the college or school has a chance to select a room from what the neighborhood offers. There are points to remember:
It should be as convenient to the campus as is possible.
It will be more pleasant and healthful if it provides good ventilation and sunlight.
Arrangements may be made with the family concerning meal-times, bath schedules, proper heat in winter, and living-room privileges. Especially for a girl rooming in town, it is necessary to be sure of a suitable place in which to entertain callers.
Do not engage a place permanently before you try it.
Most colleges have a special bureau to recommend rooming houses that have been inspected and approved, and these lists are kept up-to-date from reports of students. In a town of any size it is not well to risk taking a room that has not been approved by the college, by the Y room registration bureau or by responsible friends. Health conditions and the social standing of the people renting rooms are not always evident on the surface.
In a dormitory, rooms are assigned to new students. The college room may be small or large. It may be simply four walls like a cabin, or a suite of bedroom, living room and bath, beautifully furnished.
A roommate is the rule, although in some advanced schools students room alone.

THE COLLEGE ROOM
Styles in college room decorations have changed remarkably, and it is never wise to say what is being done. Fish nets, pretty girl heads, snowshoes, beer steins, posters, dusty tea sets, wire racks of photographs, felt banners, leather pillows, water-colors, Japanese prints, tapestries, armor, swords, zithers, accordions and radios are mingled in most dreams of college rooms.
As a rule, the less there is to dust, the better the college room looks, for it is a place in which one has to sleep, study, play and eat (occasionally).
There are recognized courtesies of dividing storage space and furniture with one's roommate. 
If one has a better bed or better place for it than the other, the roommates may agree to "swap" at regular intervals, or arrange so that the less favored one has some other advantage to make up for it. Closet room is apportioned, and drawer space. It is a good idea never to use a drawer in common except for possessions that are common property, like dishes for spreads, a pressing iron, extra linen, curtains and bedding.
When there is a study table and a desk as well, one takes the table and the other the desk, especially if they are not large enough for two to use without conflict. Even chairs are apt to become "thine and mine".
If ornaments and draperies seem to clash, the roommate is quick to take a cue suggests putting away his or her inharmonious things. Perhaps they can be brought out later in the year for a change.

STARTING RIGHT
Cheerfulness, but reserve, is the keynote in getting along with a stranger.
One may admire new possessions of another, but it is good taste to wait until they are offered for inspection. Clothing, pictures, and family matters are personal and should be respected.
A roommate with foresight never begins reading letters to a companion. It is a habit that, besides being rather common, rapidly becomes inconvenient and embarrassing. No matter how well each knows the other's friends and family, a few pleasant words will give the news that concerns them. The only exception is that of a letter which has an impersonal flavor and a very clever literary quality, such as some write on special occasions, and which one knows was intended to be shown as a work of art to any who might be interested.
Mention of personal matters affecting only oneself, money worries, longing for clothes and opinions of people both know, are too cheap for dignified conversation, especially to comparative strangers. Confidences one regards so lightly are as lightly respected by acquaintances.
A student may expect as much reserve from a roommate as he himself shows, and should his friend seem to tell too much, it is kindness to let him feel that though his confidence is respected, it ought to be kept from going farther.
Automatically, roommates get to know each other well, even if they never become real friends; and there is an unwritten law of loyalty that forbids talking to others about one's roommate.
Familiarity has no place in the college room, as it lowers the standing of students who are lacking in dignity, to say nothing of decency. Unnecessary caresses, slapping on the back, pushing, pulling, and tussling, are marks of those socially ill at ease. They seldom are judged "fresh", but do not know what to do with their hands and feet---an awkwardness left over from juvenile days.
Occasionally there is an embarrassing member in a dormitory who is inclined to go about too lightly clad. People of refinement instinctively keep from intruding on the sight of others when disrobed, for it is as vulgar to be be too careless as it is to be simpering and prudish.
It is easier to resolve not to borrow, than it is not to lend. Borrowing is common except in groups which have made their own laws against it.
A girl boasting of her successful year in university was insisting that all one needed was a good suit and an evening dress.
"But what about afternoon parties, and field trips and picnics and blizzards?" demanded her listeners. 
"Oh, the girls always fixed me out!" she said easily. 
Common sense will settle questions of emergency, but to borrow much is thought to reflect on the ability of one's parents or guardian to provide necessities, or upon one's own lack of management and foresight.
Some who have a petty desire to put others under obligation and feel superior themselves, purposely insist on lending things, and then advertise their own generosity, especially to people above them socially and to the opposite sex.
It is a mark of the "climber" and of those who use their resources to buy their way in. Often they do not mean to be anything but ambitious, but are lacking in a sense of values.

DORMITORY REGULATIONS
Rules are not so strenuous as they used to be. Practically all regulations of a modern dormitory are not for "discipline" but for the convenience of a large number living under the same roof.
Rising hour, meal-times, study hours, and recreation are made uniform. Bath schedules may be added if the rooms have not private baths. There are fire-drills. There are rules about the use of parlors, and the doors are locked at a certain time in the evening except to those having special permissions. But the life is that of a well-conducted home.
Modern colleges have Student Government, and students make and enforce the laws. Student Council often prints a booklet of the rules, and schedules are posted in the halls and rooms. Juniors and Seniors are always willing to answer questions of new students.
Sometimes it is well not to be conspicuous in inquiries. For instance, a freshman who asks if she may use her electric chafing-dish, toaster and pressing-iron, may be conscientious enough to refrain if such devices are forbidden. Yet her possessions will be remembered, and if a fuse burns out in her vicinity, she will be the first one questioned.
For new students, the best form is to make sure to avoid friction of any kind with students or faculty. A reputation for reserve, good manners and dependability can become so fixed in a few weeks that it smooths the way for the entire course, and whatever happens, people will be ready to put the best construction upon what the student does and says.
Some "dorms" have regulations in regard to typewriters, musical instruments, electrical equipment, and so forth. These should be noted. Usually a place is provided in the basement for washing small articles, for pressing, making candy. Modern equipment even supplies electric hair-dryers to make evening shampoos easy. Hospital facilities are provided for cases of illness, but general health in the college is the rule, and to be "husky" is ideal. It is not good form to ask for special privileges or exemption from regulations of any kind, unless there is some urgent reason, like doctor's orders.

CHAPTER IV -- POPULARITY
Real popularity is based on merit and likeableness, not a temporary rise to public notice. The law of personal attraction seems to be that the more a person thinks of others, the more others come to think of him.
One's personality is like a horse: Tie it to a post (oneself), and there it must stay until it starves; but turn it out to pasture, let it gallop about the fields with other personalities, and it becomes shining and sleek, and able to bear the owner along delightful paths and over dangerous roads safely--a steed any might be proud to own.

UNSELFISHNESS
The best-loved students would laugh incredulously if any one should undertake to tell them how "popular" they are. It is their trick of forgetting themselves that endears them to everybody. People who dwell on the "hit" they fancy themselves making, are funny but, if seen often, become pathetic bores. The in-growing mind makes the owner a "specimen" even to himself, and puts out the radiance that belongs to a personality that is busy shining on others. Interest in a fellow-student pleases him, and he begins to feel that his friend has excellent sense of appreciation.