Fun fact: I'm about to graduate from my undergraduate university. I have a grad school all lined up, I'm all confirmed and working on a roommate and apartment for next year, and I can safely put off loan repayments for at least five years. Because I'm in chemistry grad school, I will be paid to go to school and get my doctorate. I'll have to work my butt off to get that money, but it's better than having to work to pay tuition on top of living expenses (i.e., food, shelter). Still, graduating puts one in a strange frame of mind, regardless of whether it's high school or college (college = uni, for any UK denizens reading this). I feel like reflecting on where the hell the past four years went, all of a sudden. I feel like giving advice to anyone who looks younger than me. I feel like making jokes about common lab glassware. And, of course, I feel like blogging about it instead of doing my homework.
I also feel like all the grown-ups in my life who always make weird statements about "how fast life goes" were right all along. I mean, where did the last four years go? I had to recap them just to prove that it really has been three years and nine months since I got here.
Freshman Year: 2009-2010
Cried when my family left
Became vegetarian
Made friends on hall
Didn't really make other friends
Found out that college is hard
Discovered Heroes and became addicted
Found spiritual home in shotokan karate
Had nervous breakdown in advisor's office over physics
Was angry in class most of the time
Passed Physics 1
Took 3 lab classes at the same time
Survived taking 3 lab classes, arguably
Started realizing that personal beliefs line up remarkably well with feminism
Sophomore Year: 2010-2011
Lost touch with freshman year friends
Kept doing karate
Took Ochem and German at same time
Made new friends
Applied to study abroad
Was accepted to study abroad program
Was accepted to University of Sunderland
Didn't do much else
May have survived taking OChem and German at the same time
Gained lots of confidence from karate
Junior Year: 2011-2012
Studied abroad in England
Made lots of new friends
Did lots of new things
Pierced nose
Discovered self outside of family-and-friend network
Liked who I found
Visited and fell in love with Edinburgh
Visited and didn't enjoy London
Had computer stolen
Came back to States
Promptly took hardest undergrad course load ever and didn't have a breakdown
Was sick all the time due to rain and cold, drafty, poorly-lit house
Missed England
Senior Year: 2012-2013
Missed England
Kept friends from sophomore year
Got new job in a teaching-ish position
Loved new job, much to my surprise
Took GRE
Did okay enough on GRE to get into grad school
Took lots of really hard classes and didn't have a breakdown
Got yellow belt in karate
Applied to grad schools
Got into top choice grad school
Kept missing England
Got green belt in karate
Lost motivation for last two assignments of undergrad like you would not believe
So, okay, it really has been four years. And if you want advice for college, here is my advice to you: Everyone's experience is different. If there is one thing I would love for everyone to do, it's study abroad, but I know that it's expensive and sometimes difficult to manage with a busy course load. So go, live your life, and enjoy what comes your way. If you need fantastic grades to get into your post-graduate whatever, then try hard. If not, well, I got into grad school with a solid B average. I don't get honor cords, which is kind of depressing given that I was valedictorian in high school, but whatever. The point is, I'm done and I did my best. Do I have regrets? Sure. Would I change anything? Nothing but keeping in touch with people and remembering to clean my hair out of the shower sophomore year.
Also, I can't help but include another fun fact:
The difference between a University and a College in the States is in the graduate programs. My school is a university; another school in Eastern Washington that starts with "Whit" is a college. Ugh, get it right.
Showing posts with label ISEP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ISEP. Show all posts
10 May 2013
16 March 2011
Fifty Third Post
I have been accepted to through a study abroad program to Sunderland University in England!
Read about that at a dedicated blog that I set up so that my family and friends won't stumble upon this blog that may or may not malign them from time to time. I named it "Raeann's Study Abroad Adventure" because that's what it's about.
And... Yep.
It is midterms. You might get an interesting post over spring break. If you want one tonight, it'll have to be about Arthurian literature; if you want one tomorrow, it'll be in German.
Actually, that might happen.
However. I've been typing on this crappy keyboard that puts the b on the wrong side of the little ergonomic hump thing and has a two-thumb spacebar that clunks horrinly if I use just one thumn.
I don't care enough to fix it when my Bs come out as Ns any more.
Deal with it.
Read about that at a dedicated blog that I set up so that my family and friends won't stumble upon this blog that may or may not malign them from time to time. I named it "Raeann's Study Abroad Adventure" because that's what it's about.
And... Yep.
It is midterms. You might get an interesting post over spring break. If you want one tonight, it'll have to be about Arthurian literature; if you want one tomorrow, it'll be in German.
Actually, that might happen.
However. I've been typing on this crappy keyboard that puts the b on the wrong side of the little ergonomic hump thing and has a two-thumb spacebar that clunks horrinly if I use just one thumn.
I don't care enough to fix it when my Bs come out as Ns any more.
Deal with it.
19 January 2011
Forty Seventh Post
Hello, everybody.
I've just survived what I hope is the most stressful week of this school year. It's mostly my fault that it was so stressful, but that's never before stopped me from complaining about it.
So there's this thing called "ISEP" (International Student Exchange Program) of which my university is a member. Students from member universities can apply to study at member universities in other countries. The students who are accepted to these other universities pay tuition to their home university as if they were there, taking classes and living in a dorm, but they are actually in another country living in the dorms of their host university and taking their classes for free. Sort of.
It's ridiculously cool. Since my dream has always been to travel to Europe, I leapt at the chance to study abroad. One of my favourite high school teachers (a recent alum of my university) talked up the study abroad programme and mentioned that college was the best time to travel. You're young, ISEP makes most of the arrangements, and you have the time for it.
My plans for study abroad evolved as I solidified my plans for these four important (and expensive) years of my life. I started off planning to go on a study tour, which I found in the course handbook (a wealth of excitement, planning, and crushed dreams when you realise that that awesome medaeval studies minor is 26 credits, which doesn't really work with your 120-odd credit biochemistry major if you plan to graduate in four). It was offered every three years in the fall, so my only chance for the British Isles Study Tour was the fall of my junior year. I immediately began to plan my life around that eventuality.
However, I still needed to think about my major. The study tour is strictly humanities and theology. I need a biochemistry class to take some interesting upper-division biology courses, and they're offered the spring of my junior year only. So I had a meeting with Sue, the international coordinator, at the suggestion of my advisor.
I got some vague ideas of schools and classes over the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. But since the application for fall 2011 wasn't open, I kind of forgot.
Meetings started up again between myself and Sue, mostly consisting of me being vague and her being frustrated by my lack of planning. I'm... plan-challenged, if you hadn't noticed by the general lack of organisation in my posts. I'm also terrified of dreams coming true.
Finally, I remembered that the deadline was coming up. 15 January, which translated to 18 January, being that the 15th was a weekend and that Monday was a holiday for us. I went in and had my pre-application talk with Sue on Tuesday 11 January. I discovered that I had exactly one week to get the following items in order:
A "participant profile"
A personal statement essay on why I want to study abroad
A list of requested host universities
A course request list, preferably with course numbers, for each host site requested
An explanation of how attending each host site will fulfill my study abroad goals (academically, personally, geographically)
Recommendations from two university-level professors (a form and a letter on official letterhead)
A copy of my passport
So.
My passport is expired and has been for almost a year. It will cost me $135 to get a new one because I was a minor when I got the first one.
Half my professors are off campus since it's jan term and not all of them are teaching. This makes it hard to find good recommenders.
It is really, really hard to find course numbers on a university website.
However! I prevailed, got my professors to fill out references, researched schools, looked up classes, had friends edit my essay, and filled out the participant profile. It turned out that my passport being expired is okay, so long as I get my hands on a new one before I go, if I'm accepted.
Now I'm trying to convince my body that it's okay for it to relax and not be stressed out.
I've just survived what I hope is the most stressful week of this school year. It's mostly my fault that it was so stressful, but that's never before stopped me from complaining about it.
So there's this thing called "ISEP" (International Student Exchange Program) of which my university is a member. Students from member universities can apply to study at member universities in other countries. The students who are accepted to these other universities pay tuition to their home university as if they were there, taking classes and living in a dorm, but they are actually in another country living in the dorms of their host university and taking their classes for free. Sort of.
It's ridiculously cool. Since my dream has always been to travel to Europe, I leapt at the chance to study abroad. One of my favourite high school teachers (a recent alum of my university) talked up the study abroad programme and mentioned that college was the best time to travel. You're young, ISEP makes most of the arrangements, and you have the time for it.
My plans for study abroad evolved as I solidified my plans for these four important (and expensive) years of my life. I started off planning to go on a study tour, which I found in the course handbook (a wealth of excitement, planning, and crushed dreams when you realise that that awesome medaeval studies minor is 26 credits, which doesn't really work with your 120-odd credit biochemistry major if you plan to graduate in four). It was offered every three years in the fall, so my only chance for the British Isles Study Tour was the fall of my junior year. I immediately began to plan my life around that eventuality.
However, I still needed to think about my major. The study tour is strictly humanities and theology. I need a biochemistry class to take some interesting upper-division biology courses, and they're offered the spring of my junior year only. So I had a meeting with Sue, the international coordinator, at the suggestion of my advisor.
I got some vague ideas of schools and classes over the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. But since the application for fall 2011 wasn't open, I kind of forgot.
Meetings started up again between myself and Sue, mostly consisting of me being vague and her being frustrated by my lack of planning. I'm... plan-challenged, if you hadn't noticed by the general lack of organisation in my posts. I'm also terrified of dreams coming true.
Finally, I remembered that the deadline was coming up. 15 January, which translated to 18 January, being that the 15th was a weekend and that Monday was a holiday for us. I went in and had my pre-application talk with Sue on Tuesday 11 January. I discovered that I had exactly one week to get the following items in order:
A "participant profile"
A personal statement essay on why I want to study abroad
A list of requested host universities
A course request list, preferably with course numbers, for each host site requested
An explanation of how attending each host site will fulfill my study abroad goals (academically, personally, geographically)
Recommendations from two university-level professors (a form and a letter on official letterhead)
A copy of my passport
So.
My passport is expired and has been for almost a year. It will cost me $135 to get a new one because I was a minor when I got the first one.
Half my professors are off campus since it's jan term and not all of them are teaching. This makes it hard to find good recommenders.
It is really, really hard to find course numbers on a university website.
However! I prevailed, got my professors to fill out references, researched schools, looked up classes, had friends edit my essay, and filled out the participant profile. It turned out that my passport being expired is okay, so long as I get my hands on a new one before I go, if I'm accepted.
Now I'm trying to convince my body that it's okay for it to relax and not be stressed out.
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