Sunday, January 23, 2011

Responding to College Reflections

From the various student responses about college, I learned that regardless of students' personalities, they all have to transition in one way or another to the new environment in college. I can see that learning to balance fun and studies can be difficult at first, since having fun is a tempting alternative to studying on evenings and weekends. Also, the privilege of having freedom can be both good and potentially bad in that while students can decide what they want to do, they also have larger responsibilities and suffer more dire consequences. For instance, while missing a class in high school might not set a student much behind her peers, doing so in college might impact her performance on the infamous midterm and final. The student perogative is really important, not only in terms of keeping up with academics but also in terms of participating in clubs and extracurriculars, socializing with friends, etc. And for the students who have gone out-of-state, it seems that weather is something to adjust to. In my opinion, one of the best experiences about the Ivy League summer programs is the chance to live away from family and friends for a few weeks. My two summers have taught me at least some of what I should expect next year as a freshman in college, regardless of where I go.

Take care and happy holidays!!

Yueming Wang

No comments:

Post a Comment