<p>Congratulations!! @Coriander23 - you were always a true CC’er though. ;)</p>
<p>I don’t think I’m gonna do study abroad until Junior year - I need to get my finances in order. I’m on a scholarship right now that doesn’t transfer over to overseas tuition unfortunately. I’m gonna be taking non-major grad requirements next semester, and then I’ll be done I believe. (I have to take Calc, two “World Culture” classes, and an Honors seminar. I might add on a 5th class, maybe Pol Sci, but I’m not sure about that either.) I could in theory spread the classes out more, but I kinda wanna just focus on my major/minor starting Sophomore year. </p>
<p>Do you guys find yourselves not studying as much as you thought? I always heard from upperclassmen and advisers that students should spend three hours studying for each one hour of class. I haven’t really studied nearly as much as that. The only time I may spend three hours on a class is when I have to write an essay for English, but other than that, I don’t think my classes demand that much time for studying. I’m sure it depends on what classes one is taking, the difficulty level, and the previous experience one has had with the subject. I have gotten A’s on all my exams, so I guess I’m doing everything right. </p>
<p>I have not been studying that much - but I’m taking introductory level humanities courses. I studied around 5-6 hours for one of my midterms and did well, but I probably would’ve gotten the same grade had I studied half the time because I severely overestimated the difficulty of the test itself. I imagine that once I move up to higher level, major classes, as well as take classes like Calculus, I’ll have to study a hell of a lot more. </p>
Does this include time spent doing assignments? In that case I might.
From easiest to hardest I’m taking microeconomics, probability theory, a freshman seminar about Shakespeare, an introductory programming course for computer science majors/minors, and real analysis.
I’ve been having a difficult time this semester. I used to be able to stay up all night doing homework and I was fine, but nowadays I stop being able to think at around 1:00 in the morning, so I have to do most of my work during the day and I don’t have time. </p>
<p>Same, I haven’t been spending very much time studying, although my classes seem to give a lot of busywork so I do end up in front of the computer for hours doing electronic assignments (which are somehow easier yet more frustrating than traditional ones). </p>
<p>But I think the whole three-hours rule might depend on the class or the person, or it might just be a general way to gauge one’s schedule as a whole. Heck, it might be the collegiate “this will go on your permanent record” trope. </p>
<p>@preamble1776 - Agreed that study abroad programs cost WAY too much, haha. I was looking at one that took its students aboard a tall ship and it cost 30k for two and a half months. That’s like a year’s worth of tuition at my current school. Yikes! </p>
<p>Wow, it’s almost November! Does anyone else feel like freshman year simultaneously seems to fly by and take forever? Like a mixture of “Wow, I can’t believe it’s already November” and “Wow, it’s * only * November?” Haha. </p>
<p>@Coriander23 - I told my friend this just a few days ago; I said “Doesn’t it seem like the semester is both flying by and at the same time dragging along?” – like when you realize it’s almost November, you realize “it seems like just yesterday I was at orientation” but then at the same time you realize how many class meetings you’ve had in the past 10 weeks and it’s like “damn, where’s winter break?!”</p>
<p>Does anyone have a day of the week they don’t particularly care for because of what classes they have? I don’t really like Tuesdays; I have two big lectures those days and its really hard to stay concentrated in the last 15 or so minutes for both of them. </p>
<p>Haha, exactly! And for me, like Garfield, I hate Mondays…I have a 3-hour long lab session that day and it’s just yucky. The rest of the week is fine, though–this is probably one of the lighter schedules I’ll ever have, so I’m telling myself to just suck it up for that one day of the week where I have to stand for hours and scribble stuff down in a notebook. </p>
<p>Next quarter, I imagine I’ll be feeling the same way–there are a couple interesting classes I’d like to take that I know very little about, so I’ll probably end up going to back-to-back lectures and hopefully not falling asleep by the end of them. </p>
<p>I’m currently spending my halloween night doing a take home exam for Environmental science - we have a week to do it (we got it this Thursday); the Professor told us it is supposed to take us 8-15 hours. I’m starting it early because for the last exam I made the mistake of saving it until the night before it was due and I was stressed out of my mind, lol. So far I’ve been camped out in my living room reading about how the presence of polar vortex clouds relate to the depth of the ozone layer in Antarctica. Fun stuff. </p>
<p>I was an actor in a haunted house last week, but today I’m not really doing anything. I’m home for the weekend and have a take-home stats exam to work on, but I have a feeling I’m going to put it off until the day it’s due, haha. </p>
<p>My school’s Bursar Office is finally giving me my refund check - the scholarship I received covered all tuition and fees so I was supposed to, in theory, get my 200 dollars that I deposited on May 1st back. However, back in like, mid-September, when kids were getting refunds from excess loan money, they told me I had to wait for my deposit money. It wasn’t until literally two months later that they’re now gonna fork over 200 measly bucks, after giving some of my friends check in excess of 6,000 dollars. I had forgotten about it, tbh. </p>
<p>I haven’t been here for awhile! How is everyone? Also, happy (late) Halloween.</p>
<p>@Coriander23 I went to a haunted house last night, and it was so scary LOL. My friend and I kept saying, “Why is this so scary- THEY’RE ONLY BROWN STUDENTS?!” It was super cool, though- abandoned doll factory themed.</p>
<p>@Vctory shh… shhh… Do not remind me of responsibility that go beyond what I have due this week. Lol, but yes. I’m probably gonna work with Markey in DC. He’s very fond of the Poli Sci majors at my school. (He pities us most likely) so he always hires our students for summer internships. </p>
<p>@lldm21 - Welcome back! And I know, when you’re inside the house and everyone in costume is trying to scare you, it suddenly doesn’t seem like they’re people you go to school with anymore. I knew the layout of the maze and the hiding spots and everything, and was * still * terrified when I did a walkthrough at the very end!</p>
<p>@Vctory - I have not thought that far ahead, haha. I think I’m going to take summer classes at Cornell so I can get to know the campus before orientation, but otherwise it’s kind of up in the air. The following summer I’d be interested in doing the CEQ internship at the White House, though, so we’ll have to see how that pans out! </p>
<p>Oh wow, it’s been a long time!
I’ve been super super busy.
I am enjoying Cal A LOT. I’m not doing so well grades-wise though… I have to repeat a class… Also I don’t remember any days where I’ve slept for more than 4 hours. </p>
<p>@quidditchcat Hey! It’s been a long time. Cal must be nice these days… here in New England we’re just getting our first taste of what is gonna be record lows for a particularly lengthy winter. It just snowed yesterday. What’s the class you have to retake? Is it for your major? </p>
<p>I registered for my Spring 2015 classes today! It’s crazy how fast this semester is just flying by. </p>