Going off to college is a lot of new stuff at once. I am living across the country with a bunch of people I do not know, sleeping in a room with a person I do not know.
In high school, I had a fair amount of schoolwork, but I am still struggling to wrap my head around how much more work I have to do here. As someone who likes to take on challenges, I decided at the beginning of the year that I would try to take five courses, which is one more than the standard course load.
Of all the people I consulted about taking five classes the first semester, around 15 gave a solidly negative response, while two people I talked to were neutral about it being a possibility.
The Classes
The five classes I was taking were cs19 (accelerated intro to cs), engn31 (honors intro to engineering), math200 (multivariable calc for engineering concentrators), fren300 (intermediate French), and clps300 (intro to linguistics). Linguistics was my fifth class, so the debate was simply whether I wanted to stay in it or drop out.
CS19 started out rough from the first day, as we learned a new language on Wednesday, the first day, and had an approximately 3-hour assignment due on Friday. This course is extra challenging for me because I have a lot less CS experience compared to others in the class. As of now, the workload is pretty darn heavy as there are two assignments per week which each take around 6-8 hours (for me at least). This is arguably the most work-intensive freshman-level course on campus.
Engn31 started off a bit slow, but now we have approximately 8-hour problem sets due every week. The lectures can be pretty confusing with the pace being slow when we already know the stuff and then suddenly zooooming when we broach a new subject. The fact that it’s honors pretty much just means that we do Matlab (programming) and harder physics problems which involve calculus.
Math200 is my least intensive class, with only three 20-40 minute psets per week and the learning pace being relatively slow. It’s nice to have a bit of an easier class.
Fren300 has a lot of meeting time (1hr on M/F, 1.5hr on T/Th for 5hr/wk) with around 1 hour of homework due per class. This class is also extra challenging as I did not study French at all in school. Instead, I studied Spanish in school and self-studied French, which led me to have a mediocre grasp of grammar but quite poor grammar and conversational ability. While the placement test recommended me for 4th semester French, I figured that I’d be better suited to the 300 level.
Linguistics was quite interesting, but I quickly discovered that it was not at all feasible to take five courses when all of them are challenging and I am still settling into the swing of things here at college. I decided to drop it after not being able to complete the 30-page textbook reading on time.
The Clubs
I want to do a lot of clubs, but some of them will inevitably be cut off the list when I realize that unfortunately, I cannot do every that I want to. Here it is in no particular order:
Cycling: I have only been on one ride since getting here, but I plan to go on more and compete in races as well. My bike is residing under my bed for the time being.
Juggling: Not a huge commitment, but more of an activity to go out and do with other jugglers every once in a while.
Ultimate: Brown’s Ultimate (Frisbee) Men’s team won nationals last year, so yes, they are VERY good. I went to tryouts for the A team and squeezed through the first round of cuts, but I stopped tryouts because I had a CS assignment to finish (tryouts were 4-7pm and I made a goal to finish cs by 7; luckily I didn’t go to tryouts because I started at 4 and finished at 11pm when it was due at 11:59). B team tryouts are later on and I’m hoping to join that team provided that I make it.
Formula Racing: Very beginner-friendly and hands-on.
Space Engineering: Pretty awesome club. They have a satellite orbiting above our heads right now and they are working on creating another. I joined the R&D team where I will be working with others on creating a rocket that ideally goes up to 30k ft.
Conclusion
College is busy busy busy. I feel like I am always doing work, but at the same time, at least it is work on subjects that I am passionate about. It is interesting how easy it is to be more efficient in college because of the lack of preformed bad habits (and the inundation of work which makes productivity requisite). I plan to take three of my four classes S/NC (satisfactory/no credit or pass/fail) as engn is mandatory S/NC and both cs and french are out of my comfort zone and not required for my concentration. So yes, only one class will be taken for a grade, but college is about learning, not grades.
Kevin's Cyclopedia 