Monthly Archives: September 2010

Hey everyone. For those of you who dont know me my name is Ariel Basalely. When i think about who I am, I think I’m an advisor to my close friends. Im usually the person who my close guy friends can come up to me for advice with whatever they want whether its relationships, how to manage their time, what they should choose. Everything always differs. Another way in which i can describe who I am is a role model to my two year old nephew. He always copies what I do and I’m the closest uncle he has to his age, and I hope i can be a good enough influence on him

There are a few things in which I feel concerned about for my first year at Baruch. One is maintaining a good average. Its been a lot tougher for me with all the assigned reading and all the papers that I’ve been doing for ENG 2100. Its extremely overwhelming for me and it is the cause of my lack of sleep if you all want to know the truth. My next concern is probably that I wont enjoy the classes I’m taking at all. Thank god this quarter I have at least one class in which I have a somewhat interest in but otherwise I find my courses to be extremely boring. My third concern is that from my classes that aren’t lectures, I hope to give a good vibe to the teachers who will know my name throughout the semester, otherwise I will be paranoid for the whole year

For sure, my high school experience will be completely different from my Baruch experience. The reason for this is that my whole entire school contained only 400-450 students meanwhile there are about 1800 freshmen in Baruch. It was good to know that every face was familiar to me throughout high school, but I always enjoy meeting new people as I already have. Otherwise, I came from a Jewish school that had a required dress code and different hours than Baruch College has. The fact that I can go to school wearing whatever I want and the fact that my breaks are longer make Baruch extremely different for me

Baruch is for sure going to change me. The reason for this is because I will be more motivated to study knowing that college counts a lot in terms of everything. It very likely may be that my occupation in life can result from an internship or job offer that I got from Baruch. It will also change me knowing that I have a lot to see and experience as I go to college.

a) I am introvert. I don’t like to associate with people. I barely make phone calls to my friends and never chat online. Usually I would refuse to go to party where there are a lot of strangers. I am more mature than people in my age. It’s easier for me to make friends with people who are older than I am. I am very independent and impatient. I like to do thing by my own so I don’t have to about other’s opinion. I love to find short cut so I can get thing done quickly.

b) The top concern about my freshman year at Baruch College is grade. I am aiming for a 3.2 for the first semester. But I have no cue if I can make it because college grading policy is different from high school grading policy. In high school even you are not a great test taker but you can still earn a high grade by participant in class and do homework, in college most percentage of your grade is based on your test grades. The second concern is time management. I am not a very organize person. So sometimes I would leave things out. I have to learn to be more cautious to keep track of the time. The third concern is making friends. I hope to find a lifelong best friend during my college years. I want to share everything with her.

 c) I think College experience is different from my high school experience. College is about you doing the right thing and making the right decision for there’s no one to push you and spoon-feed you.

d) The first year of college will make me feel more comfortable and open to share my ideas to people from different culture. Part of the reason I chose Baruch rather than Queens College (which is 5 minutes away from my house) is I want to experience life in the Manhattan and interact with a more diverse group.

Five years ago, I had never thought about that I would migrant to another country and have a new life which is totally different from what I had before.  Same as most immigrant kids I was struggling with the new language which it is most difficult problem I had faced. Before, I used to be a quiet person in the school who did not like to be involves to the group.  However, when I came to the U.S, things changed a lot.  The high school teachers more encourage student to participate rather than the exam grades.  It is very different from the education system in china.  I am just a normal teenager which no much different from the other people around my age.  I would do the same things that teenagers will like to do such as computer and basketball.  Nothing thing special about me, if I must to tell at least one thing that represent myself, I will say l like to laugh.  It makes feel better and brings you an optimistic view to this world.

Time fleet, I realized that I am not a high school student anymore.     To me, the college life should be more interest and exciting.  Not like high school which teachers always force you to study.  As the college student we should be more independent and learn to be responsible. It is the process that we grow up as an adult and not act like a kid anymore.  For me, I do have some worries about my freshman year at Baruch.  The first one is the grade.  It is most important stuff which I want to keep my GPA high.  I think every freshman will have same concern as me.  The lower GPA in this year will affect all four years grade, so I need to try my best to solve this problem.  The second one is the social network. Because of Baruch is a cuny college which is more convenience, but without the campus life the chance of making new friends will be low. People are rushing to go home or work that is why hard to make a really friend.  The last one is the major, which I haven’t decided it yet, but I think I will find it out later in this year.

I think the first year of college will bring me a different experience compare as before.  I think I will more dutiful and independent because I am the only one can help myself or push myself.  However, it is a great chance to meet different kind of people from different place of the world.  I think I will learn a lot from this year.



There are sixty-eight hundred million people in the world, but how many people can really understand me? The answer is not a lot. But there must be a person who knows me very much, this person is me. I have my own thinking about myself which is really different from other people who know me. Now I am 18, attending college and it becomes the turning point in my life.

People said human have two sides, bad side and good side, however I think people also have ”inside” and “outside”. That’s why it’s hard to understand each other. My outside, I am really polite to people, I open door for people, say thank you if they give me space to walk and say sorry so many times even just block the way for one second. Because I think being polite is the basic respect to the people. And I am working so hard when I was in the school or working place. I can help everyone in the school if they need me, and I can stand whole day without blame anyone in my working place. However, these things are not working to my family and in my house. I feel tired and lazy to do extra works in the house. So I do not want to do anything at home and rarely help my mom to clean the house. But I still respect her and only just help her a little bit. Inside me, I really want to be a good person that always helps people.

In my freshman year at Baruch College, I think all my classes are very boring because I always have to read a lot of books. But I made some friends and we have fun together sometimes. College is so much different from High School, it more work to do, more reading, and more responsible. I have to do all the homework, reading and responsible for all my work. The Professors don’t really care about us, they just need your work and give you grade. So it is my responsible to do all my work. So the first year at Baruch College will change myself become more responsible to do all my work. Because before I was very lazy to do my work since in high School the teacher always gives excuse to us.

I can be identified as many different person. First of all, I am a freshman in Baruch College. Some people also see me as a person who attends church. My parent can see me as a first son in the family and my brother can see me as a big brother. Last of all, my friends can see me as a good and loyal friend. Most importantly, I see me as a person who trying to ace the college classes and trying to live hardest and live a good life. I tried hard in all of my classes but at the same time, I am trying to spend time with family, friends, and in church.

My biggest concern in Baruch College is the fact that I have to maintain 3.2 GPA to keep on receiving the Dean’s Scholarship. I am taking 5 classes and anthropology and history classes are giving me a hard time. Becasue of these two classes, I am worried that i might not be able to keep up the GPA. My 2nd biggest concern is the commuting. I live in Port Washington (in Long Island). I calculated my commuting time and it takes around 3 hours to travel back and forth to Baruch from my house. I hope I can move out soon so I dont have to travel so much. My last concern (was) making friends. This was a big concern when I first entered college but I started to make friends by going to various clubs and talking to students in the classes. So the last one is taken care of.

In my opinion, high school and college both have similarity and difference. The similiarity is that I have to commute to school. Also, classes are not that much different from high school. However, college works are much harder and goes into much more detail. In addition, classes are longer and breaks are longer between the classes. I also think that college have a lot more independence. In high school, teachers take care a lot for students but in college, students have to make time to go see the professor at certain help time to get help. Lastly, I take less classes in college than high school, but I have more work than high school.

I think the first year at Baruch will change me in many ways. I think I will be more independent. Also, I will know how to manage time and schedule. Lastly, I will be more studius and will study harder to achieve high GPA