Surviving College 101 Section: FTA

My teacher from high school had once said “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad”. I can assume that criminals would tell each other “don’t steal small, but steal big”. My intention of this quote is not to talk about the key to stealing but to express my main concerns regarding to my first year of college. College is where the painting of my future begins to be painted. Unlike high school, every year counts. The minute I stepped into Baruch, I gave myself 2 options: One is to do well by receiving at least a GPA of 3.3, and the other is to drop out. Of course, the option I have chosen is quite obvious. I am sure that I was ignorant like every other freshman. We believed that achieving the 3.3 average is simple. The first day of college caused me to rethink. The professors have already given me a glimpse of my college life.
My first concern is time management. Because professors are unaware about the work load we are responsible for, they continue to give out a great capacity of homework. Other than homework, we are also responsible for passing our exams. Homework is a “time consuming” activity that makes studying challenging. My second concern is adapting to the college environment. After spending 4 years in high school, transitioning from high school to college is difficult. The way the room numbers are label differ from how the rooms are organized in high school. My third concern is meeting new people. Baruch is a large building that holds over 1,000 people. This building consists of people of all ages. Due to the age gaps, I feel it is difficult to interact.
I expect to be more independent and mature. College provides obligations that are essential to fulfill. By doing so, I know that I continue to mature. Each and every day, I a given a challenge, fulfilling them allows me to feel a sense of achievement. Other than maturing, I expect to be more responsible. Ever since high school, I procrastinated and studied the day before the exam day. Cramming in college is unlike high school. The chance of passing in high school through cramming is 70%. Cramming in college can only guarantee a 40% chance of passing. As you can tell, the method that is used in high school can not be reused in college. This provides a greater challenge.

     Who do I think I am? In general, I am just one of the freshmen in Baruch College. I live in Brooklyn. Like many students in Baruch, I am also a Chinese immigrant, who is not fluent in English. Compare with my people in Baruch, I think the major I plan to take can make me special. After several weeks of college, I find out that many people want to major in accounting. I used to have a plan for accounting as well. However, people can be influenced by others. As I took economic in my high school senior year, I am deeply interested in this subject. Therefore, I will extend to study it in Baruch. May be my major can make my identity.

     Before you adapt yourself into a new environment, you definitely would have some kinds of concerns. Mostly, concerns are caused by strangeness. Baruch’s community is still strange for me. I don’t know how many departments it has, how can I get help from school, and I can I have fun at school. Because everything is unknown for me, I feel kind of lost. Hopefully, after the first semester, I can remove this concern from my mind. The second concern is how to make a balance for college. In high school, we just need to go to school and listen to the teachers. However, we need to figure out almost everything by ourselves now. When should we study? How much time do we need to spend? How to make a balance between schoolwork and other personal work, such as part-time job, friendship, etc.  I am afraid that I can’t make a right balance and will face a bad consequence as a result. As a student, who does not care about his grade? My third concern is about my grade. I heard many people said that it’s hard to get an A in college, since C means average. Therefore, I concerns that I may end up with C grade in most class. Moreover, I don’t really know how I can get good grade in college. Everything is just unknown. In high school, you just need to follow the teachers. Then you will be fine. However, college is different. You need to work in your own way even you don’t know what is the right track.

     My first year in college may help me to make a transition into adulthood, which means I need to grow up my self-responsibility and independence. Hopefully, it can change my positively and make me better off in the next three years.

To think who am I. I think I am a pessimistic optimist. Why do I say that? First I am a pessimist; sometimes bigger the expectation, the bigger the disappointment so I always think about and prepare for the worst. On the other hand, I am the optimist. Even though I feel pessimistic in many things, I would be optimistic to deal with them, because I have prepared for the worst. When the bad consequences come to me, I would accept that results with peace of mind. Meanwhile I still believe that things could not be the worst if I try my best. Finally, I think a pessimist could lead optimistic life.

The three top concerns about my freshman year at Baruch College are friendship, transition, and grades. The development of friendship is the highest concern for me in the first year at the college. As a freshman, I need help in many ways, so I must make friends with others. The college courses are more difficult than high school. I as well can make a study group with my friends to help each other in homework, research papers. The second one is to make a transition between high school and college. In college, everything is new for me, I need fit in the college ASAP. For fitting in the college life, I also must make friends with others. The last, The last, I want to have a good GPA in my first college year, because well began is half done, and that can also build confidence in myself. confidence is important for me in the rest of college year.

In my opinion, the most significant thing can make my Baruch College exprience different from my high school experience is that we are more depending on our own self-study skill. In the high school, teachers could spend more time helping us. I think it is good to cultivate ours independence in the college. We need to learn to use the resoure to help ourselves.

I think my first year at college would make me more independent. I think I will manage my time more effectively.

“Be myself, everyone else is already taken.”

I think who I am depends on different time and different people. Sometimes, I hope I can Google how different people feel about me. I think I am a unique Chinese live in New York City. I know I always make mistakes, but I am proud to be me, and I am willing to experience more tastes in my life. I am a freshman in Baruch College. I graduated from Lower East Side Prep High School and I went to Lewiston High School in Maine when I first came to the United States. This part of background makes me differ from everyone. I am generally a quiet person to strangers, but I am kind of chatty after knowing the person. I play basketball at my spare time and I like spending time on movies and chatting with my friends on internet. I have a quite positive attitude when I deal with all kinds of trouble.  I am engaged to learn new things, but then I lack of patient to explore the new knowledge when things go too complicated or go beyond the topic. I speak English as my second language as many fellow students. I see life is full of stories. While I am experiencing unique story, I am getting wiser and mature to keep on good work.

I feel restless but excited in the first month of my freshman year at Baruch College. The top three concerns about my freshman year here are, adjusting myself into college life, making friends, and looking for my interest in career path. I always hesitate when I am going to make decision. I see things have so many possibilities and I would do my best to make it good.  As I look forward to knowing more people, I could not step outside my comfort zone. The first thing i have to adjust, is I receive tons of reading for homework which alerts me I have to improve my reading speed and understand the content. Study is on my own and professors would no longer ask me to study but the grade would automatically reflects my work. Secondly, I want to make more friends in the freshman year at Baruch College because I need friends. Lastly, I think it’s time to plan for future and get to know more about myself. I believe I will discover my interests of my life throughout the freshman year at college.

I think college life is totally different than high school. College students are more eager to study and college constantly contributes a better learning atmosphere for its students. The first thing came up my mind when I think of the differences between college and high school is time management. I recognize I have a poor time management skill in the first month at college. I try to arrange my time so that I can put the most effort into study.

At last, I think my first year at Baruch College will change me to be an independent and responsible person. In particular, I think I would improve my reading and writing skill within the freshman year. And I am going to enjoy the college life.

  I am an ordinary student study inBaruchCollege, and also my name is common among people, I often meet people who have the same name with me, but I am unique in the world. I firmly believe that everyone is different from the other people; there will not be two people exactly the same, even if they are twins. Everyone is unique in the world. I am optimistic, I am sanguine, I never fear hardships, I try my best to do everything, and I never give up. I play a lot role in my life. Though I am not perfect, still I am the only one in the world.

   About my first freshman year inBaruchCollege, for me the most concern is how to pass all the classes and maintain a high GPA. It is the challenge to my English. My English is poor, but the classes demand a richer and more subtle mastery of the English, I do not have enough confidence about that. I need to build up my confidence in college. My second concern is about time management. Because I always think the time is not enough for me to do all the study. I should learn to how to use my time effectively. My third concern is about the major that I should choose. I only know that I want the major in business, but I am not sure which one of it. I am equivocal in this case, but I think it is very important for my future, so I need to make a decision after long deliberation. I hope I will figure it out soon.

   I think my high school experience seems to much easier than the college experience. The college is much different from the high school; it needs to do a lot work on our own initiative. For example, there are many reading materials we need to read everyday, it makes me become dizzy and lose my bearings. I spend a lot time in doing homework, and writing the essay. It seems to I can not finish all of them forever, but I will never give up, and I will keep trying and trying.  In the high school, the teachers teach us how to learn, but in the college, the professors teach us how to think. We need to figure out many things by ourselves. I will make efforts to do all my work well.

  I think the college  life will make me become more industrious and independent. My life may be more colorful in the college. Sooner or later, my dream will come true one day.

The human is a drop water in the ocean when compared to the infinite expanse of the universe. Even though I am an ordinary people as negligible as a grain of sand, I believe that I am a unique person who has different experiences and challenges in the world. Also, I am a tough girl who always takes an optimistic attitude to face life no matter what kind of obstacles or calamities would befall her.

As a freshman at Baruch college, there are three concerns about my college life in first year. The first and the most important concern is my English skill. English as a second language for me, it probably become an stumbling block when I study in various academic areas . I wish that I have more participations and opportunities to improve my English level during studying in Baruch College. The second concern is GPA, I already heard some complains which it is hard to get a high GPA in college. I think that getting a good grade depend on what kind of learning attitudes you take. However, I will try my best to do it. Finally, I am afraid that whether I am able to accommodate the new college life. It is unacquainted for me to accept numerous strange things, like new relationship, environment and different academy. Anyway, I am firmly convinced that I have ability to adopt new life with my change and endeavor.

Obviously, I realized that Baruch College experience different from my high school experience. There are full of pressure surrounding me in the college. The pressure is not only form an overload of studies, but also it is made by competitive force between me and other student. Therefore, those tension could become an motivation to encourage me to keep forward , develop and change.

Ultimately, I expect that I will make my English skill to be advantage in the first college year. Additional, I am eager to expand my relationship net through making more friends in order to inspire myself to study merits from those persons. However, I look forwad to completing my achievements at Baruch College.

College is a new start of our lives. We get more chances to explore the world. But fit into this new life in the college is not easy.it makes me have several concerns at the beginning of the college. And I realize this new life will also shape my personalities

As I step into the Baruch college, a totally new environment for me. I realize I will have lots of obstacles in front of me, and it makes me concern many things. First I am worried about my grades. I want to get a good GPA. But the class works and the readings are much harder than I thought. The amount of readings for one day can be ten times more than the works in my high school. I am also concerned that I cannot fit into the Baruch society. I did not know anyone here, and get to know the new people and the new professors can be really hard. So I am afraid that I cannot make friends in this new environment. What I concerned most is my writing skills. After I saw the syllabus, I realize there are many writing assignments, and those essays play the most important part for determining your grades. I just came to this country three years ago, so I am not a great English writer, I may have some grammar mistakes. So I am worried that will affect my grades.

The college’s experience can really affect me in many ways. I think I will be more independent after my first year in Baruch. The college is all on you, the professor will not push you to do your homework and readings like the high school teachers did. So it is all our responsibility to do our work and study the class materials by ourselves. I will also learn how to manage my time better after the first year. There are lots of readings and essay assignments. I realize that we cannot wait until last minute. We have to plan ahead. If the paper is due tomorrow, we have to start one week before. So we don’t have to work until 3 o’clock at the midnight. We always have to be well prepared for everything. Last, I think the college experience will make me become a more outgoing person. I see the college experience in Baruch is really fun. There are many clubs and activities. I will try to join them, and participate with them. So I will have opportunity to meet more people, and make more friends.

The life in Baruch is really exciting. It can affect us very much. We may meet many obstacles, and have many concerns. But we should not give up. We all come to Baruch for a future dream, and if we work harder, this dream will come true.

         I am an ordinary student among the thousands of students in the Baruch College.I always pay my attention to my dream and try my best to achieve it, even though I have to face different kinds of challenges.Also,I am a person who never feel dispressed no matter what happen to me,because I always talk to myself that I need to keep smile with people,then the people may have the same feeling with me.So be optimistic is my expect way to enjoy my new life in college.

          As a freshman of the college,I have to acclimatize myself to the new surrounding.There are several concerns about my freshman year at Baruch College.First, time management is my biggest concern. Usually,I do my job without any sense of the time,however it is important to develop the time mangement in college, because I have to get in the class on time and finish the assignments without exceeding the deadline.Also,in order to catch up with the teachers’ schedule,I have to preview the book and  review it after class which I never did before.Secondly,I concern about my academics,it is difficult to get high GPA the help of the professor and classmates.I know that the GPA determines whether I develop my skills during the classes.Certainly,I wish I could develop my abilities to have a good foundation for the future in college.Finally, I worry about whether I can get used to the new life,college seems like a diffetent stage during the entire life,I have to face new rules,new people,and new surroundings.sometimes,I need to make a change to fix myself in order to interact with new things without misunderstanding.

         Baruch College experience is different from my high school,it  not only offers me a chance to develop my academic skills,but also cultivate my abilities to  look toward the social life.During the college,it teaches me  to be independent and mature when I deal with a problem or socialize with the other students.The most important thing is that it reminds me of my responsibilities,I could understand what is my duty and what should I need to do.Anyway, I would learn a lot of  knowledge which I never understood during the high school.

             Ultimately, during the first year of  Baruch College,it impove my writing and conmunication skills.Also,it help me to understand how to get well with the new people.Just be brave and extroversion.I think it may change me to manage my time intelligently and size the every opportunity exist.I feel excited to figure out my dream and look forward to the new experience in Baruch College .

             Let’s fighting together to have a different and excited new college life.