Hello fellow ILCers!
First of all I am very
proud of all of you for being part of the Ivy League Connection. I know that
without this program my life would have been very different than it is right
now. I am incredibly thankful for all the opportunities the program provided me,
and as a result I now go to Sarah Lawrence College in Bonxville, New York.
My college experience is
a little different from what you would experience anywhere else in the country.
Here's the lowdown on my school:
- Student population consists of about 1400 students.
- There are no required courses
- Most classes are typically no bigger than 15 students.
- We typically do independent research projects instead of exams.
- We have incredibly talented professors (our faculty was ranked #1 in the nation by the Princeton Review).
The majority of my
workload consists of a lot of reading and writing, all the time.
When I first came to
Sarah Lawrence, I was afraid that I didn't belong there. I felt like a
public-high school education hadn't prepared me to function in this college. I
felt inadequate, out of place, and at times I wanted to go home. At one point,
I was panicking. I had several twenty-page papers to write, on top of my class
readings and my job, so I went to one of my professors and said, "I am
freaking out."
"This is the
de-freak out zone," my professor told me. Together, we sat down at my
computer and made a to-do list, and then scheduled out everything that had to
be done and when I was going to do it during the day. On Tuesday after lunch I
would study Spanish. Monday mornings I would write my paper for Psychology.
Fridays I would rest.
So far, this has been
the most valuable lesson I've learned in college. Time management is essential.
I suggest that everyone get a daily planner or schedule using iCal or Microsoft
Outlook. This semester my workday typically went from 9am to 10pm, and I am
sure that I would've crashed and burned without my Outlook Calendar.
I am sure that there are
plenty more things I will learn, but this is the one that I think helps allow
for other realizations. When you are in charge of your time, everything else
gets a little bit easier. Just a little bit.
I hope you all have a
Merry Christmas, and if you have any questions about college (particularly
Sarah Lawrence) fire me an e-mail!
Sincerely,
Connor Miller
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