Recap of Our Freshman Year at Rutgers University
- May 28, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: May 31, 2020
It is still unbelievable that our freshman year of college is complete and is now merely a series of memories to cherish. We both still remember the nervousness and excitement we experienced navigating our first day at Rutgers, and are pleased to share the things we have learned along this tremendous journey. Even though the experience wasn’t nearly the definition of “perfect”, it was still one that we will remember for a lifetime!
Managing Classes
The most difficult aspect of acclimating to college life, in general, was the randomness of class schedules. Unlike high school, classes occurred at a wide-variety of timings—ranging from 8 in the morning to 10 at night. Classroom structure was also vastly different from what we had been used to, as some classes were held in lecture halls with almost 300+ students in them, and some were held in normal classroom sizes of 20 to 30 students. Furthermore, since Rutgers is composed of five different campuses, our daily schedules required time to be carved out for the unpredictable buses, which were needed to travel from one campus to another. It definitely took us a few weeks to learn how to manage this new schedule. Other than that, we found that the daily workload in classes was a lot less than what we experienced in high school, despite each college assignment having more weight towards our grades than usual. Because of this, we found ourselves having more time to sleep, but it also called for the development of strong time management skills.
Extracurricular Activities (Clubs)
Rutgers is a big school and putting yourself out there can be intimidating at first. Even though we came from big high schools, making friends in college was difficult since we were commuting. There are numerous opportunities at Rutgers but it was solely up to us to get out of our comfort zone and seek those opportunities. We wanted to make the most of our college experience at Rutgers. Flashback to the first week, we made it a point to attend general interest meetings. Kuhu knew early on that she wanted to be part of women-centric organizations. She decided to stick with Women in Computer Science (WiCS), Undergraduate Alliances of Computer Scientists, Douglass-DIMACS Computing Corps, and HackRU. Kuhu realized WiCS was her second home where she found a supportive and encouraging group of fellow women in CS in Rutgers Women in Computer Science club. Shreya was wholly-committed to finding organizations on-campus to get involved with, as she regretted not doing so in high school. She explored a variety of clubs until she found her stomping ground, which consists of clubs such as Women in the Health Professions, STEM Ambassadors, Beehive, and Craft to Cure. Due to time conflicts, she was unable to get involved with the American Medical Student Association on-campus and hopes to do so next year. We split our time between academic organizations and recreational clubs like the badminton team and rollerskating. Attending club meetings and being involved on campus helped us network with upperclassmen and get to know more people. It definitely helped us take a much-needed break from the stress of assignments. We used socials and events as a form of relaxation and meeting more people.
Commuting
We both had our fair share of contemplation with the question “to dorm or not to dorm”, as we both felt like we were missing out at the beginning of the semester when we saw others mingling with their roommates and dormmates and expressing their joy about this new chapter of life. For us, the college experience was not much different than that of high school, other than the change-up in class-style and environment. Despite this FOMO, we did begin to embrace the independence and sense of responsibility that commuting brings—driving ourselves to class, eating at restaurants and in cafes alone, and making friends without the facilitation of on-campus housing (which actually pushed us to seek other opportunities on-campus in order to make friends, such as clubs, events, and even putting ourselves out there in classes). Although we both would like to dorm in our graduate school endeavors for the “experience”, we will continue to commute during our time at Rutgers, and have grown to love and enjoy it!
Events
We both were really enthusiastic about attending events and making friends at different events organized around the campus. We knew we didn’t want to miss the first game of the football season and we were ecstatic when Rutgers won their home match! Soon, we got tickets to the Beats on the Banks concert featuring Cheat Codes. We had a blast dancing to the tunes to tracks like “No Promises”, “High Hopes”, “Truth Hurts”, etc. Kuhu also attended the King Neptune Night - spectacular seafood feast organized by Rutgers Dining Halls. She also attended HackRU - bi-annual hackathon in Rutgers where she won cool swag and merch and worked on a project overnight. Since we are in Douglass Residential College, we and our close friend Nehee got an opportunity to watch Mean Girls on Broadway for FREE! (cool perks for being in college- free food and free events!) We absolutely cherish that memory. Since we love to do artistic things, we also attended several Paint N’ Sip nights. Not all events were as fun, so we had to choose which events we really wanted to attend. Sadly, during our second semester, due to quarantine, there were no in-person events. However, the clubs we are a club of organized virtual events (how cool is that!). Attending events was a great way to get involved on campus in spite of commuting.
Parties
We both wish we had made a greater attempt to attend more parties at the beginning of the semester, known as “sylly week”, as that was when the workload was the lightest, and time to go to parties during the semester was difficult. Shreya attended a party during Halloweekend, which she really enjoyed, but unfortunately afterward, she couldn’t find the time to go to another one because of the cold weather (NJ weather is not really conducive to semester-long partying lol) and interspersed midterms and finals. Kuhu and Shreya attended another party later in the semester, but it was cut short due to trudging in cold weather (and a lack of winter wear) causing us to feel headsick once we finally entered the frat house. We do want to make an effort to go to more parties once social distancing is no longer needed (which we hope is soon!). Although we might not agree with everything that happens at these parties, we do enjoy the time spent with friends and mingling with new people.
Food
As commuters, we did not purchase dining hall plans and therefore depended on a mixture of home-brought meals and restaurants located on-campus to fuel ourselves throughout the day. We enjoyed being able to explore and try out new places on-campus, and have developed a list of favorites that we can’t wait to revisit once campus reopens (hopefully soon!).
Seeking Leadership Opportunities
We both knew that leadership was something we really wanted to focus on coming into college, and we both had limited experience with this in high school and wanted to grow our resumes, as we intend on pursuing graduate-level education in the future. Leadership opportunities, as in those on the Executive Boards of organizations on-campus, did not appear until the latter half of freshman year (i.e. second-half of spring semester), and we both had a fairly easy time getting into these positions, which we were pleasantly surprised by! We wish we didn’t force ourselves into seeking leadership, and that means applying and accepting things we weren’t that interested in, as we had an unenjoyable experience with a program that we rushed into applying for the namesake of “leadership”. We’ve both definitely learned that there’s an abundance of opportunities available, and things will come at the right time, we just have to be patient!
Facing Rejection (leadership positions, jobs, research! etc.)
Behind a single leadership position or a job offer were many rejections! We certainly had our fair share of rejections in leadership positions, jobs, research, and internships. Rejections were disheartening and frustrating to receive but we didn’t lose hope or give up. We didn’t allow our failures to discourage us. Our failures only motivated us to do better and try even harder. We applied to every research position or leadership position we could possibly apply to without thinking of the outcomes. Rejections taught us to not ever stop applying since you will never know if you got the offer if you don’t apply.
Work/School Balance
We both held jobs during our first semester at Rutgers, and for Shreya, this was her first time ever being employed, so it definitely was tricky for her to ensure that she balanced her studies with her job responsibilities. Being first-time college students and exposed to a totally new environment, we both limited our working hours to the weekends, when we could devote extended periods of our time to our jobs. This really allowed for a good work/school balance for both of us, as it clearly split our time between days allocated solely for school, and others for work. We also attribute our ability to do so to take a smaller number of credits during the semester, as that meant needing to allot less time to our schoolwork. Having a successful work/school balance for us was also facilitated by good time management skills—a skill we learned to be very essential in overall success too.
Transition to Online Classes
A sudden shift to the virtual mode of instruction certainly was hard to adjust in the beginning. Our professors and TAs were dedicated enough to make the online transition to classes as smooth as possible. To a certain extent, it did make our classes slightly easier since our exams were online and lectures were recorded. The biggest adjustment was our sleep schedule. We found ourselves skipping morning lectures and binge-watching them later. In spite of the adjustments and endless technical difficulties, we made sure to adapt to the online format and do our best in our classes. Since we were commuters, we didn’t have to endure the unceremonious rush from campus like most of the dormers had to. We definitely missed the thrill of being on-campus. Not being able to meet our friends or able to attend in-person office hours with our professors was hard. We hope we are back on campus next semester but not forgetting to abide by proper measures and precautions!
Freshman year definitely had its highs and lows. It was a fresh start from the ground up in our lives where we could finally leave our high school memories in the past. We can both agree we made lifelong friendships and also grew as best friends. We made our best effort to get involved on campus and make the most out of our first year at Rutgers. Although freshman year was unexpectedly cut short, it was a year to remember. We would like to thank everyone who made it special!
Enjoy this montage of freshman year made by Kuhu! :)
Love,
Shreya & Kuhu!
Comments