When Snapchat debuted the widely polarizing Snap Maps over the summer, many users were able to actually see how geographically diverse their friendships from college were. Bitmojis of all shapes and sizes were scattered throughout Pennsylvania, across the country, and around the world. Unless you were here for summer session, however, one aspect of Snap Maps that didn’t get much attention was their role in a college setting.

Sure, it’s great to feel quite ~cosmopolitan~ when you see you truly have friends in different area codes, but their respective precise locations probably didn’t mean much to you at the time — other than from a macro point of view for bragging about how cultured you are after going to such a large, well-known school.

All of your friends from school being back in State College for the school year is a game-changer, though. It’s on a different level than just being at home with friends from high school. And Snapchat’s latest attempt to become a powerful social media outlet offers some opportunities that walk the line between innovative and creepy.

Without further ado, here are five semi-useful, borderline creepy ways to use Snap Maps at Penn State:

Knowing what’s going on around town and campus and where people are

As we learned last year, students can and will assemble for essentially any reason, from silently protesting President Trump’s election, to chasing clowns, to rallying in Beaver Canyon after football games. While the Campus Story has always been a cesspool of students’ drunken monkeyshines as well as an accurate glimpse into the day-to-day lives of Penn Staters, the update features a heat map indicating where the most activity is coming from and a feed of stories posted to “Our Story” from that area. Now, ‘I didn’t know’ is no longer a suitable excuse for missing another gathering of students.

Finding the wave for the night

In your dorm with nothing to do on a Friday night? See where the best parties downtown are. You can then probably get a superficial, but accurate understanding of how lit the party is based on who is there and how their bitmojis are dressed…that is, if they’re one of your many connections who you’ve never met, yet still allow to see your location.

Knowing which of your friends are actually in your Thomas 100 class

You probably don’t go over your schedule in detail each semester with every friend you’ve made in college. But now, you can easily pick out who is embracing the monotonous struggle of STAT 200 with you. You two can then sit together, study together, and more importantly, tune out your lecture to exchange dog filter selfies.

Seeing if who you met in a GroupMe before freshman year or at NSO is actually in your Thomas 100 class

For some reason, you thought you’d get close with all these people since you had no concept of how many students are actually on this campus. In the same way as with the friends you actually talk to, now you know when to try your best to avoid awkward eye contact, as you uncomfortably recall all the weird things you may have said during icebreakers and introductions.

Knowing where Brad from Sigma Apple Pi is at all times

Maybe you want to avoid him. Maybe you want to “bump into him” at the HUB. The bottom line is now you can always locate the guy you would’ve met at a frat party last night – that is, of course, if frat parties were still being held. 

Still feel inclined to share your location after knowing all the measures people can go to find/avoid you? Comment below how you are using Snap Maps at school.