Carla J. Ramirez

Mr. Ramsey & Ivy League Connection,

Having finished my first year at Denison University, I have come to realize that the 4.0 GPA doe not always translate into college. Realizing that getting straight A’s in college was nearly impossible without a social life was one of the hardest lessons I learned at Denison University.

Having failed all of my first tests in all of my classes the first semester was my breaking point. I cried and cried and cried until I realized that I couldn’t be perfect and ace everything like in HS. I can honestly say that failing those tests was the best thing that could’ve happened to me; those tests really brought me down from the clouds. I truly realized that I WAS in college and if I wanted to succeed in college I had to push my self beyond the point that I thought I could not be pushed. I think that that lesson is one of the hardest lessons we all have to learn, pushing yourself and studying harder than ever before and appreciating your grade even if its not an A, but knowing that you worked hard is the real achievement.

One thing that really proved helpful was taking advantage of professor office hours and tutoring. I encourage everyone to investigate if your school has free tutoring available for students and to make a schedule of all of your professor’s office hours that ways if you need help on the homework or you want to clear something up from the lecture you know exactly when to find them.

Living with people you don’t know is a daunting thought. One huge lesson is that communication is key when living with others, it is important to communicate to your roommates things that they do that you don’t like and to not take things personally when they tell you things that they don’t like about the things you do. Communicating these kinds of issues early is important because things will add up and be worse in the future.

These were some of the biggest lessons that I had to learn, I hope that they are useful to everyone.

Thanks,

Carla J. Ramirez
Health Academy Student Representative
Cell: (510) 734-8076
E-Mail: Carlajramirez@yahoo.com