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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.