Freshman Seminar 2011: CFA

For starters, I’ve had envisions about being
enrolled into Baruch since my sophomore year in high school. Then is when I realized
that I had a passion for numbers and analyzing different figures, and a career
as a financially analyst would be most suitable for me. I even began to manage
my mother’s finances during my senior year and she ended up saving about 20%
more ironically. So since that point I knew that if I wanted any chance at
gradually getting into that field, I would have to get excepted into Baruch’s
tough 23% annual acceptance rate. Since Baruch is a CUNY school, one, the tuition
was affordable and I wouldn’t have to take out any loans, and two, it’s one of
the most prestigious business schools in the city. So it was a win-win
situation.

Most of my concerns about freshman year at Baruch it
to readjust myself to a point where I’m able to succeed. There’s no doubt that
college is far different than high school, and what I was doing to maintain a
high grade point average in high school will cause me to fail in college.
Therefore, time management is one large adjustment, and is even more difficult
since my job is very time consuming. Study habits are also a major adjustments
that has. In high school I never had to study for a test or put much into an
essay to receive an A for the most part, but now I’m spending more time in the
library than I have in my entire high school career. Lastly, networking would
be an adjustment I would have to make. I know that networking is a significant role
in the business world, and I have to get out of my ways where I feel I can do
everything on my own.

Ultimately, what I’m trying
to get out of Baruch this year is maturity, and bringing me a few steps closer
to who I’m trying to be, both as a young man and career wise. Like I stated I have
no clue on who I am, but I do know where I’m trying to go, and hopefully I’ll
get to that point over the next few years.

I am Sadaf Zaheer. It’s hard for me to start talking to someone, but once I get to know someone I am very talkative. And at times, it’s really hard for to stop talking. I also love to laugh, and I do at most random things, and then like hours later when I think of it again.

One of my main goals for this semester/year is to establish a major. I am mostly sure I want to go into a business related career but am not sure about what it is yet. So far I really like Baruch; it’s not much different form high school though. But that’s because we’re all in blocks and basically have class with the same people. It’s nice to have a group of friends that motivate you to study and get your work done; which I must say I have found at Baruch. Classes aren’t a big problem yet, but the work load has been increasing lately. It’s enough to keep my social life to a minimum which is unfortunate considering I am not used to it yet.

I tend to procrastinate a lot of the time and that seems to be a major problem right now. In high school assignments could always be done last minute but not in college. I feel like I am constantly checking my planner for when things are due, but it doesn’t register in my head that have to done until the day before, another thing I have to really work on; not letting myself put everything off until the last minute.

As I mentioned before, it’s hard for me to approach people and start a conversation with someone that I don’t really know. I have to become more social and not be afraid to approach people. I am hoping I can change this aspect of myself and make it easier for myself to approach new people.

For many people, it takes a lifetime to figure out who they are in this world. However, I Danielle Troyano, at 18 years old, have a pretty good idea of who I am and who I am slowly becoming. I am a dancer. This is who I am, this is who I always hope to be. Dancing has shaped me into the strong, independent and driven person that I am today. I can confidently say that if it weren’t for my serious committment to ballet, I am not too sure that I would know my meaning in this world.  My whole life everybody has known me as “the dancer.” It always makes me think, if I never took that first ballet class when I was 4, who would I be? Would I even have a meaning in this world? This is a question that will forever linger in my mind. However all of this aside, i’d also hope to say that I am a good person with a good heart. Seeing someone else smile brings a lot more joy than my own happiness.

I guess the point of this blog is to be honest with my self and my peers. Therefore, i’m not too sure how I feel about Baruch yet. In all honestly, I chose Baruch because I wanted to attend college in NYC to stay with my ballet coach, and Baruch is cheap and a wonderful education. I know it has only been a month, but I have not been able to find my niche yet. I live in the dorms which is nice, but I mean when I come to baruch at 8am every morning, I feel very alone. This is definitey something that I hope gets better as the year goes on. I promise everyone I don’t bite! I’m not too sure why many people don’t talk to me. Perhaps my classes are just way too early and everyone is just too tired! I don’t want people to label negatively just because I rush out of Baruch everyday at 12 to get to ballet. I am just as committed to my academics as i am to ballet and it will always be that way. So far, the work load hasn’t been too crazy for me, I really hope it stays this way. That would definitely be my worst fear, not being able to balance both ends of the spectrum.

So far, Baruch appears to be very similar to high school. It has so many cliques, and I feel as if everybody knows eachother prior to coming to Baruch. I feel that once I find my own clique, everything will become a lot easier. I was able to slide my way through high school having fun and not doing much work, but I know that this can not be the case in college. I want to do well and make my parents and myself proud.I know that Baruch is the stepping stone to a bright future. It is definitely going to be a long and hard road balancing both a potential dance career and a journalism career, but I am sure that I can handle it. I hope that this first year at Baruch College teaches me the importance of time managment and how to reach that level of professionalism that I’ll need to be very successful in every aspect of life.

My name is Helen Ho. I recently turned 18, and I’ve been living in Manhattan for all my life. I came to Baruch because it’s a convenient distance from my house on 107th street. I don’t intend to have any association with anything business related. I hate everything about it, especially the knee length skirts and awkward high heels I see students wearing sometimes. I think I identify myself more with art rather than anything else. Except i’m not an artist because I don’t like it when people call themselves that. And i’m not too good at it either.

My top 3 concerns about freshman year at Baruch would be the incredibly unnecessary amount of work that needs to be done. It’s like I can never get a break anymore, there’s always more work to do. And i’m a pretty big slacker so thats an even bigger problem. Another concern I have is picking a major that i’m passionate about and that i’ll be dedicated to trying hard. The third concern I have is binge eating and being morbidly obese. I love indian food, and conveniently enough our school is next to little india. L0v3ly.

Baruch is already really different than my high school. An obvious reason is the radical size change. My graduating class consisted about 150 students, and now I have 500 classmates in my Psychology class. Baruch is also different because of the workload. I passed with a very low gpa but I also didn’t do any work and came to class late or skipped almost every day. Now I have to be responsible and independent or else the consequences will be much more severe.

I don’t really think Baruch will change me that much, I think i’ll just mature on my own. Everything comes naturally, and being in a new environment is scary but I don’t think i’ll be dramatically effected.