LC 24

Here are some events that are going on campus this week. Please find some time to attend them, they should be fun and rewarding.

Letters Today, Leaders Tomorrow Monday, September 20, 2010 VC 1-107 (Multi-purpose room) 6PM -9PM
Not sure what Greek life can do for you? Come meet some people who can acredit their success stories to the letters that they pledged. Refreshments will be served.

Greek Carnival Tuesday, September 21, 2010 VC 2nd Floor Lobby 12:30PM – 2:30PM
Come see the fun side of Baruch Greeks as we host our very own carnival! Cotton Candy, Music, Entertainment and more!!!

Meet the Greeks Tuesday, September 21, 2010 VC 1-107 (Multi-purpose room) 6PM -9PM
Not sure which one is right for you? Come meet us, hear what we have to offer, and then make your pick!

Freshmen Reception Thursday, September 23, 2010 club hours NVC 5-215
Freshmen are invited to join the staff of the Center for Academic Advisement for an afternoon of information, games and raffles. Students will have the opportunity to learn about majors & minors, find out how to use DegreeWorks – the student degree audit system – and speak directly with academic advisors. All freshmen are welcome to stop by at anytime.

Greek True Story Thursday, September 23, 2010 VC 1-107 (Multi-purpose room) 6PM-9PM
Think you know about Greek Life? You have no idea. Come watch our very own Greek comedy!

Soccer Free Play Monday through Thursday 12:30PM – 3:00PM VC B2 Auxiliary Gym
Calling all Soccer stars! All students are invited to join their fellow Baruch peers for friendly games of soccer on the B2 level of the Athletic & Recreation Center (ARC)

Please always feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. E-mail & text is the best way to get in touch with me.

Study hard!

– Michelle

First when I got the question ‘who you think you are’, I had divided the answer into two parts by 2 different periods of time, from now and in the future. Now I am a freshman of Baruch College in this year. That is who I am today and who really want to be a successful student in the college. But I am a little bit lost about who I want to be in the future of my life. To become a woman who work so hard for her job or just a pretty normal person walking on the 34^th street, of course I hope the first phrase can come true one day but I am also wondering whether I really have the ability to reach that goal or not. But from now, I believe I am a person who will try my best to achieve the goal that I really want.

The top three concerns about my freshman year in Baruch College are how to get high GPA on my transcripts, which interesting club I should join, and who I am going to know in this new community. High GPA is one of the most important topics that always appear in the conversations of people in the college because they all know those GPAs are going to affect their entire life. It directly relates to their future career and I totally realize it. Club is also the thing we can’t ever miss in our college life. Several days ago, I posted a status on my facebook that is ‘it will be so regretful if we are not going to club in college,’ and many people agreed with me. I believe there is a lot of fun in clubs and that is also one of the places that we can meet friends for life. Baruch College has a really large population and I am really excited about knowing new friends here because I believe here is the last period of time before we start to consider about our own interests every day.

My high school experience was really boring, nothing exciting. My high school didn’t have any sports terms and outdoor conventions for fun and neither other interesting parties, maybe I was in the bilingual classes so I knew less things about the school because of the language problem. But all I did was going to school in the morning and leaving after my classes had done every day. Sometimes I even think my junior high was more interesting than my high school. So I can’t wait to join a club in the college or to participate in other activities for getting into the community much more than what I did in high school and to make it fun.

I think after the first year in Baruch, I will be much more responsible to myself and also to other things. In here, I have to follow up all the things I have to do for myself, there is nobody can help you to fix your mistake or failing grade any more. So we have to understand what we suppose to do and what we definitely can’t do. And I am pretty sure I will be more mature than now a year later.

Who do I think I am? For the past few years I been asking myself this question and I have come up with various answers. I am an ambitious person. I am a person with the dream to succeed. I am a person who wants to stand out in a crowd. I am a person who wants to be recognized for something significant in the world. Now that I think of it, I am all these things. Although I may not seem like that person now, I am building myself to become that person. I am a person with dreams.

Over this past month, I have been trying to get use to the “Baruch Culture”. In my experience, I have grown concerns about my capabilities. For example, I sense a lot of competition in classrooms as every individual is aiming for an A. In addition, there are expectations that are implied without any notice. There is also a ton of reading for each class and it is easy to be overwhelmed with work. Basically I’m afraid I will not be able to keep up with the college level work. Despite my optimism of who I want to become, I feel it will take me a long while before I’m truly up to speed.

In my opinion, college’s greatest aspect is the amount of freedom given to each and every student enrolled. Anyone has the ability to choose their own schedule, classes and even professors. There are no guidance counselors or teachers making sure we are on track or making schedules for us. There are also many opportunities for people to get involved and build resumes. With a wide collection of club, teams groups, and internships it is easy to meet new people and to fulfill extracurricular. However unlike high school, college requires a lot of responsibilities as assignment deadlines are not frequently announced, textbooks and learning materials are bought individually and a person’s success or failure is all up to them.

In my first year of college, I will definitely learn to manage my time properly. I will grow to become the person I aim to be by learning various self improvement skills. Skills such as being able to speak publicly which will prove to be an advantage against competing classmates. I am sure by the end of my freshmen year I will be more involved with the Baruch community.

I am a freshman at Baruch College this Fall 2010. Like any other freshman, I’m going to college with the hope of getting good grades and gaining knowledge that will help us to success in the future.  Being a freshman in college is not as easy as I imagined. Everything is so different from high school especially if you are not graduated from high school in the states. But, I believe I can work things out and hopefully everything will go along smoothly.

The top three concerns about my freshman year at Baruch College are grades, time management and my personality. Firstly, grades are really important to me. Especially during the freshman year. I believe that if I don’t have a good foundation or base, I won’t go any higher. The freshman year is like the base of a building. In order to build a tall and steady building, we need a strong base. I’m not sure about my major yet , but since I’m in Baruch College which is famous for its business school, I might as well consider something to do with business. The required GPA to enter the Zicklin School of Business is high. Therefore, I must work very hard on my grades in order to be accepted. Second, I’m not good in time management. Back then at home, I have my parents to manage everything for me. I never think about what should I do first or do later. Now, I have to manage my own time. My life is really a mess during the first week of the Fall semester. I’m working and studying at the same time. At first, its hard to cope with the crazy schedule I had in my daily life. But then, it got better now.Third, I’m a really shy and quiet person. I find it hard to communicate with people around me. Speaking to a stranger and in the crowd are my biggest fear in life. I knew that this will create an obstacle for me from being a part of the society especially if I wanted to major something to do with business. I hope my experience in Baruch College would change me completely into an outgoing with high self-esteem person.

Experience in Baruch College is obviously different from high school. There is a huge difference for me between high school and college since I graduated high school in Malaysia. People here speaks perfect English. Although my first language is English but, I have no confidence speaking in English in the states. In high school, the number of people is not that many but in college, there are a lot of people around the campus. Since I’m a shy person, I find it uncomfortable to be in such crowd.

I hope the first year in Baruch College would change me into a more independent, well organized and outgoing person. Hopefully by joining clubs will give me courage to face my biggest fear in life.

I am a freshman who has the same goals with other students. For example, I hope I can get a high GPA because it is important for every college students. And I also hope I can find a good job after graduation. I am here because I like business, and I also want to be a successful businessman in the future. Moreover, I also think I am a student who is not a very fluent person. I, for instance,  need more time to read books which are required. I also need pay more attention during the class because I do not want to miss some important details or questions.

  How to talk and share opinions in my class, how to make more friends who are not Chinese, and how to graduate in four years are my top three concerns. First of all, how to talk and share opinions in class is the top one concern. I am a very shy person. This personality make me scared when I talk in class. For example, when teachers ask questions, I am even afraid to make an eye contact. So I am trying to change it, but it is still one of my top concerns now. Second of all, how to make more friends who are not Chinese is another concern. I think every ESL student like to make friends who are from same country and speak the same language, so do I. I,for instance, knew every classmate who speak Chinese in my class. However, I really did not talk much to other classmates who do not speak Chinese. I realize that it is important to make more foreign friends here because the majority of students are English speakers. Finally, how to graduate in four years is the last concern. Like some other students, I also got this concern. Imagine, what if students can not graduate in four years? It means we need to pay more money to school and  more time for graduation. At last, I wish these concerns would no longer bother me while  the time is fleeting.

  I can say that the college experience is totally different from my high school experience in several ways. Because I graduated from high school in China, the school type and the teaching style are all different, so this is the reason why I said it is totally different. First, students in China are not supposed to give presentations in class. However, give presentations is a very common thing here for each student. Second, if the students who are in Chinese high schools can graduate is based on the points which they get on their finnal exam but credits. On the other hand, schools here are use credits to count if the students can graduate. So the credit systems is new for me now. Third, there is no clubs in my high school. I think this point is the most different thing from my high school, and I think I will join one of them in our college so that I can learn more American cultures.

  I think the first year of my College journey will change me such as my personality and attitude of studying. Also, I think I will be more enjoyable in our big college family.

First of all, I am a freshman, totally fresh in both college and educational system. And Blogging too!

I think I am merely a follower right now. A few months back, right after I graduated from my high school in Malaysia and came to the United States, I kept  thinking of what would be my next phrase of life.  Career or College? With not much determination, I simply chose to pursue a tertiary education since almost everyone in my Facebook’s friend list does that! “I don’t want to be left out  and I want to be cool.So,I want to go to college too.”, “I want to stick with my best friend forever!”, those were what I thought back then but of course the second one didn’t work out. So, I am now in Baruch College but I have no clue of what i am going to achieve here.

The top 3 concerns that are bugging me a lot right now would be choosing a club,time management and the major i have to declare later. I was a very active club member in my high school. I took part in Red Crescent Society(also known as Red Cross) and an organization, which was alike to Student Government but it managed only clubs. These 2 club and organization brought me a lot of fun to my high school life. Therefore, i hope i can participate in at least one club in Baruch. I need a good time management to make sure that I make time for study, work , entertainment and clubs(if any). Choosing major is really a tough decision and almost every freshman face the same problem like mine. I hope that I could find what I am interested in as soon as possible.

Baruch has more building and bigger classroom than my high school. Other than that, my high school consisted mostly Chinese students and has around 1200 students but Baruch has students from different part of the world. Sharing opinions and discussing class material with different races is really a brand new experience to me. However, as i mentioned before, I think that joining a club will provide me a chance to have different perspective on this school.

Since the educational system in America is different from Malaysia, i have some hard time to accustom myself to the new environment and sometimes it is hard for me to understand native speaker who speaks English  fluently. But in one year, I anticipate that Baruch can help me out and change me into a more diligent and independent person.

I am freshman student very excited and enthusiastic to be part of  Baruch College.I graduated from high school back home two years ago. While my family and I were getting ready to come to the US,I was browsing online to find the college that would suit what I wanted to study. Once I got here things were not that easy. I went through a transition time to get adjusted with the life in this big country. I felt like I was just wasting the time and I wasn’t accomplishing what I was looking for. Now that I am at Baruch College ,one of my goals has been complimented.

As a student my three major concerns are about the time management to complete the assignment on prompt time, keep a high GPA, and feeling stressed from the obligations. College has a new system different from high school and all the classes have a lot of requirements that take time. I feel that I have to give a lot of effort in all of my classes because I come from a different education system. If for a native student might take less time to read the lectures I have to spend more time to read, translate and understand them. For all the classes I need to keep tracks and follow up every time which becomes my concern how to manage the time efficiently. Additionally I want to keep a high GPA because I want to study for the MBA program of the Zicklin School of business which requires a high GPA. The issue is not only to keep up with the classes but to show a high performance .Almost every student who decides to study at college wants to graduate with honors so they have to face the competition among other students also.As most of the students I also have a work study schedule so this makes a full active day. I have to arrange all these obligations in a day and save sometime for a stress relieve which is almost impossible.

Baruch is one of the colleges with a diverse and large participation of overseas students which so far has been very interesting for me. I had the chance to know people so diverse and with a special background. The experience in this college will be so fulfilled with variety that will become unforgettable in my life.

This first year of college will help me to realize and get to know my personality better. It will be a year in smooth motions toward the foundation of the self-identity .It is a year that will help me to think like a grown up adult who concerns more about the future and thinks more wisely about any decision.

Well I think I am a freshman, and I think that I am a normal regular person attending Baruch College for the first time and is new to all the experiences and to all the features it has to offer, like their library and their gym and computer lab. But for now, I shall worry about grades for now because we are still new to Baruch, and how things go. Otherwise that is about it.

3 concerns I have is about balancing out the time between school, work and the time you have for yourself. Right now, I’m feeling pretty stressed about having to work around four days a week from four to nine respectively. That barely gives me time for myself and for the other people who wants to spend time with me. Another concern is about finding what I want to study in. I know that it’s hard to figure out so in freshman year, but I would like to know at least some broad or general idea of what I would like to study in.  The last concern i have is about opening up. For now, I usually stay pretty quiet, but once I get to know people, I talk a lot to them. So once I get to know the people in my class, I shall start talking to them and etc.

What I think college experience differs from high school experience is the amount of people and the amount of buildings that there is. In my high school, there was around 100 kids per grade so making it around 400 kids total. In Baruch College, I seen tons of people all over the place, especially around club hours. I also like the technology and the library that Baruch College has; its not something Baruch High School had. The library was impressive when I first visited it during high school and it still is to this moment.

I think my first year in college would change me by being in a crowded environment, it would make me talk to people more and get to know them more. Also I think clubs would change me more too, because clubs in Baruch High School did not suit me that much. I never really liked the idea of staying more time after school to participate in clubs so I am hoping that would change in my freshman year in Baruch College. I also think the clubs would change the general idea of what my major would be. Right now I am not too worried about finding what my major is, but i would like to see if clubs would change my mind about it or enforce it even more.

I think I am a student who wants to get a great GPA in college. And I am a freshman. I think every freshman wants to get high GPA in college. The GPA is not the most important things for people, but it is the most important things for students.

The top 3 concerns about my freshman year at Baruch College are GPA, club, and job. First, to me, the GPA is really important. I am interesting at being a business person. If I cannot get at least 2.5 GPA, I cannot choose business as my major. Second, I want to be personality in college. My character is shy and do not like to talk with other people. In high school, if teachers let me answer questions in class, I will be blush and afraid of speaking loudly. Moreover, I went to tutoring center for preparing my SAT before. I never ask teachers any questions and never answer any questions. So one of my teachers gave me a nickname, which is “3R”. I forgot what exactly the three words are, but this nickname means I am really quiet and shy. I want to change myself. It is better that talk more in American. Nobody will like someone never say their own opinion and never talk. And I think I can be more activity as someone else. So I decide to join a club. I want to be member of a club which can let me be “outside”. Third, one of the top 3 concerns is a job. My family income is not so high. Even though I can get some money from FAFSA, I still need to work. I need some pocket money, and I want to reduce my parents’ burden. They work hard, and they are tired. So I am looking for some part time jobs now. I hope I can get a nice job. In conclusion, I want to get high GPA for my BBA at Baruch College. I decide to join a club for being more activity. And I need a job for reducing my parents’ burden.

I think joining a club and beginning working will make my experience different from high school. Club can let me be more activity. Job can let me have some social experience. I never join a club and have a job in high school, because I think I have to improve my score in high school first. Right now, I think a high GPA does not mean you are successful. That just means you have a good grade. I will learn a lot in college. Not only get some knowledge about subject, but also social experience.

I will be changed a lot in my first year at Baruch College. I will be personality and be more activity. I don’t want someone else call me “3R” again. It’s not me anymore. I can talk and I can express my opinion by myself. I won’t be a person who just nods her head, when another person is talking. As Lawana Blackwell said, “patterning your life around other’s opinions is nothing more than slavery.” I will be someone who is totally different from me before. I hope I can be brave to speak loudly.

Now that you’ve all been able to join this blog (finally!), please feel free to begin writing your first assignment. Your first mandatory post was e-mailed to you last night. I also advise you to get yourself familiar with the system on Blogs@Baruch.

In addition to writing the mandatory posts, I really would like you to write whenever you want! This portion of our class was designed to encourage creative writing.

A few reminders:
– No classes scheduled on Thursday, September 9, 2010 and Friday, September 10, 2010
– We will be meeting on Monday, September 13, 2010 for the Library Visit. Please meet me by the staircase in the Newman Library Building lobby and please be on time!
– Classes will follow a Friday schedule on Tuesday, September 14, 2010
– First day of withdrawal with “W” grade begins on Thursday, September 16, 2010

Have fun writing!

– Michelle