Dear TL, Hi, my name is Sean Kim. I am 17 years old and gearing to go to college. I have been accepted to Case Western Reserve Univeristy via Early Decision. My GPA was subpar (3.55 weighted) and my SAT's somewhat decent. (1920 combined) I consider myself a very 'lazy' student. I pride myself on being able to pay attention in class and being able to retain information quite well.
With the stress of college applications gone, I found myself worrying about the quicly approaching future. 'What will college be like?'I have visited many college campuses but only during the summer breaks. I feel like i have no clue what the college enviroment will be like.
If possible could anyone describe what the experiance is like? Or if that is too general, what should i look forward to and what should i fear?
I find American Pie movies a poor indicator of what i should be expecting
Aw don't be too nervous. Honestly there's no way to really know what its like until you're there.. But it is definitely a different world from highschool (I'm assuming you'll be dorming). I remember I was pretty homesick the first month or so but once I got a bit more adjusted it was great I think the hardest part for me was managing my time to balance everything out but you should get a feel for that as well as the semester progresses. I'm not sure what the people at case will be like but just remember everyone is in your shoes as well.. Try to meet as many people as you can early on too cause its definitely easier then haha.
- Freshman 15 is truth :/ - Freshman can make and get away with the most mistakes. - Look for clubs or organizations to join early on of your interest!
Good luck with everything! I hope things work out for you
the college experience is different for every person. there are too many variables, including your own personality type, the campus culture, who you make friends with, the location of your school, etc
what i can almost guarantee though, is that it will be more fun in high school. you'll probably have more "free" time, although you should probably be studying or doing something productive during those hours. you'll also have a lot more responsibilities, but you won't have anyone looking after you like your parents or teachers.
anyway, make sure you study hard but don't forget to have fun at least a couple times a month. go out and do stuff.
I dunno, your life could be like American Pie if you so chose, but you'll probably do way more studying than they portray in movies ^^ It's not like high school, professors all have their own classes and don't really give a shit about what other professors assign, so you better learn how to manage your time well. Since you'll be a freshman, I recommend that you go to all your classes. After a semester or so, you'll find out that you don't have to go to class to do well in some classes, but it helps. Pick easy courses, core courses or introductory classes to get the best feeling of college without being overwhelmed. I took a bunch of difficult classes and I didn't do as well as I could have. Learn how to study for finals. Make friends with older students and get advice.
There's nothing wrong with community college. Rankings are overrated.
I don't know anything about college in South Korea, unfortunately. Just keep your grades up and think a lot about what you want to do after your undergraduate.
Academics are really nothing to be worried about, you'll get used to things. I had a tougher time with social stuff but I've always been that way, so if you're looking forward to meeting people then you'll do fine there. The standard advice ("go to class") is really mostly common sense, there are no great secrets we can let you in on ahead of time imo.
The thing I did that I am happiest about in retrospect was taking an intro level class in a variety of subjects. I took like 90% math and science but I took one course in history, one in sociology, one in linguistics, one in english, you get the idea. Intro courses like those are usually easy and it's incredibly interesting and useful to learn the basics of a variety of subjects. You might even stumble over a pot of gold and discover a new interest, like I did with linguistics 101. I never did take any more linguistics but I love reading about it and I've started dabbling in learning Japanese.
Considering its high admission rate, I don't think it's a competitive university. Therefore you can probably enjoy enough clowns in the classes to drag down the average of every course.
oh, and if you end up being hard science or engineering major, don't make too many friends with business or humanities majors. you'll just end up being bitter when you find out that they can party 3 or 4 nights a week and you're stuck in the library studying to end up with a lower gpa than them
On January 10 2010 03:31 LosingID8 wrote: oh, and if you end up being hard science or engineering major, don't make too many friends with business or humanities majors. you'll just end up being bitter when you find out that they can party 3 or 4 nights a week and you're stuck in the library studying to end up with a lower gpa than them
On January 10 2010 03:31 LosingID8 wrote: oh, and if you end up being hard science or engineering major, don't make too many friends with business or humanities majors. you'll just end up being bitter when you find out that they can party 3 or 4 nights a week and you're stuck in the library studying to end up with a lower gpa than them
Personally, jumping into college was nothing big, life goes on. The classes are pretty much the same as AP classes that I took in high school, except a bit easier in some than others.
congrats on your acceptance, feels good to be done doesnt it?
so as a college freshman here... im not sure if somebody else can answer these questions for you.... descriptions are limited, as your perspective will probably not match mine, and plus you and the people on this forum probably have different tastes and preferences..... not to mention location/size/general vibe of the school will highly vary.
with that said, here's how semester 1 was for me at uc berkeley: you meet a lot of people. i feel that in college, it is not like high school where you consistently see the same people over and over in a limited pool of a couple thousand people.... i say i knew about 1/8 of the people at my high school of 2800, so familiar faces would be everywhere i was. Yet at berkeley, the playing field gets MUCH bigger.... consequently, you meet more people... yet i feel this is a quantity over quality sort of deal, cuz meeting more people means you spend less time with a given set. so its definitely harder to make close friends. you should take advantage of orientation in order to meet and get cool with a lot of people. and also use the first couple weeks to your advantage to meet people, when its not weird to just introduce yourself to people because everybody is new to the school at that stage. go to many clubs to meet more people.... it is hard to stay active in many clubs (im only active in one or two), but at least meet people in the first week, and you will probably see a few of these people around or bump into them.
on a different note, its just different being by yourself. some people love it, some people dont like it. personally, im kind of in the middle... home is certainly more comfortable as you have your own room, own bathroom, more space, etc. but at school, you get to do whatever you want to without your parents breathing down your neck (again, varies by situation lol). its defintely super easy to spend money and super easy to eat bad food on a regular basis, and super easy to not clean shit and be super messy.
i didnt party much in high school, but in college, it is inevitable that you'll go out at least a few times.... normally a lot more lol. if youre the party type of person, develop your connections during the first couple weeks of school when you go out to frat parties... if you are interested in "rushing" or joining a frat, the frats have what is known as the "rush" period (usu first week or two of semester or year). so during this period, go out to a lot of frats, and talk to some brothers to get cool with them.... even if you dont end up trying to join one or fail to get a bid, just the fact you know some faces in the house means its that much easier to get into parties later on in the year when the parties are a bit less welcoming of random people nobody at the house knows. if you want to get into parties, just be sure you have a few girls in your group and you dont bring a weinerfest in... that makes it harder (no pun intended ^^) to get in but not always impossible... definitely helps to know someone in the frat if you want to get in by yourself or without girls in your group.
as for academics....this will depend by school and major. berkeley is not an easy coasting school... it wasnt as bad as i heard from rumors, but it was definitely harder than high school. some schools its gonna be ridiculously easy if youre used to AP's and shit... but as you said you didnt really work hard in high school, you may or may not have to change this habit depending on how rigorous your school in general and your major is.... at berkeley, its kind of a given that you study, regardless of if youre the nerdy kid or the party animal, or else youll do poorly.
theres just too much to put into an online post that one could talk about regarding college... even though ive only had 1 semester. i gave some general thoughts... so i hope it helps
I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
On January 10 2010 03:51 Empyrean wrote: I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
On January 10 2010 03:51 Empyrean wrote: I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
....fuck
On the plus side, since all schools have that top few percent of super hot girls, if you're ridiculously attractive, there's virtually no competition among the guys. Case is just one of those schools that have a smaller proportion of attractive people than non-attractive people (compare with schools like Hawaii or FSU).
On January 10 2010 03:31 LosingID8 wrote: oh, and if you end up being hard science or engineering major, don't make too many friends with business or humanities majors. you'll just end up being bitter when you find out that they can party 3 or 4 nights a week and you're stuck in the library studying to end up with a lower gpa than them
What the fuck. You're not even in college yet Ypang.
On January 10 2010 03:51 Empyrean wrote: I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
....fuck
On the plus side, since all schools have that top few percent of super hot girls, if you're ridiculously attractive, there's virtually no competition among the guys. Case is just one of those schools that have a smaller proportion of attractive people than non-attractive people (compare with schools like Hawaii or FSU).
Hawaii doesn't have that many attractive girls... No idea about FSU
Hot=Texas Tech, Arizona State, UVA, USC, South Carolina, some others.
Troll ugly schools include most of the Ivies. Only top school without ugly chicks is Stanford.
On January 10 2010 03:51 Empyrean wrote: I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
....fuck
On the plus side, since all schools have that top few percent of super hot girls, if you're ridiculously attractive, there's virtually no competition among the guys. Case is just one of those schools that have a smaller proportion of attractive people than non-attractive people (compare with schools like Hawaii or FSU).
Hawaii doesn't have that many attractive girls... No idea about FSU
Hot=Texas Tech, Arizona State, UVA, USC, South Carolina, some others.
Troll ugly schools include most of the Ivies. Only top school without ugly chicks is Stanford.
Brown is definitely the most attractive Ivy. Stanford's actually a pretty bad school. You might be confusing Stanford girls with girls from other California schools. Rest of the Ivies are terribad. MIT is pretty terrible also. Chicago is meh, Duke is actually pretty good (relatively speaking) in terms of girls. It certainly beats all the Ivies.
But seriously. CMU and Case are probably the worst well-known schools.
On January 10 2010 03:24 Smix wrote: - Freshman 15 is truth :/
I call BULLSHIT. I lost 20 lbs in the first semester.....
This is not the norm o_o; no beer? no eating late before finals? eating late for no reason? I'm not saying everyone turns into a fatass but it is a general trend for most people to plumpen up a bit the first year.
On January 10 2010 03:24 Smix wrote: - Freshman 15 is truth :/
I call BULLSHIT. I lost 20 lbs in the first semester.....
This is not the norm o_o; no beer? no eating late before finals? eating late for no reason? I'm not saying everyone turns into a fatass but it is a general trend for most people to plumpen up a bit the first year.
yea, but it really depends on your metabolism. i got the skinny asian genes and lost weight my first year at college. it was hard for me to keep a normal schedule and eat normal meals so even with the late night binge eating, i ended up eating less than i did in high school. it wouldn't be uncommon for me to just skip breakfast and lunch.
On January 10 2010 03:51 Empyrean wrote: I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
....fuck
On the plus side, since all schools have that top few percent of super hot girls, if you're ridiculously attractive, there's virtually no competition among the guys. Case is just one of those schools that have a smaller proportion of attractive people than non-attractive people (compare with schools like Hawaii or FSU).
Hawaii doesn't have that many attractive girls... No idea about FSU
Hot=Texas Tech, Arizona State, UVA, USC, South Carolina, some others.
Troll ugly schools include most of the Ivies. Only top school without ugly chicks is Stanford.
Brown is definitely the most attractive Ivy. Stanford's actually a pretty bad school. You might be confusing Stanford girls with girls from other California schools. Rest of the Ivies are terribad. MIT is pretty terrible also. Chicago is meh, Duke is actually pretty good (relatively speaking) in terms of girls. It certainly beats all the Ivies.
But seriously. CMU and Case are probably the worst well-known schools.
(talking only in the context of girls here).
cmu as in central michigan? or carnegie melon. You are throwing me off since you said purdue a while ago!
On January 10 2010 05:58 OneOther wrote: since when were uva, texas tech (over UT austin?) and south carolina considered hot schools lol
stanford chicks look like asses btw
TTU is famous for basically every other girl being a buxom blonde. And yes, definitely over UT austin. Have you been up here at UVA? And South Carolina I took a tour around campus, and its nice. I've never been at Stanford, I only assumed since its the only top school in California. I thought Brown was basically a neohippie school; and hippies are not attractive.
On January 10 2010 03:24 Smix wrote: - Freshman 15 is truth :/
I call BULLSHIT. I lost 20 lbs in the first semester.....
This is not the norm o_o; no beer? no eating late before finals? eating late for no reason? I'm not saying everyone turns into a fatass but it is a general trend for most people to plumpen up a bit the first year.
I had a pretty awesome metabolism from spending the last 6 or so months training for football, and then not making the team.
Lots of beer, lots of hard liquor, and my diet mainly consisted of delivered pizza and chocolate cake, but I lost weight.....
On January 10 2010 03:51 Empyrean wrote: I actually ended up losing weight in my first year of college, so yeah. It can be done.
Umm...not much to say. You have a lot more free time. There are a lot more parties and such, especially on the weekends and during orientation week, so be aware of that.
Unfortunately, I think Case is in the troll-tier of college girls (other schools in this tier include CMU and Purdue). That could be good or bad, depending. For example, there probably aren't many attractive people, but on the plus side, you won't be as distracted from your studies.
....fuck
On the plus side, since all schools have that top few percent of super hot girls, if you're ridiculously attractive, there's virtually no competition among the guys. Case is just one of those schools that have a smaller proportion of attractive people than non-attractive people (compare with schools like Hawaii or FSU).
Hawaii doesn't have that many attractive girls... No idea about FSU
Hot=Texas Tech, Arizona State, UVA, USC, South Carolina, some others.
Troll ugly schools include most of the Ivies. Only top school without ugly chicks is Stanford.
Brown is definitely the most attractive Ivy. Stanford's actually a pretty bad school. You might be confusing Stanford girls with girls from other California schools. Rest of the Ivies are terribad. MIT is pretty terrible also. Chicago is meh, Duke is actually pretty good (relatively speaking) in terms of girls. It certainly beats all the Ivies.
But seriously. CMU and Case are probably the worst well-known schools.
(talking only in the context of girls here).
cmu as in central michigan? or carnegie melon. You are throwing me off since you said purdue a while ago!
Carnegie Mellon, of course. Especially because of the engineering and computer science departments. As for Central Michigan, it's a pretty much accepted rule that the average state school is way ahead of the average decent private school.
@OneOther, I've always heard Texas schools were pretty high up there, actually.
As for Brown, it's definitely the most attractive Ivy. Hands down. From what I've seen, Harvard and Columbia girls are on the low side.
Interestingly enough, all of the guys look the same no matter where you go. There are two categories of guys. There's the pasty-white/Asian/Indian computer science/engineer group and then there are the normals. The only thing that really changes is the ratio between them. So while at Purdue there might be a lot of the former category, at Arizone State there might be a lot of the latter.
EPT
I think the hardest part for me was managing my time to balance everything out but you should get a feel for that as well as the semester progresses. I'm not sure what the people at case will be like but just remember everyone is in your shoes as well.. Try to meet as many people as you can early on too cause its definitely easier then haha. 
