Monthly Archives: September 2011

Well, my name is Samantha Ma. I’m a daughter, sister, friend, dancer, and I would say everything in between. I don’t exactly have a special talent; like playing an instrument, or can do something amazing that makes me stand out from everyone else. On the other hand though what I feel like I strive to be is just someone that’s there for others. I feel like I usually put others close to me first then myself second. I’m super hyper most of the time and you will most likely find me laughing any time of the day. I like to see people have a good time after a long day so I usually take on as an entertainer for a smile. I like to sing, horribly but passionately. I like to draw and write stories in my free time. And, I just recently joined a dance crew, Unique Movement!

Baruch is a really competitive school and my main concern is managing my time well enough that when the workload starts to pile up on each other. It’s going to be a different studying habit that I will need to make because I’m used to procrastinating but still be able to pass. Now it’s all different subjects that I would need to keep up with. Also each test, quiz and project are important to my grade. Usually I’m used to if you don’t do well on a test you could still be able to boost up your grade with extra assignments my teachers give. So far i don’t think the professors I’ll have would do the same. I’m concerned with how the professors are teaching in a way that I need to learn most of it on my own. Also there’s not much of really homework that needs to be done but a lot of reading and research that I need to do on my own. Another concern is having to keep track with the work i need to do and also the more technology Baruch uses to keep in touch with everything i’ll need to get used to.

My high school experience compared to Baruch is actually REALLY similar, just with maybe a little differences. I went to Brooklyn Tech and I am too familiar with the great amount of people and the commute. Also there’s a lot of my classmates that i knew from Brooklyn tech at Baruch too. I also had to swipe in to get in the building, the turnstiles was new though. What would be greatly different is the learning experience and the way the professors go along through their curriculum.

Honestly i think my first year at Baruch feels exactly like a fifth year coming out of Brooklyn Tech. But i have a feeling my studying habits will change greatly through this year. And since it’s also a big school I’m sure I’ll meet new people every day.

My name is Michael and I’m a student, son, brother, friend and musician. I’m pretty much just another person; I like jazz and basketball; I read books that have good reviews; and I love eating food. Throughout my life I’ve attended seven schools and lived in five states. Each of these places have shaped me in some way, be it camping in Arizona or mowing my lawn in Florida, or going to a performing arts school in New York City. The most important values I’ve from my experiences and from my family and friends are open-mindedness, hard work, perseverance and humor. Like most people, I often display contradictory characteristics, such as being smart/dumb and serious/ridiculous. Overall I’m a very driven person and I have a lot of confidence in my ability to get what I want.

The biggest concern for me this year is that it’ll be a fifth year of high school. Like Baruch, my high school had a vertical campus with escalators that never worked, and students who went home after classes. I didn’t really planned on going to a commuter school and was looking forward to dorm life, so having to take the train home everyday is kind of a disappointment. A couple other concerns are keeping track of all the work I have, and finding the motivation to do it. Most of my work so far has been readings and those don’t seem critically important to my grade right now. However I know that this attitude will catch up with me so I want to stay on top of things now. This concern is also related to the biggest difference I’ve observed so far. Unlike high school, the professors are a lot less concerned about making sure you know what’s going on with things like homework and assignments. Most of my professors seem to assume that we know what’s going on, when we don’t.

I honestly don’t know how I’ll change in the next year and it’s not something that I think about too much. For me, this year isn’t an opportunity to start over; I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing and if there’s something I want to try then I’ll try it. I think that some of my classes could have an impact on how I see things. This semester I’m taking philosophy, sociology, and a writing class which is centered around A Lover’s Discourse. These classes will definitely present new ideas and ways of thinking. But how much they’ll change my current perspective on the world probably won’t be realized until the end of the year.

Overall, the library seems like a good place to study. The study rooms could be quite useful during finals week for last minute cramming . The library also seems like a good place to finish last minute homework, with laptops available to rent, and copy and printing facilities. The sofas appear to be quite comfy for getting a nap in between classes. The staff is also very helpful.

The library is a pretty cool place. Throughout the week I’ve been there a couple of times. I went there to rent books and in between classes I went there to sleep. The sofas are like really comfortable especially if you use two. It’s like really quiet there too, so it’s perfect for reading and stuff. At home, there’s always something distracting me from reading, so the Baruch library is perfect for that kind of stuff.

Long title…took me all of forty seconds to think of it, and five minutes to make sure it looked somewhat coherent. To the topic at hand, the library at Baruch was certainly much more accomodating than I had initially expected. I had taken a walk in the library prior to the tour and didn’t really look around much, so much of the information was relatively new to me. The option to rent textbooks and laptops for various periods of time is an idea that I had thought would never come to fruition, especially in the society we live in today. Having only seen a little of the actual texts in the library, I can assume that there is material in every subject from every corner of the globe that students borrow, read, and learn from every day of their life at Baruch. It goes without saying that the library is extremely quiet, and with comfortable enough furniture to enjoy a quick nap, I expect friends to make frequent trips to the library. Also, the idea of study rooms that can be rented out is a great idea, albeit I doubt that there will be an available room as finals and midterms loom. As resourceful and powerful the internet can be, I feel that Baruch makes information accessable to those less technologically inclined or those with computers that happened to “break down” a few days before a paper is due.

Well so after reading Mordi’s post with the whole sociology input I feel like mine would be like a bummer to read because it would just be like the library was cool. lol WELL anyhoo, the library was cool. I think it’s the only library I know of that has a spiral staircase and I LOVE spiral staircases! It was probably the first thing I noticed once I walked right in. It literally distracted me when I needed to look for a book that day. Well, so moving on! Yeah, I’m get pretty distracted when I’m on blogs especially after I found out about tumblr. But LIBRARY! I thought the study rooms would be really convenient especially when tests and papers start to come one after another. The borrowing of laptops seem pretty cool too, especially if I wouldn’t want to bring mine one day I could still have one on hand for a couple of days even. The chairs look really comfy too, I already fell asleep one time on one of my breaks! I guess that’s about it, I really think the library was really cool, going to be very useful and HUGE! Don’t forget about the spiral staircase too!

Baruch’s library was beautiful; it was the first time I saw it. I’m not really a big fan of libraries, but this one made me feel like I was at home (well at least the couches did). The meeting rooms were very neat and very convenient as well, talk about a go hard CUNY. I don’t know what else to write so I’m gonna say that it was very nice of Aiman to give us a tour around the library  and I hope we can–as block buddies and new friends–get some social cohesion going on (as Emile Durkheim would put it) in the library before quizzes, midterms, and finals.

I thought that the library tour today was pretty informative. Having gone in there a couple times to study, I already knew about most of the services that we covered. However it was still good to hear about them from someone who has used them extensively. One thing I didn’t know about was the study rooms, which seem like a really good place to go if you’re working on a deadline or with others. I also liked that there were a lot of couches for sleeping.