Furthering my Edumacation
It's been two weeks since I walked through the Barnard gates with five or so pieces of luggage in hand, two parents digitally capturing my every move despite my embarrassment, and a helpful Columbia boy, whose name has slipped my mind at the moment (it might have been Matt or Nick). But here's a quick summary of my life as an official college student:
Orientation: I was bombarded by a multitude of opportunities to explore the world on and off campus. I took the opportunity to get myself familiar with the buildings on both the Barnard and Columbia campus. I made sure that I knew how to get to Milbank by using the tunnel system because of the ongoing Nexus construction, which will be completed in 2009. I took the train down to Time Square, Central Park, The Natural History Museum among many other attractions. But I'm still not comfortable with transferring and finding where the stations are that'll take you the opposite direction. That is why I'm sticking to the 1 train for now. I'll probably end up just getting off at 34th St since that's where I'll do most of my clothes shopping. I am officially in love with H&M.
School: School. Homework. Reading. Lectures. School. First off, college classes are nothing like high school classes. The teacher no longer holds your hand and walks you through what you need to do. No neatly typed notes to copy, structured classes, and clear instructions. You basically sit there and take notes whilst trying to decipher what are the main points amidst the incoherent ramblings of the teacher. I'm still trying to figure the system out. But I must bring up the fact that I am still completely weirded out by not only the upperclassmen in the class, but the 40+ year old students sitting next to you. Here's my impression of my classes:
1. Intro to Computer Science (Java) - Thankfully, the girl to guy ratio isn't that bad. Of course, walking through the engineering department of Columbia, the place is highly populated with males, specifically Asian males, which only backs up the stereotype. But again, my class seems to have a fair amount of females. Then again, we're still in the middle of shopping period, and every year 20% drop the class by the end of it (There are 160 students in my class). The only downside to this class, asides from the class size, is the fact that I can't read my professors handwriting. Another downside is having to rush down 19 flights of stairs (2 flights per floor) in order to make it on time for my next class over at Barnard.
2. First Year Seminar (Technology and Society) - This class is basically made up of half of my hall, which is nice since you already know some people. We're basically going to read a book a week and then discuss it in class. We're also going to watch films here and there, and occasionally go out on a field trip to observe the city's architecture. So far, I had to read The Veldt and The Aleph. I read The Veldt in either fourth or sixth grade. But now that I'm more "mature", I find the story to be a bit creepier than I remembered.
3. Spanish Intermediate II - I will be happy if I can survive this class. Sadly, the poor IB Spanish education that my high school had to offer doesn't meet the standards of my college. In general, I found it slightly discouraging whenever my professors would stress the difficulty of an "Ivy League education", but that we were all smart enough anyways with our "cracker jack SAT scores" (haha...right. ACT scores, plz) to deal with it. Spanish seems to be scaring me the most, which is rather unusual because Spanish always was one of those sit-around-and-get-an-A type of class. My public school education compared to the private school education where students begin to learn a foreign language as a child has unfortunately put me at a disadvantage. Oh, well. I'm dealing with it.
4. Intro to Linguistics - I love this class, mainly because I'm completely interested in the subject. The professor can be a bit unorganized at times, jumping from topic to topic. He brings up some interesting points that sort of make you sit there and think about it more. I'd love to just sit down with this guy and talk about languages. Seriously. But again, this class seems to be entirely independent in terms of doing homework. However, this class ends at 7:25 pm, so I'm basically falling asleep by the end of class. I know that doesn't make any sense since it's my favorite class. But that's how I work biologically, you know?
College Life:
Independence - The independence is something that I have easily adjusted to. Well, perhaps the only independent thing that I have to do is laundry, which I have already been doing over the past years. I mean, food is already prepared for you. You just have to head on down to to the dining hall, swipe your card, and voila, food! I don't think it has still hit me that I'm living by myself in New York. The transition seemed too easy. I mean, I have several friends from the city, New Jersey, Long Island, places that are essentially a 20 minute car/train ride away, and they still get homesick, which is why some of them go home for the weekend. And then there's me. I'm living clear across the country in fucking New York City and I'll only see my family twice the whole school year. It still amazes me.
Diversity - The diversity of the student body is amazing. When walking around Columbia, you're surrounded by people from all over the world. British, German, French, Dominican, you name it, they're all here. And the amount of girls here with curly hair is amazing. Yay, curlies! Of course, a majority of them are Jewish. Yay, jewfro! And once again, many people were surprised when they found out I was Filipino, let alone Asian. Yay for racial ambiguity... Oh, and another note about Barnard. The girls here are all pretty. It's kind of scary how many of them could pass for being models --and there is professional model here. And now celebrity freshmen!
Celebrity #1: Kyle Sullivan. That's right. You may not know him by name, but once you see him, he probably would look vaguely familiar. He's the kid from All That who sort of reminded you of a chubby Harry Potter, glasses and all....sans the scar. Or maybe you know him from The War at Home? Or maybe you don't recognize him at all. Either way, I've seen him twice so far. Once when I walked right pass him on my way to the Lerner Party. And just last night when all of us desperate freshmen were standing outside Carmen. And then there's the story of my roommate getting his number from a friend and calling him. I had the pleasure of hearing the awkward speakerphone conversation of a just-woken-up Kyle and my roommate. The reason for the call was mostly legitimate. She wanted to ask for acting advice (she has a 15 episode contract for All My Children). Again, it was very awkward.
Celebrity #2: Well, she's George W. Bush's niece. And her mailbox is 2 rows away from mine.... Ok. That's my lame claim to political fame.
Other random college observations:
- I saw my first roach last night. I freaked out. Partially because it was crawling up this guy's pant leg.
- I'm getting used to taxis speeding past you at 50 mph...mind you the taxi is literally a foot away when it's speeding by.
- Frat boys are annoying, especially when they are drunk. Also, frat houses are disgustingly messy. And beer pong is overrated.
- No one listens to alcoholedu. No one.
Orientation: I was bombarded by a multitude of opportunities to explore the world on and off campus. I took the opportunity to get myself familiar with the buildings on both the Barnard and Columbia campus. I made sure that I knew how to get to Milbank by using the tunnel system because of the ongoing Nexus construction, which will be completed in 2009. I took the train down to Time Square, Central Park, The Natural History Museum among many other attractions. But I'm still not comfortable with transferring and finding where the stations are that'll take you the opposite direction. That is why I'm sticking to the 1 train for now. I'll probably end up just getting off at 34th St since that's where I'll do most of my clothes shopping. I am officially in love with H&M.
School: School. Homework. Reading. Lectures. School. First off, college classes are nothing like high school classes. The teacher no longer holds your hand and walks you through what you need to do. No neatly typed notes to copy, structured classes, and clear instructions. You basically sit there and take notes whilst trying to decipher what are the main points amidst the incoherent ramblings of the teacher. I'm still trying to figure the system out. But I must bring up the fact that I am still completely weirded out by not only the upperclassmen in the class, but the 40+ year old students sitting next to you. Here's my impression of my classes:
1. Intro to Computer Science (Java) - Thankfully, the girl to guy ratio isn't that bad. Of course, walking through the engineering department of Columbia, the place is highly populated with males, specifically Asian males, which only backs up the stereotype. But again, my class seems to have a fair amount of females. Then again, we're still in the middle of shopping period, and every year 20% drop the class by the end of it (There are 160 students in my class). The only downside to this class, asides from the class size, is the fact that I can't read my professors handwriting. Another downside is having to rush down 19 flights of stairs (2 flights per floor) in order to make it on time for my next class over at Barnard.
2. First Year Seminar (Technology and Society) - This class is basically made up of half of my hall, which is nice since you already know some people. We're basically going to read a book a week and then discuss it in class. We're also going to watch films here and there, and occasionally go out on a field trip to observe the city's architecture. So far, I had to read The Veldt and The Aleph. I read The Veldt in either fourth or sixth grade. But now that I'm more "mature", I find the story to be a bit creepier than I remembered.
3. Spanish Intermediate II - I will be happy if I can survive this class. Sadly, the poor IB Spanish education that my high school had to offer doesn't meet the standards of my college. In general, I found it slightly discouraging whenever my professors would stress the difficulty of an "Ivy League education", but that we were all smart enough anyways with our "cracker jack SAT scores" (haha...right. ACT scores, plz) to deal with it. Spanish seems to be scaring me the most, which is rather unusual because Spanish always was one of those sit-around-and-get-an-A type of class. My public school education compared to the private school education where students begin to learn a foreign language as a child has unfortunately put me at a disadvantage. Oh, well. I'm dealing with it.
4. Intro to Linguistics - I love this class, mainly because I'm completely interested in the subject. The professor can be a bit unorganized at times, jumping from topic to topic. He brings up some interesting points that sort of make you sit there and think about it more. I'd love to just sit down with this guy and talk about languages. Seriously. But again, this class seems to be entirely independent in terms of doing homework. However, this class ends at 7:25 pm, so I'm basically falling asleep by the end of class. I know that doesn't make any sense since it's my favorite class. But that's how I work biologically, you know?
College Life:
Independence - The independence is something that I have easily adjusted to. Well, perhaps the only independent thing that I have to do is laundry, which I have already been doing over the past years. I mean, food is already prepared for you. You just have to head on down to to the dining hall, swipe your card, and voila, food! I don't think it has still hit me that I'm living by myself in New York. The transition seemed too easy. I mean, I have several friends from the city, New Jersey, Long Island, places that are essentially a 20 minute car/train ride away, and they still get homesick, which is why some of them go home for the weekend. And then there's me. I'm living clear across the country in fucking New York City and I'll only see my family twice the whole school year. It still amazes me.
Diversity - The diversity of the student body is amazing. When walking around Columbia, you're surrounded by people from all over the world. British, German, French, Dominican, you name it, they're all here. And the amount of girls here with curly hair is amazing. Yay, curlies! Of course, a majority of them are Jewish. Yay, jewfro! And once again, many people were surprised when they found out I was Filipino, let alone Asian. Yay for racial ambiguity... Oh, and another note about Barnard. The girls here are all pretty. It's kind of scary how many of them could pass for being models --and there is professional model here. And now celebrity freshmen!
Celebrity #1: Kyle Sullivan. That's right. You may not know him by name, but once you see him, he probably would look vaguely familiar. He's the kid from All That who sort of reminded you of a chubby Harry Potter, glasses and all....sans the scar. Or maybe you know him from The War at Home? Or maybe you don't recognize him at all. Either way, I've seen him twice so far. Once when I walked right pass him on my way to the Lerner Party. And just last night when all of us desperate freshmen were standing outside Carmen. And then there's the story of my roommate getting his number from a friend and calling him. I had the pleasure of hearing the awkward speakerphone conversation of a just-woken-up Kyle and my roommate. The reason for the call was mostly legitimate. She wanted to ask for acting advice (she has a 15 episode contract for All My Children). Again, it was very awkward.
Celebrity #2: Well, she's George W. Bush's niece. And her mailbox is 2 rows away from mine.... Ok. That's my lame claim to political fame.
Other random college observations:
- I saw my first roach last night. I freaked out. Partially because it was crawling up this guy's pant leg.
- I'm getting used to taxis speeding past you at 50 mph...mind you the taxi is literally a foot away when it's speeding by.
- Frat boys are annoying, especially when they are drunk. Also, frat houses are disgustingly messy. And beer pong is overrated.
- No one listens to alcoholedu. No one.
posted by michelle. at
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