By this time of the semester everyone is extremely stressed. Asking a friend how their recent midterm went offers a high chance of inspiring an emotional breakdown. Luckily, Frostbite—located in McConnell Engineering Building and operated by the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS)—is ready to console any student who gets below a 30 per cent on their midterm or final with free ice cream, as long as the midterm or final makes up for more than 15 per cent of the student’s entire course grade.
While dessert is the cure to all pain, buying endless pints of Häagen Dazs from Montreal dépanneurs is a big hit on anyone’s bank account. Rather than having to bear the cost of an ice-cream cone in addition to the cost your recent midterm will have on your GPA, just show up to Frostbite with a physical copy or a screenshot of your failed midterm grade on MyCourses, and walk away with a free small ice cream. With flavours ranging from vanilla to strawberry daiquiri, anyone can raise their spirits with the help of Frostbite.
“No matter what you’re going through, it’s hard to be sad when there’s ice cream around and bumping jams are playing”, Jacqueline Liu, U3 chemical engineering student and Frostbite employee said.“When midterms come around, it’s hard to stay positive under the high stress. It’s even worse when you fail a midterm that you’ve studied really hard for.”
Although located in the Engineering Building, Frostbite offers frozen solace to McGill students across all faculties and departments.
“There are some notorious courses in engineering, with midterm averages in the 30s to 40s,” Liu said. “Those midterms have surely caused a lot of unnecessary stress and tears. But we don’t want that at Frostbite. We might not be able to change those horrible midterms, but at least we can cheer people up with some free ice cream and offer some positive words of encouragement.”
For Rande Gearing, U3 Arts, Frostbite offered much needed consolation after receiving a highly unfortunate first year midterm grade.
“I had a linear algebra class in my first year that I decided to never go to because I didn’t really like my prof,” Gearing said. “The day before the midterm I tried to teach myself everything I needed to know for the exam, but I ended up just texting all my friends instead. The next day, during the midterm, I giggled because I knew nothing. But when I got the midterm back, I found out I only got one out of eight answers right. I was disappointed with my grade but was happy when I found out I could get free ice cream from Frostbite for it.”
While receiving a horrible grade can be discouraging for any student, Frostbite brings light and laughter to the situation, reminding all at McGill that they’re not alone.
“The funniest moments are when multiple groups of people per day start coming to Frostbite to collect their failed-exam ice creams, you know a horrific exam must have been handed back recently,” Liu said.
Next time you receive a failing grade on a midterm or exam, dry your tears, stop planning ways to poison your professor, and make your way over to Frostbite to forget the pain. Once you show them your grade—they won’t judge—and enjoy a delicious scoop of ice cream, that exam will be the last thing on your mind.
