Bilal Raja
Freshman Seminar
Response
For me, I am an independent individual who likes to do his own thing, whether it be popular at the moment or not. In fact, some of the things that interest me seem absurd and strange to some people. For example, unlike the majority of my friends, I prefer buying and riding a motorcycle over a car. My friends, most of whom already have licenses, find it strange that I don’t have a passion for cars like most kids our age do. I feel that I am prone to trying to be different from other people around me subconsciously, because this is the trend I see across everything I do/like. In this way, I think of myself as being unique and the opposite of what one would call a hype beast.
One concern that I have with my freshman year atBaruchCollegeis that it still hasn’t hit me that I am in college now and that everything I do from now on is going to affect my future. This is a personal concern for me and it scares me that I must maintain a very high GPA in times where jobs are scarce. I think that a college freshman may have some trouble transitioning from high school and this is something I am dealing with at the moment. Another concern I’ve had with my freshman year so far is the breakup of students into blocks. I never liked the idea of having the same students in every class – even in high school – and would have preferred getting a chance to meet new and more people. Because of the blocks for freshmen, I feel as if I’m limited to meeting the same group of students everyday. A third concern I have with my freshman year atBaruchCollegeis the increase in work that we have. College work is a big jump from the work I had in high school, and at times, it seems overwhelming. This issue concerns me because at times, professors expect too much from us and don’t realize that as freshmen just entering college, it will take some time to get adjusted to the workload. These high expectations to an extent have hurt my grade and therefore it is concerning for me.
What will make my Baruch experience different from my high school experience is the change in attitude: in high school, education felt like an obligation, something that was a burden for me. But in college, I think my learning experience will be developed by a realization of the importance of a good education and this will help me become more mature in terms of education. Since there is more freedom in college, it provides me with learning tools that are not as accessible in high school. My first year at college will change me by making me more mature when it comes to my education it will develop me into a person who is more proactive and intelligent.
