PR 1A

hey my name is albert azar. im 18 and i live in brooklyn, ny. so far my freshman year has been going pretty well but im starting to get nervous about a couple of things. first im realizing that most of what we are being tested on in our tests are not even covered in the classroom. the teachers make us go home and read around 5o pages in 2 days on material that we didnt discuss in class nor will we ever. people told me that college is hard but at this point it has nothing to do with college, its about the work itself. scool is suppose to be a place where you learn things, but so far all ive seen is that the school hands us textbooks and say read!. i dnt see y i need to go to colllege for that. im pretty sure i can buy a textbook all on my own if i really wanted to learn about the subject. the second thing is that being jewish and very religious, i am finding it difficult to find places to eat. ive checked the food they have in the cafeteria and it doesnt exactly meet my requirements. in addition to that, i have found that the closest restaurant that i can eat at is approximately 30 minutes away on foot which is a pain. i am currently speaking to the head rabbi at the hillel group to see if anything can be done. the third thing that bothers me is that when the teachers give an assignment to do for hw or during class, they dont explain how they would like it done. they do however yell at you when you hand in your work and it is not in the form that they want. i mean come on! if your not going to tell us what you want then how are we suppose to give it to you!? its like someone saying they dnt no what they want for a birthday present and then when you get them something they dont like, they complain!

so far, the diferences between college and high school would have to be everything!

lets start with the size. the size of my high school would probably be able to fit into the vertical campus building with plenty of room to spare. the students in my highschool were only syrian sephardic jews from my community but baruch is the most diverse school in america! ive met so many people from different parts of the world, its incredible! also probably the bigest difference would have to be the teachers and principals from my high school. they were always on top of me for every stupid little thing that i did wrong and made school a bad experience for me because they didnt let me enjoy it. but in college, no one is folowing e around and barking orders at me. its a good freedom but it comes at a price. in high school, if i was failing or doing badly, the teacher would talk to me after class to tell me to do better or call my parents. but in college, they couldnt care less how well or how bad im doing.

i think my first year at college will teach me to be a more responsible person and point me in the direction of my future

Hi, my name is Ralph Labaton and I am an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn. In other words, it is because of me (well my religion and thousands of others) that you guys have already received off from school this semester. I am actually not 18 yet but I am still a freshman in college.

My number one concern when thinking about my college career is failing. There is no one watching your back in college like there was in high school and the burden of success is completely on your own shoulders. If you want to do well and earn a good average to open doors for you, you need to put in the effort and work hard. My second concern is food. Being a religious Jew it is quite hard to find kosher restaurants in the area and so I have to travel to great lengths (3 hour breaks in the day, thank god), grab something from our local Starbucks or wait till I get home. It is quite annoying though and I am in desperate need for a kosher pizza place in the area. My third concern is money. It is very hard to make but it is very easy to spend it. A metro card for the week runs about fifteen dollars or so and then we have the books. I have spent about three hundred dollars on books and they are only for one semester. If anyone knows someone who is hiring after school I can use some extra cash.

Now college is a lot different than high school was, for me at least. I went to a yeshiva or a Jewish private school where everyone I went to school with was part of my community. I guess what I am trying to say is that I knew almost everyone in my school since they were in diapers. In college there are names I have never even heard of before. There are so many different kinds of people from different backgrounds around you, you can almost get lost. But hey, that’s New York for you. Also for a kid that used to walk four blocks to school every day, to go into the city for school every day is a big change. The city used to be an adventure every time I went, now it just my daily activity. Well on the plus side now I know where everything is and can’t get lost especially since some of my friends go to Hunter and NYU and I visit them.

My first year of college has changed me dramatically so far and I don’t see an end in sight. For one I spend more time now in the library then I do at home even though in recent memory before college I can’t truly remember the last time I studied for something. Also I am interacting with many people that I have never met before and am making some new friends. I hope all my adjustments are for the good and that I and all my classmates can succeed here in Baruch.

Alright lets get this over with. My name is Fahim Ahmed. I am a freshman at Baruch college. I was born in Bangladesh on August 1992. I came to the United States at the age of three with my mother. My father had already been living here for about three years before we arrived. I am more fluent in english than bengali which is kind of sad since I was born there. I barely understand people when I go back and its always hard for me to answer their questions but I try anyway. I enjoy watching football and mma which stands for mixed martial arts for those that don’t know. I like to relax and take it easy and enjoy going outside. I used to stay inside a lot but i realized there is so much more in the outside world that I’m missing out on.

Right now I don’t have too many concerns but if i had to name three they would be passing, not studying enough, and becoming a zombie. I want to pass all my classes and move on. I hate having to retake something because its the same lessons all over again and I would probably go crazy sitting in the same classroom listening to the same lectures from the same professor all over again. I am not the type of person who sits down and studies for four hours. I can not do that because I would find my self reaching for the television remote after about five minutes or so. I have never studied in my life but I need to start doing that for college or I won’t pass. But getting into that study habit brings me to my third concern which is becoming a zombie. No not a flesh eating creature of the night but a mindless being called a “student”. I see some of them around the school sitting in the chairs in the halls but mostly in the *shudders*……library. They look so tired and worn out just like zombies that I’m thinking I hope I never become one of them. But in life you have to make some sacrifices and if being one of them helps me to pass well I guess I’ll have to join the dark side.

High school was a good time in my life. Great friends easy classes and just having fun. My college experience will definitely differ from my high school one. How you ask? Well college is harder and kind of boring which was surprising. I guess Baruch isn’t a party school like some of the sunys my friends go to and they always have the wildest stories. But I guess I have to make the best of it and do what I can while I am here.

My first year of college help me set my goals to be more academically oriented. I plan to study more *sighs* but still have some fun but so far it looks like to be a boring year. Oh well guess I will make the best of it.

My name is Qiu Lin and I am a freshman at Baruch college. I am an immigrant from China raised in New York since i was three years old. I was describe myself as a Person who wants to enjoy life to the fullest. Although I would rather live in the moment I know that I have to look into the future too. I hope to go into business management or accounting. my personality is a main concern in my college career. so far i have been having trouble balancing my free time with school work. since college is different from high school it has been a bit difficult to adapt to all the extra time i have on my hands. i have problem concentrating on one thing for a long period of time and there are always a lot of distractions around me. Another concern i have about college is getting a mindset that college is different from high school. i know thats what freshman seminar is meant to do so i hope to learn a lot from it. i believe that my mindset is still in the senior year of my high school and summer vacation because i have not been focus on my work for college. i hope that this problem can be solved soon so that i can focus on my studies. I believe that the main difference between high school and college is the length of the classes and the long breaks we have in between classes. for the last decade i have grown used to going to classes for eight hours straight with little or no breaks. I enjoy my breaks in between classes but i think three hours is a bit much. In addition to the breaks another major difference between college and high school is that the students are expected to be able to work on their own. The professors won’t be chasing us down for our assignments like in high school. reading the syllabus and keeping myself up to date with the work is something that i will need to get used to. Sometimes the work will be sent to my college email and i have to check me email daily now which is something i don’t normally do. During my first year in college i hope to become a more responsible person. i know that i am still young and like to fool around a lot. what i hope to get from my first year in college is how to manage my time and how to stay on task. In my opinion those skills are the most important when it comes to learning or even working later on in life. i want to be able to keep up with everything so that i won’t have a giant task at the deadline just like right now i am doing this blog the day before its due. In the future i hope that this wont happen again because it is a realy big pain to have a lot of work all piled up.

Hello my name is Justin Liniado i am an incoming freshman, I am currently 18 years of age. as of right now i live in Brooklyn NY, not the Brooklyn that you think of with all the crime and the violence, i live in a very beautiful community where everyone is very friendly and helpful.

Since coming into Baruch college it was not a very big transition, i think that my high school prepared me very well for the years ahead. i learnt many thing that i will use towards college which include time management and i prepared last year fo this type of workload. i ahve many goals before finishing up college i would like to study abroad for a couple of months i would like to go either to europe to study the culture amd the lifestyle of them, or i would like to travel to china to study international buisiness. with these oppertunities that the college is providing for me will give me the chance to explore many options the world is giving me. I am hoping to maintain a very high GPA so i can one day go the the zikland schoool of business and after that go to graduate school and be on top of my class.  I would like to study either business management or marketing and advertising. i may be more moved by marketing and advertising because i think that i am a very creative person, and marketing and advertising is based on ones person ability to create something from your mind and use it towards your business for advertising  and other advantages your business may need this is a big advantage for me so i feel i have a distict advantage in this field.

So far i am enjoying my time as a freshman, even though there is a lot of home work and interactive work which i can find hard from time to time, but overall it has been pretty manageable. The teaches at school has been very helpful and nice in class they want to help you if you are having problems and i think thats an important part in a school. Hopefully i can have a long relationship with my teachers even after school.

The concens I am having in college  is that i wont perform to my best abilities. I’m hoping that i will get back to par with the work i did in highschool. Another concern I have is that i dont have the partying aspect of a college university so there is not alot of change in life i live in ny so i have basically seen most of the city . i find that im amking alot of friends in baruch everyones has been very nice to me and they have been friendly as well this will also give me the oppertunity to network with all them in the future.

Hello world! My name is Dimitris Kouvaros and I’m a freshman at Baruch college. I’m trying to major in Finance and have a job that is somewhat related to stocks, bonds, etc. A little about me? I reside in Whitestone, Queens with my family. I am an alumni of Saint Francis Preparatory high school in fresh meadows, Queens. I am a huge follower of baseball. It is my favorite sport to play and watch. I also love football. I am also a huge fan of the rock band Queen. I come from a Greek family and i know Greek just as well as i know English.

Coming into a new higher education establishment area(I’m trying to say college in a fancy way i think) i know that there’s gonna be some challenges to endure here. I think one hardship that will be hard to overcome will be trying to maintain a high GPA. I already am swamped with homework, other outside school activities and i work as well. Im still trying to find some time for my studies that wont be cut short. Im hoping it will change in the near future. Another hardship i think I’ll go through is finding some time for myself. Not one day since i started Baruch have i had one day off due to school , homework and work. And i don’t think it will change any time soon. I still haven’t seen any of my friends in high school yet.  Its a hardship but ill try to cope with it the best i can.  Another hardship is not knowing what to do during my breaks.  I have two separate two and a half hour breaks, so i honestly don’t know what too do during them. I found out about the game room a while ago, but i cant go there during ALL my breaks. And I am not willing to waste money to go out all the time.

A big difference between my high school and my college is pretty clear. One is a high school and one is a college. College is going to be more complicated  educational wise.  Also a big change is that Baruch college is in the city. I rarely went to the city before and now i know it pretty well. At least downtown and most of midtown. Another thing is that there are so many students at Baruch and so limited time its seems almost impossible to befriend someone.

This freshman year in college i think will change  me a lot. It will make me learn to adapt to the study patterns my teachers tell me. I will have to learn to adapt  to this ridiculous sleeping pattern. i might sleep one day at 11 and the next at 2 because of homework or studying. I am pretty sure by years end i will learn the majority of the train routes in Manhattan. I’m hopeful that also by years end i will become an even better student and become a fan favorite by my teachers.

HI! My name is Daniel DeRiso and I think Ican describe myself as a determined, hard working and strong willed person who cares a lot about others. My academics and athletics are priorities in my college life right now as I try to achieve my goals in both aspects. Through my hard work and determination I hope to become a successful student athlete at Baruch and one day attain a high paying career in the field of business. I am a very friendly person so I am hoping that it will it be easy for me to meet people throughout my years at Baruch. As a freshman in college, ofcourse I am filled with many concerns about my upcoming years in a new environment. College is a place that is like no other. I am concerned about getting all of my work finished on time with great quality. In college there is not going to be a professor who watches you all the time making sure that the work is done. I have to use my free time wisely with my time management skills and get my work done. The workload in college is much heavier than that of high school so I will really need to stay on top of things if I want to succeed academically. Although I am a friendly person, Baruch is a commuter school which can make it tough for students to form friendships with other students. Relationships created in college can last a lifetime so I hope that I can form a few close friendships with my colleagues. My last concern as a feshman Baruch is balancing my athletics and academics. As a student athlete it can become difficult to handle the work assigned from proffessors and coaches. I have to stay extremely determined to make sure that I stay focused on my studies and have exceptional performances on the field as well.  I believe that my Baruch experience is going to be very different than my high school experience. In college, a student has a lot of free time. The free time comes with positives and negatives. I could use it to do social events or I can focus on my academics and get my work done. I think a good student can balance those two ideas be able to be studious but also have fun. I will have to motivate myself to get my work done because people are not going to remind me that I have homework due next class or a test next week. As a college student I gain a lot more responsibility than when I was in high school. I believe my first year of college will change me for the better. I have to be less dependent on others and worry about myself. Independence will be an attribute that will grow inside of me as I get through my first semester. I hope that through my college years I will become stronger as a person and can achieve my goals that I have set for myself.