PR 1A

My first year at Baruch was not at all what I expected. I had no idea baruch was a commuter college. Everyone goes to class then goes right home afterwards. If I had known this ahead of time I would’ve applied to a Suny where I could have lived in a dorm. I know baruch has dorms but its just not the same. If baruch had a more social atmosphere things would be different. The school is fine educational wise. There were a few teacher teachers I didn’t quite like but the school is serious about students doing their work. This is good for someone like me since I’ve been a slacker all my life. Maybe the extra push will get me to work. That was really the only thing that exceeded my expectations about this school. I’m still having thoughts about transfering. We’ll see what happens with next semester.

If  I could do it all over I would go back to my senior year of high school and pick another school. But if I had to do this year over I guess I would work harder and try to stay on top of my school work. I am the world’s greatest procrastinator. Every assignment I’ve had I did the night before. That all needs to change next semester. I plan on working harder and staying on top of my school work and with that I’m done.

THE END

-Baruch has not lived up to my expectations. For me, I thought college would be more of a community, but being here for a semester has shown me that in the case of Baruch, that’s not true. People just go to school and leave. Even in my dorm, nobody on my floor hang out together which is fairly disappointing.
-My first semester at Baruch was okay. Scholastically, I’m doing well. I’m doing much better transitioning from high school to college than I did transitioning from grammar school to high school.
-I would have definitely tried to switch out of my English class and tried to take a class with a better, less high-and-mighty teacher. Otherwise there’s not much I feel I’d want to change.
-I haven’t changed much. I can say that I definitely study more than in high school, but I never studied in high school so that’s not really saying much.

my first sememster was pretty much how i thought it was going to be. i had no idea what i was geting myself into and the teachers are mostly unhelpful and expect much more than we actually know. additionally every teacher has this stupid mentality that they are the only teachers we have and that no matter how  much work they give us, we “had more than enough time to finish the assignment”. im sick and tired of them saying these stupid comments when they are so ignorant to the ammount of work we actually have every day. i dnt think my first semester went as well as i wanted it too.  in general my grades are pretty good except for english because we unfortunately got the worst english teacher available. ive even asked students that have been here much longer than i have in addition with searching on ratemyprofesor and every source said that she was a bad teacher. she is very vague with her instructions and expects u to be a professional writer by the time the semester begins. if i waas able to do this semester over again, i would have definitely tried to switch out of her class and if i couldnt do that, i would have dropped her class immidiately because its unfair that all the time i effort i put into her class is only leading to a C+. i dnt think i have changed much since starting college mentally or physically. the only diference is my scheduale for my social life. it has drastically changed in order to make room for my college work and unfortunately it doesnt leave much time for friends and activities i would like to do. additionaly i would apreciate it if the college did not take freshman oritentation this seriously because it didnt help me at all and the projects and workshops didnt do much for me except use my time to do something that didnt benefit me at all.

i have just sealed my fate for my second semester as a freshman for baruch college, my first year was quite an adventure. I have had many ups and downs during the year there are many classes i have enjoyed and there are some that i did not. although i experienced many hardships i am still hanging in there, thank god im surviving so far and i hope to have same success next semester

semester one is coming to a close and all i can say is there must be a god above. i worked hard this semester to prove to myself i could and for most of the classes it payed off but i need a vacation. i wish i had some easier grading teachers because i was going for a 4.0 but alas that fantasy is a far cry. i was happy about the blog though and met a bunch of cool people who i will hopefully still see around school after the semester. i just hope my next semeseter is a little lighter in load than the first.

My experience at Baruch college has not lived up to my expectations. there isnt a lot of time to chat and i greatly underestimated a commute school. The travel time makes getting to school a real pain and because everyone has to travel it is really hard to make close friends. most people either have to go to work right after classes or they have to head straight home. There is a wide variety of professors at Baruch, which was something i had expected, but what i didnt expect that not all of them are good at teaching. i guess some of them focus on their own research rather than teaching the class.

I think my first semester at Baruch could have went better. i was ill prepared for the amount of work that i got. when i first game to collegemy mindset was that few classes meant less work. it was soon after i started that i knew that i was completely wrong. The amount of work was more than high school just like they have told us but i had never really believed it. During my senior year at high school i had gotten to a relaxed mood and i felt like it carried over into college. i know i could have done better in this first semester if i tried.

If i could do my first semester over again i would definally try harder by doing the work ahead of time and using the help centers to improve the work quality. if i had not waited for the last second to do my papers i would have done a lot better.

i believe that i have become more responsible and become better at managing my time. back in high school i did all my work within the last 24 hrs before it was due. now i start to work on my papers days or even weeks in advance. hopefully these skills will help me do better in the future years to come.

1:I have a Fear of heights. At the same time i find it hard to resit looking down from a high place. That habit can become annoying but it makes me wonder if i really am afraid of heights or do i enjoy them.

2:Hanging out with my Friends make me happy. I also enjoy playing video games and watching TV.

3: Something that is important to me is my privacy and my freedom to do whatever i feel like doing

4: so far school has been tiring and it takes up a lot of time. the travel distance is always annoying Having to spend over 2 hours every day on the train can pile up.

I cant’ believe my first semester of college at Baruch is coming to a close. I remember the first day I walked into the vertical campus for orientation, then convocation, and then for my first day of classes. Overwhelmed and intimidated I was unsure how I would last a whole semester at Baruch College. Looking back on this first semester, I came to many conclusions and realizations about Baruch. I expected college to be laid back, partying, free time and only being overwhelmed with work during midterms and finals. Unfortunately, none of those expectations were fulfilled at Baruch. I had not much free time because of the stressful, continuous heavy workload and because Baruch is a commuter school there aren’t many events or parties among the student body. I expected professors who didn’t care about attendance but were very strict about following the syllabus and due dates. Instead, most of my professors had strict attendance policies and quite leanient about late assignments and accomodating students. I was hoping that it would be very simple to meet people and make friends in a college environment but that was not so at Baruch. Being a commuter school it is very difficult to have close relationships with people because many students go to class and head home when they are done. I was expecting many events at school that bring students together but instead I find myself being one of the many students that I mentioned that goes to class and immediately after goes home. I think my first semester at Baruch went somewhat well. I got to meet some new people through my block schedule where I traveled with mainly the same people to every class. I also met people on my baseball team at Baruch when we played a short fall season. I believe that I am doing well in my classes which is most important to me. At first, I was hoping to just pass with C+ but now I am striving to excel in my classes with A and B grades. If I could have a second shot at my first semester and do it al over again I would try to reduce the stress I put on myself. I think at many times I waited until the last minute to do things because I thought that it wouldn’t take me long to do assignments but in fact they were more complicated than I had thought. If I managed my time better and balanced my academics with my social life, I could have reduced stress. Procrastination was the cause of late nights which led to sluggish starts in the morning and then it became hard to concentrate in class. As you can see, procrastination has a domino effect that can cause any students downfall. I believe that Baruch has changed me in just one semester. With many group projects, I have learned to work and complete tasks with people that I dont know whichh brings me outside of my comfort zone. I have become more independent as I have to stay on top of my workload everyday and balance my life.

-Daniel DeRiso-

Now nearing the end of my first semester at Baruch College and i can honestly say it was a huge change in my life. The transition from high school to college was not what i had expected but i still readjusted to college life pretty easily. My expectations of Baruch were at first that it would be difficult to make friends and difficult to adjust to the grading. Baruch College has proved me wrong in both areas.  I did make friends pretty fast. And not just freshman. i have made enough friends raging from freshman to graduates. And also all my current classes aren’t as hard as i thought a college class would be.

I think that this first semester has been pretty unexpected and eventful. All for the better. I enjoyed it more than i thought i would have. I made plenty of friends throughout all grade levels, even through graduates.  I joined plenty of organizations within Baruch such as ALPFA, Wall Street club, Hellenic Society, and VITA, and met many people within them. I also learned how to navigate around the city now. Its a nice skill to have i would suppose. Its also nice to have some family and friends envious of me going to the city everyday for school and also hang out there a lot. And also i get to see these landmarks and architecturally interesting buildings nearly everyday.

Something i would do differently in my freshman year at Baruch College if I could do it again would probably be to study a little bit harder in all my classes so i could get that little extra boost in my GPA. And also to be more open to other people from the very beginning of the semester. I am very open and have many friends throughout Baruch College but in the beginning i was very very shy to most people. I also wish i had the ability to choose my classes but since i came tot he last orientation there was no way but still I cant complain since I’ve met some pretty cool people and my classes aren’t THAT bad. Also i wish i could have bought more clothes during the summer cause I’m running out of them and i hate wearing the same clothes over and over again.

How have I changed since i came to Baruch College? I can honestly i changed a lot and these changes will stay with me for a while. Since i started at Baruch College i have studied more than i ever have and I’m sure this habit will stay with me for a while. After a while at Baruch College i have picked up communication skills thanks to COM 1010 and also networking skills with professionals thanks to the groups i am a part of. I have gained a passion for business more specifically Finance and i now meet professionals in the industry on a weekly basis and i have conversations with them very often. 4 months ago i would have never thought I’d be in a position like this.

Wow so this was a different semester then i thought it would be. Baruch is not a bad college…the social events are taking place in various times but there is always something to do if you get involved. The more people you meet in Baruch the more you find out there is a lot of stuff to do. It could be sports, game room, joining a club/fraternity/sorority, etc. I think if people aren’t open minded enough to different things then of course they will get bored at baruch. Most people do go to classes then go home but if you find the right people then you guys can hang out any time of the day. We are in the CITY! Baruch isn’t the best place to hangout with friends so its best to gather up friends and go explore the city and try new things. College is all about finding yourself and the people you best work with. Thats why the beginning of my semester was a slow start because i only when to classes then went home. But eventually i met more and more people and now im in the city 10x more then i would be at home. Cant wait for next semester to start because i know its gonna be a lot better then this one. And if i could go back in time, i guess i should have taken some of my classes more serious.

~Ryan Johnson~