http://www.someecards.com/usercards/unsubmitted/MjAxMy03Y2M2MjczZjIxM2RjOWEy

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=79497

This was definitely a semester I can learn a lot from, and hopefully improve on myself (in all aspects of life) for the semesters to follow. I had a difficult time adjusting to the collegiate standards of Baruch. For starters, my commute from Great Neck is in no way convenient. On top of that, I had trouble getting used to the fact that classes aren’t an entire year long, like high-school, anymore. I also needed help navigating around the city at first. Luckily, making friends wasn’t an issue for me because everyone that’s on my block was very kind and friendly from day one. I truly do hope that I can stay in touch with this unique group of wonderful people. I also joined Hillel, which is the “Jewish club” of this school. I made a lot of new friends at Hillel as well. As for the stressful aspect of my college life, I started biting my nails again and I’m really pissed off about it. It is so hard balancing my school work, job, social life, and playing for my soccer team all at the same time. However, my professors this semester have been much more understanding and lenient than I expected, but I know that it won’t be that way with every professor. Luckily, my good friends got an apartment in the city so I have slept over their apartment a couple of times when I had an early class the next day. At first I told myself that I would transfer to Binghamton because I didn’t think I would like it at Baruch, but now I’m sort of looking forward to my years to come at Baruch college.

I started to have a static mindset when I got to Baruch. I thought this was a school where I would go through the 4 years of college fast. But this mindset was bad. I started to do worse in classes and bad in my own standards. I didn’t want to go challenge myself or do anything that I was interested in. I had the same routine experience day in and day out. School, work, sleep. I didn’t have many extracurriculars nor did I try to learn in classes. I started to lose effort with my work and I didn’t want to work as hard anymore. My friends would tell me to go out and do something different with my life. They wanted me to change it up a little. After being told this over and over, I finally give in and do something different. I head out to socialize and network with Baruch students. This gave me a different perspective on how I was experiencing and living the college life. My mindset changed from a static mindset to a growth one. I looked forward to my classes and actually learning something about sociology or music. I had a new motivation to do my work and have more networking opportunities. The first few months at Baruch might have been a little bitter and resentful, but as I’m going through college, I’m growing and staying away from that mindset. I’m trying to achieve a growth mindset where I can look forward to my future experiences and grow from it. Ranging classes to clubs, I plan on taking everything I’m given, criticism and advice, and using it to the best of my ability. I look forward to the next few years at Baruch and seeing what other things I will experience here.

http://i.imgur.com/HGBY1tW.png , Maker of the image: Carol S. Pweck

This first semester at Baruch flew by very quickly. It was not as stressful as these last couple of weeks are turning out to be. With finals coming up, about 3 papers and a couple of tests, it feels like the professors are saving all of their hardest, longest, and most involved tasks until the very end. The stress is just beginning to set in. I wasn’t used to being under such pressure consistently for such a long period of time. In high school, our stress correlated to when we had big papers, projects, or exams coming up. In college, there is always something that needs to be done, so I rarely feel relief after finishing one task, because sure enough, I am onto another one shortly.

Baruch helped me learn a few things about myself. One of the important things being that I do not know how to cope with stress. Until now, my coping mechanism has been sleep, but because I have so much work (especially in the present moment), I cannot afford to cope with my problems and worries in this way. I also learned that to cope productively, I need to plan my assignments in advance. I cannot procrastinate, or else I will be left the night before the assignment is due, tired, and uninspired, with nothing to write. In order to avoid this, I need to plan ahead. I work better in the mornings rather than at night, so by planning ahead of time, I can force myself to work on my assignment in the morning, allowing me to work more efficiently and productively.

My favorite memory from Freshmen Seminar is the first day of class- convocation. It seems like so long ago that we were meeting Professor Hensley for the first time. We didn’t know our block mates yet, which is odd thinking to how close I am with some of them now. That first day was when I realized that the people sitting in that room with me will get to know each other pretty well. We may not all be hanging out on the weekends in the future or anything, but our block made my transition into Baruch a relatively easy one. It was nice having classes with the same people, who all met each other during Convocation.

For next semester, I am looking forward to my classes. I never used to like school too much, but I really love it in Baruch. Of course, I have a few classes that I am not excited for, but on the whole, I cannot wait to take classes like, for example, philosophy. It excites me that I had a say in the classes and professors that I pick (even though it was awfully hard to book them). I also hope that I got accepted to TEAM Baruch; if so, I would be extremely excited to start working with them.

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This picture represents the workload that this first semester in college has brought on. I tend to procrastinate on a lot of assignments, which usually ends up with me stressing out to get something done and pulling an all-nighter. Although I have successfully managed to complete all my assignments, I need to work on my time management. In the beginning of the semester I would do things ahead of time, but as the weeks passed I would push things off further and further. I would like to return to my previous work habits. In the next week and a half I have three papers due. I will try to complete them in an orderly fashion to ensure that I put out my best work. I have always been one to write everything down and try to keep myself organized so I hope to take advantage of that in the final few weeks of this semester. Writing things out allows me to visually map things out. This is something I take advantage of in a lot of areas of my life, particularly school, because I would say that I am a visual learner.
Another area that I have found interesting is my studying habit and the way it varies between each class. For certain classes I need to devote time and energy into creating review sheets that will allow me to adequately understand the material. In other classes I have found that reviewing an hour before the test is most effective. Though the latter is more stressful at times, it allows me to keep information fresh in my head.
My first three months at Baruch have been an interesting experience, but all in all I would say that it has been a positive one. I think this college is a good fit for me and it provides me with all the things that I would have hoped to find within an academic institution. I’ve been able to make friends, explore the city, and stay on top of my work. I am a little shocked that these three months have passed so quickly. At this time in our lives it seems almost surreal how quickly things happen. We are all almost done with our first semester in college. I feel as though I’ve spent years just talking and planning for college, and now here we are. This is it, it’s all happening. Hopefully, things continue on a positive path. I look forward to my future years here at Baruch.

http://www.memecenter.com/fun/4169729/college-life-problems-101

The image I created relates to my experience in Baruch college freshmen year. During this year, college work seems to be tough and the transition from high school is still lingering in us. Even with the syllabus, college work seems to take more time and effort to do. Lately at late night, I would be spending my time doing homework or even finishing up assignments. Currently, nearing the end of the first half the year, we have many final papers due. In order to finish all the essays on time, I would designate each week into doing certain papers one at a time. In the beginning of the year, I would spend my time hanging out with friends and going home later than usually. When I arrive home, I would then eat dinner and begin my homework. Sometimes there is too much work and I would have to spend the night doing it. From high school, I would procrastinate and still finish the work on time, but now in college everything seems harder. Nowadays I spend my entire break in the computer lab on the sixth floor doing my work, but when I get hungry I go out and get a quick lunch or after school. Just so I don’t have to spend the extra hours of my sleep being awake, I begin to do my work more attentively and finish it earlier than the due date, just so I don’t have to worry about it later. On some cases, sometimes I would forget an assignment and having that extra time in the morning from the extra hours at night, I could finish it really quick if it was a short assignment like a mini research. The struggles in college are real. Other times I would have to spend the night studying test materials one to three days before the exam, just to get it all down and remembered in my head. The more time I spend late at night doing work, then waking up early for class begins to take a toll on my body. I would feel sluggish and unattended throughout my daily activities. In my next three and a half years of Baruch College left, I hope that I won’t be spending the time late at night doing my assignments.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3r79vr

The link above is to the meme that describes my experience here at Baruch.Its been an interesting couple of months here at Baruch filled with its ups and downs. Its been super hard to manage good grades, actually getting enough sleep, and a social life. But throughout these three months I’ve learned more than I thought I ever could. An important thing I learned was that I need to manage my time better because in college there’s constant due dates for assignments around the corner. Time management is so important because when I do things rushed then I feel extremely stressed out and frustrated and thats something I try to avoid. Whenever I manage my time wisely I think the quality of my work turns out much better than it would’ve if I had procrastinated. Unfortunately, I know that its inevitable that I will procrastinate once in a while but I think since having started Baruch I’ll be doing that much less than I did before.

I have truly enjoyed all of our freshman seminar classes and found them very useful. My favorite freshman seminar class would probably be the first one on Convocation day.This day feels like it was just yesterday and yet here we are, almost at the end of this class. None of us really knew each other and the exercise we did to find out some facts about another student was really fun. It was also interesting to hear these facts about everyone in our class so that we could kind of get to know each other a bit better. Although I’m excited to meet new people, I will honestly really miss this block and I’m happy we got to experience our first semester at Baruch together.

I’m really looking forward to my next semester here. I’m excited to take classes that I actually got to choose as oppose to this semester where I didn’t have much of a say in class choice. Although I didn’t get the exact classes I was hoping for, (registration was one of the most stressful parts of the year) I still got pretty decent professors and class times. And even though I’ll have to come to school 5 days a week, I get to start pretty late, so I’m happy I’ll get to sleep in almost every day! I’m also excited to get a fresh start in these new classes and hopefully do even better than this semester. Baruch has been a great experience thus far.

http://memeblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/at-college-what-have-i-done.png

This picture represents my experience at Baruch this semester because for many of my assignments I tried and tried to not procrastinate, but it never really worked out. It reminds me of the many nights throughout the semester when I would have a paper due the next day and I was just starting the assignment. I didn’t really get much sleep, but it would always catch up to me by the end of the day on Thursday. The good thing was that I could sleep in the very next day. Time management was something that I definitely did poor on this semester and I know that I have to work on it for the rest of my college years. I got really caught up in all the free time that comes with college but I didn’t really do a good job of managing it. Luckily, I’ve always managed to do my work and hand it in on time. I don’t think it’ll work out for the years to come, especially as I start to get internships and join new clubs.  What I learned about myself is that I need to try to do things earlier so that I won’t have to regret it earlier, which is something I found myself doing many times throughout this semester. I learned that college work is going to push me farther than I’ve ever had to go, but I can adapt to it because I am a very flexible person. My favorite memory in our Freshman Seminar class is when we went over each of our classes and what we could do to change certain things about the class or the outcome of the class. It was very enjoyable because it helped us realize that many of the things that were challenging in the class could be changed by our own actions. It almost seemed silly for us to not realize this, so this is why it was my favorite memory in our Freshman Seminar class. As for next semester, I look forwarding to joining new clubs and meeting new people. I didn’t get to join many clubs this semester because I wanted to get accustomed to college life before putting too much on my plate. Next semester I am definitely looking forward to joining those clubs that I was interested in this semester but didn’t get the chance to join. I’m also looking forward to meeting new people because of the fact that Baruch is so diverse and it’s exciting to know that I can get to know people from literally all over the world. Meeting people from different countries will allow me to learn about all the different cultures that I have not been exposed to up until this year. Another thing I look forward to is applying for programs that will help me get internships in the future. But I will not procrastinate this time (I swear) because I really want to get into these programs for they can shape what the rest of my career in college will look like and possibly the rest of my life. 

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My first semester at Baruch College has been a major transition into college, and I think that applies to most incoming freshman.  Coming to college meant a move to where I would call home in the foreseeable future.  No longer would I reside in Huntington, New York, but I would call the greatest city on Earth my home for the next four years.  I came into college thinking that I could live my life the say I did in high school, which meant doing my homework every once in awhile, waiting till midnight the night before an assignment was due to actually start the assignment, and not having to study for exams.

Well I was wrong with pretty much all my assumptions.  If you see the kid in the chair as me and the incoming backpacks as the rude awakening to what was to come.  I thought that I could pull a 3.7 GPA easy, with minimal effort.  But I soon found myself doing something that I rarely did, if ever, in high school and that is studying.  For the second exam for the class Introduction to Sociology, I found myself prepping and reviewing the material nearly half a week before the exam itself.  But it was worth it in the end.  For some people that might not seem like such an accomplishment, but for me that is a big deal.  I also found out that the pace at which the material is presented and taught just seems to zoom by.  In high school you could miss a week full of classes and it still would not be equivalent to missing one class in college.  The length of the classes is also something that took me a while to get used to.  Having sometimes an almost two hour class can be tough to sit through, let alone paying attention to the whole thing.  It is a rough feeling sitting in class for an hour and looking at the clock and realizing that you still have another hour to sit through.

Learning to manage your time is a crucial skill that is imperative to survive in college.  Often times you’ll have 2 or 3 assignments due on the same day.  So you have to plan out what you are going to do and when you are going to do them.  Gone are the days of starting an assignment the night before and getting a good grade on the assignment.  I mean you could try starting it the night before, but you probably are not going to do too well on it.

So pretty much try to avoid the backpacks and don’t be the kid sitting in the chair when they come raining down.

This semester at Baruch has had its ups and downs. I had some good moments and some bad. I have met many people in my block that I will cherish and hope to see often in the next four years. Some moments from this semester has made me rethink my actions and how I should change how I usually do things. As the semester comes to an end, it feels as if I haven’t done much. Hopefully next semester in new classes, I can work harder, be more active and outgoing. I’m looking forward to taking a business and a law class and being able to meet new people at such a diverse college next semester. Being at Baruch for almost a semester has made me realize that the people at Baruch are really friendly and are really willing to help you. I learned that I’m lazy and I only work hard when I need to, so I want to change that. Next semester I want to be work to the best of abilities and put schoolwork ahead of everything else.
My favorite memory of FRO was when we were talking about the classes we were taking and what we didn’t like about each class. I liked how we were talking about the little problems about some classes we were in and how others were giving suggestions on how we can fix those little problems. It was a fun class that day and that made class feel really short that day. I also liked how Randy put us into groups, because it gave us a chance to talk to others in our block if we haven’t gotten the chance to during our other classes. It was fun how we discusses our classes and laughed about what we wrote because we could all relate to it, because we were in those classes together.
I chose this meme because as I started college I thought that there wasn’t going to be a big difference compared to high school. One month into the semester, I realized that it was completely different. Everything felt so fast paced and I just felt like I couldn’t keep up with it. I realized I had to learn to adjust and get my act together. I then knew not everything could be fun and games and that I had to learn to be more serious about things and work to the best of my abilities. Now that the end of the semester is coming closer, I felt that one semester goes by very quickly and that when the next semester starts I shouldn’t be so lazy and do things ahead of time and make time to be able to do things I like. This meme shows that college might not be fun, but I think it can be fun if you just learn how to balance school and activities you want to do in your free time. College is what you make of it, if we work to the best of our abilities I believe that I can achieve good grades and have a fun social life.

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35t419

The meme above portrays the start of my first year of college. As I have mentioned in my earlier monologues, it was a completely new experience for me entering college. I came into my classes with my high school mentality. I felt that I wouldn’t need to work that hard. I felt that I can blow by exams, homework, and projects just as I did in high school. I also believed that professors would work at students pace. However, I was completely wrong. College was a bit off my expectations. It was twice as hard as what I thought it would be. Professors would not wait for anyone. Especially in my sociology class, topics were fast paced and there was no room for slacking.

My first three months at Baruch had been quite a ride. I wasn’t really meeting my expectations in most of my classes. I came in thinking I was getting an A in most classes and probably a B in a few. Again, I was totally wrong. I’m struggling to maintain B’s in most classes and my only chances of an A is in my Calculus class which is slowly fading sadly. Exams hit me harder than this week’s weather. The first couple of exams made me realize that I really need to step up my game for the rest of the semester. I also had witnessed one of my fellow classmates being “tricked” really hard by a professor. The professor had told the student that he had done “very well” on the last exam. Not just well but “VERY WELL.” So this student was quite happy and had no worries in his mind. When the results of the tests were up, the student saw that he scored really low. This un-named student just didn’t believe that he did that bad, therefore, he had put in much effort in disputing his grade with the professor. The student even believed that the professor switched his grade with another student’s grade. In the end, when he got his actual test back, this student not only realized that he did indeed receive the low grade, but also that he needed to step it up. The main point is that, you should always study and be prepared for exams so you don’t have to worry about how you did. Knowing that you put in the effort and time, your test grades will look much better.

Although, I had bumpy rides along the way of my first semester, I had a lot of fun. I made very close friends that I spend time with in and out of Baruch. We hang out and also set time to study and do homework. I found my niche here at Baruch and am getting quite used to it. Hopefully my grades smoothen up so I can feel accomplished at the end of the semester.

By: MD Uddin
P.S: Don’t be that student mentioned above. Continue reading MD Uddin 3rd Post →