Freshman Seminar 2011: CFA

Who am I? Well I am:

*An average girl minus the average part;I’m uber short*

*I can be lazy*

*I have bad time management & can be forgetful even though I tell myself I will do something &  leave notes, which would explain why this post is two days late- SORRY!*

I think I am someone reliable, trustworthy, responsible and someone who is hardworking, but I’m well aware that I am no where near perfect. I know that although sometimes I tend to make mistakes it’s okay because I’m trying out this thing where I’m trying to be more positive about life and the obstacles it may throw at me from time to time.

I’m an artist as well because I love to draw even though i’m not that great, I love art, I love music, I love photography. I love being creative and imaginative. There are a million wonders in this world it just depends on what you make them to be.

I am also the baby of the family, with two older siblings that old enough to be my parents, heck they are my second pair of parents.

With that being said, my top 3 concerns about my freshman year at Baruch College would be:

1) Time management: In high school all my classes were one after another & my breaks were no where as long. Being in college with two to three hour breaks in between each class makes it hard to avoid procrastination which I’ve had a bad history with.

2)Adjusting # students classes: In my high school we only had 100 students per grade & everyone knew everyone & it wasn’t hard to get to know everyone, especially since there was 25-30 students per class. In college the size of the class ranges from 35-410 students that’s a big jump!

3)  Passing all my classes: The way the classes are taught are way different than how it was in high school. The professors aren’t there to guide you through everything, rather they just give you the assignment and expect you to complete them and if you don’t understand it’s your own responsibility  to find out the answers by asking for help or finding out other ways to help yourself to understand. They don’t baby you. You’re on your own.

What will make my experience here different than in high school are the people that you meet, the opportunities that are presented to you because of what you’ve achieved in high school, how well you perform in class and how you put yourself out there.

The first month of college has already changed me noticeably.  I am no longer as dependent, I’m slowly but gradually becoming more responsible I’ve matured a lot and by the end of my freshman year I’m pretty sure that I will become a better role model for those who are younger than me. I know that I will be wiser from those who’ve I’ve met, my professors and from the decisions that I will make.

As one can see this is very late, but thats a problem that i have been facing for quite some time. I am a very forgetful person but a good person at heart. I always like to help people no matter the circumstances-which has gotten me in a lot of trouble ove the previous years. I like to have fun all the time, its something that I need to keep myself running properly, this sounds like I have issues but I really don’t.

I tend to be quite mysterious around people, sometimes I would be the leader of the group but other times I wuld keep in reserve and not say anything. Which brings me to another thing, I have a studdering problem, its not that I studder all the time is the fact that I am scared to studder. This has always scared me and prevented me from talking a lot in class or with my friends.

I am a hero, to the numerous people that I have helped. I have solved many of their problems and I hope I can still do this. I like to see the happy faces on people. I guess one can say that I am a  therapist or something but its something that needs to be done.

I am a artist. I love to draw! Drawing is a passion of mine that I never got to enhance and now i can’t really do it anymore but the occasional doodle. But I hope one day that i can find it in me to continue drawing and maybe sell a few drawings and get rich off it.

Well, being a freshman in college the top three concerns that I have are not being able to keep up with the work, procrastinating on the homework that I have to do, and failing. These things really scare me and I hope that i don’t get stuck in these three problems. I am scared of these things because these are my worst habits when it comes to school so i have to step up my game now.

How college is diferent than high school is that there is more work to do. There are times that I wished that I was back in high school just becasue the work load was smaller. But its a change, I came from a small high schooll with a graduating class of 100 and now there are thousands at college so its a good place to meet new people.

How the first year in college will change me is that I would be more organized and work harder. I hope that I can get rid of my procrastination problem and that I would work twice as hard. I hope that college is that slap that everyone gets in life telling them to wake up. College is not high school or middle school where one can slack off and still expect to get a 100 for their grade. Even so, i hope college teaches me something new about myself.

Well peace out!

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.

Who am I?  Well, I’m me.  My name is Patria, but I prefer to go by Jaye.  I am from Brooklyn, NY.  I enjoy writing, listening/playing music; I like reading.  I am an animal lover and I am a proud owner of a beautiful chihuahua named Anna-Belle.  I am a teenager, I am an older sister, I am a daughter, and I am a cousin.  I can continue, but then this would get boring…

My first concern about my first year at Baruch is failing.  I’ve always been told that high school and college are completely different.  That I would have to work ten-times harder and still not pull off the same grades.  These fears became worse, when I was told how fantastic of a school Baruch is.  How top-notch, and how difficult it can be.  How was I supposed to compare?  How am I supposed to get the grades that I want?  Which leads to my second concern…

My second concern would be developing an understanding for the professors.  In high school, everyone is pretty well-knit together, even the teachers.  After spending four years in the same school, one tends to learn the teacher’s habits and what they want from you as a student.  Going back to the horror stories I’ve heard about college, I was always told that the teachers throw everything up on the board, and expect you to get it right away.  And if you don’t… Well, you better.  It’s hard learning new teachers’ styles and what they expect from you, and unlike high school, you only have a few months to understand the teacher, rather than a whole school year.

My third concern, is time management.  I have never really been one to organize my things, let alone my time.  Even though I know that I should, I just can’t seem to find the time or energy to organize what I have to do, and that can get me into quite a bit of trouble.  However, I hope to make that change this year.  Once again, the horror stories never fail.  I want to make sure that I have everything organized and that all my priorities are straight.

As of right now, the major thing that stands out as a difference between high school and college, are the professors.  Each professor has their own writing/teaching style, they all expect something different from you, and that’s different than from what was expected from you in high school.  But regardless, they treat you like human beings, not like little kids, which makes the complicated process of college a little more bearable.  I feel much more comfortable visiting a professor during office hours for help than I ever did in high school.

I think that this first year will make me stronger and more independent.  I’m on my own and I have to learn how to do things for myself.  I will gain a lot of knowledge this year that will be extremely useful in the following colleges years and the rest of the years to come.

Who do I think I am? Well I for one am human, a female human to be exact. Or at least I hope I am because that’s that I’ve been telling myself all these years. If I were to go any further than that then I really wouldn’t have an answer. When I think I know who I am, I end up surprising myself with a brand new aspect of myself (and I wouldn’t say all of it is good). Yet I take it in stride and accept my flaws, although some can be harder to accept than others. I wouldn’t say I’m a good person but I wouldn’t say I’m a bad person either. I try to be a good person and as to whether I succeed or not, I can only say occasionally. So as of now and maybe later in the future, I can only say I am who I am and will refuse to specify.

At Baruch I’m afraid that I’m going to fail my classes no matter how hard I try because it just won’t process correctly in my head. If that is the case than I can only hope to endure those classes and pass, even if it’s cutting it close. I’m also concerned as to whether I’m making the right choices in my life. I wouldn’t want to chase after something and later find out it’s something I never really wanted in the first place.

Currently I find Baruch to be pretty similar to high school. We all attend class then go home or meet friends and just in general mind our own business. But it’s definitely different from high school in terms of management. I’m expected to manage everything by myself whether its tests and papers or making sure I’m taking the necessary classes to graduate. It’s not something I’m quite used to but I’m a pretty organized person so I figure it’s something I can get adhere to quickly. I also have to take my classes seriously and devote time to study. I didn’t have to study in high school and still get away with decent grades but I definitely have to change my habits now.

Hopefully by the end of my first year I’ll have a clue as to where I’m going with my life and if I’m going down the right path. This is probably a bit of a stretch for me but I hope I’ll stop procrastinating by the end of the year too. If I can get over that hurdle, I’m ready to go for anything.

My name is David Haddad and I am very excited to be a part of Baruch College. I am the oldest child in my family so my role is to set a good example for my younger siblings. I am eighteen years old and I am enjoying myself in Baruch College. I have three major concerns here at Baruch College that I want to share with everyone. My first concern is that I am not sure what I want to major in. Although many family members and friends have told me not to worry about it because it will come to me soon enough I still worry. Secondly, I am a little nervous for my first tests in every subject because I don’t really know what to expect. Last but not least, I can’t find a restaurant where I really enjoy the food.

On a different note, the commute is definitely one of the things that made my college experience different from my high school experience. In high school I took City Bus for five minutes every day to reach my destination but to get to Baruch I have to take the Subway and make a transfer. This takes me around one hour per way to get to Baruch College. I don’t mind the commute so much because I find stuff to do on the subway like read books, do homework, or listen to music on my IPod. I like all my classes so far but Psychology and Freshman Seminar top the list because they are both very interesting classes.

I think that I will calmer after I complete my first semester at Baruch because I will know my way around more and I will have more of an understanding of what college life is. As for now I am still trying to figure out certain things so hopefully by next the next Blog post I will have more answers.