Author Archives: joel.gorjian1

Overall, Im not so excited about my first semester at Baruch. Maybe it was my high expectations, but i dont feel satisfied. Commuting daily is a shadily very aggravating and i feel like its a huge waste of time as a whole. I spent more time commuting than i did in some of my classes. The classes were much different than i thought they would be. I felt like I could have done much better. My first semester 100% made me grow as a person. Ive realized that college is no joke and that it dictates my future and that i need to take it seriously.

Overall, Im not so excited about my first semester at Baruch. Maybe it was my high expectations, but i dont feel satisfied. Commuting daily is a shadily very aggravating and i feel like its a huge waste of time as a whole. I spent more time commuting than i did in some of my classes. The classes were much different than i thought they would be. I felt like I could have done much better. My first semester 100% made me grow as a person. Ive realized that college is no joke and that it dictates my future and that i need to take it seriously.

A tradition that I had in high school on Saint Patrick’s Day was that all the seniors would go to the city for the parade. Obviously it wasn’t what the school had wanted, but what could they have done. During my senior year, the school got a new assistant principal, Dr. Kraus. All the seniors received numerous threats from Dr. Kraus and others about ditching school and going to the parade. They had the same routine every year, and we weren’t going to stop the tradition for a threat we receive every year. For pre-cautionary reasons, all the seniors decided to go to the Little Neck station instead of the Great Neck one. So as the day came, everyone went to the Little Neck station. Unfortunately, my friends and I were slightly late and missed the train by a few seconds. As we got out of the car and ran towards the train, the train left right there. As we all turned around to go back to our cars, Dr. Kraus is standing behind us. None of us knew what to say, we just stood there speechless. After speaking to us for a few seconds, Dr. Kraus left and returned to school. He didn’t tell us go back to school or anything like that; he just asked, “Are you supposed to be here right now?” and left. Still stunned at what just occurred, we decided to return to school. Already missing half of the day, we decide to go to Dr. Kraus’ office. He tells us to come to school early the next morning. The next day, we go to Dr. Kraus’ office early in the morning. He had a long and serious talk with each of us individually, and then as a group. He even threated to suspend all of us for a week if we didn’t tell him who went to the city. None of us answered, thankfully he was bluffing. After dismissing all of us, he recalled me into his office. He didn’t necessarily tell me that I was going to be in big trouble, but he just made me feel guilty about what I did. After that whole scenario, I began to take school and life more seriously. Dr. Kraus made me open my eyes and become more mature.

I’ve thought about ways to answer this question and I’ve come to only one conclusion: I don’t know who I am. Most of us probably don’t know either. We all come to Baruch to mature and find ourselves. From what I do know, is that I’m an 18-year-old Jew from Great Neck. I like most guys, I enjoy sports, music and just having fun.

My top 3 concerns for my freshman year are:

1. Time Management: High School was fairly easy and I was not asked to do much. I would often forget about assignments and do them the day that it was due. My procrastination problem has often lead to problems but were solved easily in High School. I know in college it will be different.
2. Workload: As you can see, the workload in High School was easy to handle and did not require much effort. Most of the classes worked together to prevent overlapping test, assignments, etc… However, in college none of my teachers have any concern with my other classes, and I have multiple assignments every day.
3. Time of day: In High School, I would have a 2 min commute to school and the day would only be around 6 hours a day. Now that I have to commute to Baruch, some of my days are double that – 12 hrs. Adjusting to a much longer day is difficult, but I’m getting used to it.

Baruch differs from my High School because of the freedom and responsibilities acquired from entering college. In High School, your teachers would keep track of your assignments, attendance, etc…, but in college your on your own. You need to stay organized at take responsibilities over all of your things. No one will be looking after you making sure you do your work.

Hopefully by the end of my 1^st semester, I become a more responsible student and I take control of my life. I want to get rid of my procrastination habits and my laziness. I hope I will be able to adapt to the real word and escape the “Great Neck bubble”.