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I definitely am surprised at how this semester ended up. I came into the school with two friends, and am leaving this semester with a whole bunch. That was my biggest fear. I feared I wouldn’t make any friends, and I’d be a loner. But now that I have these friends, they have made my experiences in school even better and more enjoyable.

It doesn’t feel like almost 4 months have passed. I went from being this shy, introspected kid to an outgoing and bubbly person. I am now active in seeking out new friendships. My work ethic has changed as well. I used to push things off until the last minute. I now can proudly say that I do almost all of my work early, which allowed me the much needed rest and relaxation time all us freshmen deserve.

I can come out of this semester knowing that I have learned a lot. It is this learning that will enable me to continue in my education and in my life as well.

It most definitely does not feel as though almost 5 months have gone by. I have to say in this time I’ve learned to take Baruch more seriously. I never really openly doubted the level of intensity of Baruch or CUNYs in general but I have to say I’ve learned my lesson: I can’t just get by on mediocrity here. Even if you’re higly intelligent it still takes effort and dedication to do well here which I’ve learned the hard way. As far as hat I expected college to be I don’t think Baruch met all of my expectations, I wanted the traditional collegiate campus feel but baruch is totally different. It’s definitely more modern than some other schools and it does take more effort to meet new people since most of the students are going from class, to work, or to hang out with friends. It took some getting used to but I’m starting to like the campus a bit more. I’ve lived in the city all my life but so I wasn’t expecting to want to be surrounded by trees and old buildings. As far as academics are concerned Baruch pretty much met my expectations. I think I was the one who didn’t meet what was expected of them.

I can’t lie; I don’t think my first semester went very well. I guess it was a learning process. No one is going to tell me what I have to do here. I have a certain level of control and I haven’t done so well with it. I guess making mistakes is pert of maturing. I’m learning from the mistakes I’ve made and I’m trying to finish out strong, which I know I can do.

I would definitely not have missed class as much as I did. It really creates a large ‘catching-up’ distance because we don’t have class too often. I would have said no to some events I was invited to in order to focus on school. I definitely would have spoken to more people here at school and gotten to know the area better. There’s always a point of getting comfortable as well. I was scared at first because I thought all of my classes would be extremely difficult but some of my classes were easier than expected which caused me to slack off. Definitely would’ve stayed on my toes more.

I think I’ve changed in the sense that I’ve become more decisive. Before I entered college I had help making all of my decisions. Here I have to make many decisions on my my own and that has carried over into my personal life. If you had asked me just a few months ago what classes I’d like to take I’d probably give you a blank stare and then go ask someone for help but now that I’ve had to make these decisions at school it’s easier to do so in other situations.

Having gone to a school with double the curriculum of the norm for middle and high school, I expected college to be a piece of cake. I was used to going to school from 7AM until 5:30PM, and taking about 12 classes. The problem here is that I feel I’m not being challenged enough here in Baruch, so I don’t see a reason to work hard. I slack because I can’t take half of my professors seriously, and I still feel like I’m in my senior year of high school. I’m used to a high stress level, which is what helps me get things done, and my classes don’t provide me with that. I’ve heard that in college, professors couldnt give a rat’s ass (excuse my french) about their students, but I didnt think that would be such a precise statement. I had one instance where I missed an exam for a family wedding in Vegas and my professor wouldnt let me retake it- even though I was warned, this insensitive attitude still took me by surprise.

I feel as if I didn’t do so well this semester. To be honest, I didn’t apply myself. I know that if I really cared about these classes and actually tried to do well, my grades would reflect that.

If I could redo this semester, I’d read the articles for my sociology class ahead of time as well as the chapters for my politics class. They’d prepare me for class more, encourage me to actually participate, and would grant me some extra points on exams.

I dont think I’ve changed much as a person since I started at Baruch College, but I’ve been exposed to many different religions and cultures that I haven’t been surrounded by before.

My first semester here at Baruch definitely had its surprises. For one, I wasn’t sure what to expect at all. As it comes to an end though, I think I’m beginning to understand what’s expected of us: Baruch is not the same as high school, in the respect that, if you don’t work, you won’t succeed. I did more homework in the first week of college than in all of senior year, and that’s because I truly want to succeed here. I plan on getting to the top, looking down from the windows of my office towards the Wall Street protesters and wonder, how did I get here? Whether I make it there or not is dependent on the work I put in here at Baruch. Baruch is home to various cultures, religions and nationalities, which is very different from the private Jewish school I’d been in. I think I’ll be able to learn a lot from the different people, and take all this experience of cultures wherever I go. Next term I hope to limit my idle time by contracting my schedule better so I can use up the rest of my time productively.

Whoaahh. College goes by A LOT faster than High School. I mean, Sunday night I would be sad about how there is school the next day, and then I would blink and BAM- Its already Thursday. The fact that I don’t have school on Fridays really helps (it makes Thursday feel like a Friday). High School was full of a lot of nonsense. Seemed as though there were many classes that were simply filler for the sake of taking up time. I expected College to be free of this nonsense, and for the most part it is. I think that’s why I am able to have so few classes and so much free time. One thing that surprised me was that it was a lot easier than I anticipated. My classes didn’t seem too tough, but its probably because I’m a freshman. I’m worried about next semester though… Regardless, my first semester was still awesome! I loved all the hours and breaks I had in between classes! And most of my teachers were really fun so classes were not that boring. If I could do first semester all over again, I would try reading the chapters of my Political Science class ahead of time. I think it would’ve helped my test grades. I don’t think I have changed much since the beginning of College… But I did learn to enjoy some sorts of Chinese Food.

Since the beginning of the semester the only thing that’s really changed about me is my stress level! I expected college to be challenging obviously but once you try to balance Baruch courses with whatever’s left of your social life, it’s not easy. Ive always been an A student but apparently I’m not in Baruch? I feel like I put in so much work but it’s still not enough. You can only push yourself so much you know? I’m already exhausted and it hasn’t even been one semester. Between the 2 hour commute and effing calculus, I don’t find too much time to sleep. Maybe its procrastination? I seemed to get past that already. I wish I could restart my whole semester especially that first calc exam along with the latest politics exam. Not the best start to college, to say the least. But since I can’t redo the semester, I guess I’ll just have to tough it out and hit the books even harder. Wish me luck because I’m going to need a lot of it!