May 29, 2021. Hi everyone, it’s been a long time, almost a year since I last posted I think. Maybe more.Â
I just came to revisit the blog, and I’m delighted to share with you all that I finally got my bachelor’s from Columbia! Thank you to those of you who have been here since the start for sticking around, you know it’s been a tumultuous undergrad experience for me but I made it through. I hope my blog ultimately served its original purpose of offering some insight into life at an Ivy League institution. I won’t be deleting anything, so feel free to go back and read old posts if you still find them useful, or share them with freshmen that are starting this fall.
To offer an update on what I’ll be doing, I’ll be starting my master’s this fall, not at an Ivy but it’s at a great school where I can do lots of research and where I’ll know no one. I’m happy to start over and grateful to not have to worry about my plans for the next two years. Then I’ll be applying to PhD programs, and we’ll see where that takes me. In between now and the fall, I’m spending the summer TAing and otherwise just chilling at home, and appreciating how absolutely no one will be expecting me anywhere for the next few months!Â
I know I never really wrote about my junior year, and I definitely haven’t written since senior year. So to offer a brief summary of the past two years, I spent junior year worrying that I was never going to graduate. I got wildly varying grades, in classes of similar difficulties, and I was frustrated that I couldn’t pin down my learning style. But I was pretty happy, I joined my research group that spring and I was dating someone who brought me a lot of joy. We spent about a year together, through the beginning of the pandemic, and we broke up that summer, so I was sad that summer/fall but it was tempered by the fact that I was making TREMENDOUS progress in the group. I spent most of my senior fall doing research and presenting whenever I got the chance, and I really just grew so much as a scientist. I also lived in East Campus and I had my entire suite to myself, which was amazing. I spent the year with incredible views of the city, lots of disposable income while TAing, and just doing whatever I felt like doing with my free time. I ended the year getting an A, two points away from an A+, in physical chemistry, which I was so excited about. It was truly the best way to end my undergrad career.
But now I’m giddy with freedom, and I don’t really care what comes next! I’m hoping to save up money to maybe travel a bit this summer, so if you have any recommendations on where I should go, please let me know somehow. It’s time I stopped giving advice on this blog and started getting some in return :) In the same vein, if you have thoughts on what a recent college grad should do before starting grad school, absolutely hit my line. In the meantime, this blog has come to a peaceful and gratifying end, and thank you for offering an audience to both my pains and joys.Â
Ivy League Released and Confirmed Information on 2020-2021 Plans
Information taken from each schools’ official pages, please get in touch if information is falsely represented here. Columbia is the only Ivy to not yet release Fall 2020 plans.
De jure: A one-semester course in the most influential visual artists in western canon. Three credits, which means it’s less demanding than Lit Hum or CC at 75-minute classes twice a week (instead of two hours). Seminars are capped again at 22 students, although honestly I’m pretty sure I saw the cap at 25 students the past few semesters. They might have upped it a little bit over the years. Supposed to be an easy A.
De facto: Yeah, I would argue that it is. I took this class during the first few months of the pandemic, so our grades received were only Pass/Fail, but I’m pretty sure my letter grade would have been somewhere around an A-.
Like every other Core class I’ve reviewed so far, the quality of this course depends heavily on the instructor. In an unusual stroke of good luck, I had my first good instructor since Lit Hum! He was a very fair grader, great with feedback on written assignments, made assignment expectations crystal clear, and facilitated in-class discussions really well. As a perk, most of our readings were not required and therefore an easy way to get participation credit in. I was not the best about participating when classes were moved online but after two or three weeks I got my groove back and went to his online office hours, and he was very helpful and I was able to participate thoroughly for the rest of the semester.
I’m not sure the class really teaches you anything about how to analyze art in ways that aren’t already common sense, but it did give me a good idea about the general motivations and main works of each artist that we studied, which I think is the point of all the Core classes anyway. In that sense, it’s a great class. It’s also really fun, and if your professor is good about using NYC as a resource it can be the most explorational class you take at Columbia. It certainly was mine.
In general, I was a huge fan of this class. I think it’s also one of the best Core classes to practice writing in, even over UW. UW focuses on the technicalities of writing an essay but instructors aren’t really good about teaching you how to develop and defend a claim, but that’s something that I got to practice a lot in Art Hum, without it even being a stressful amount of writing. I really appreciated this class.
Speaking of workload, we had ten “annotations” due over the semester, where you have to print the chosen artwork off of Courseworks and annotate it with observations (NOT claims, no need to analyze the work and argue that the artist is trying to portray anything in particular) before class. We then had readings, which were mandatory about once every three or four seminars, and two “writing assignments” for the whole semester, one of which was 2-3 pages and the other was 5-6. We had a take-home midterm and final since both happened after the transition to online learning. The final assignment was particularly easy: he offered us about 6 assignments to choose from, about half of which were artsy, and all required about a day’s worth total of work. For example, the one I chose was a 2-page paper on how a work of art of my choice related to my field of study. One of the artsy ones was making a few self-portraits and writing a few sentences on how they compare to the portraiture we’ve studied over the semester. Selfies counted.
Tips for Acing the Class:
Show up. There isn’t really anything to review, per se, so it’s futile to expect to miss a class and try to catch up via other students’ notes or going to office hours. This is very much a discussion-based course, and the only way to know what’s going on is to pay attention in class. That being said, it’s easy to get an A as long as you’re in class.
Take notes of what other students say, not just the professor. Most of the course is taught via students agreeing or disagreeing with each other, and usually what is on exams is just whatever main points we honed in on during class. Also take notes of what kind of questions the professor asks, as these are usually regurgitated on exams.
Vocab is essential. Pretty much any kind of difficult question will involve you defining and applying a certain term that’s specific to an era or style of art, so if you don’t know what something means in class it’s important that you stop the class to ask the professor to spell and define it. Our professor had a list of vocab words on Courseworks, but no definitions, so definitions fully relied on whatever was said in class, especially more subjective terms like impressionism.
The best two ways to get participation credit are to incorporate something from the reading into your response, and to incorporate a comparison from art studied in previous seminars into your response. It’s super easy to take good notes on whatever is said during the few two weeks of class or so, and for the rest of the semester just find a way to compare the subject to whatever you learned in those first few classes. Since art is really only contextualized by previous art, your prof will be impressed that you’re “thinking critically.” lol.
This is a post I wrote before Columbia required students to move out due to the pandemic.
February 25. I thought I’d write about this because I was reading a blog post about impostor syndrome to make myself feel better and remembered I have a blog. And people would probably like to hear what I’m thinking.
I spent all of yesterday in lab, which if you don’t remember from my last post is brand-spankin’-new and super fancy and is all sorts of out of my league knowledge-wise. My PI and I chatted about what project I’d start working on, and afterwards I stuck around to ask him questions about the laser lab because I realized that I wasn’t really asking questions when it was him and the grad students with me. So I felt safe asking the questions I did, which included “why don’t we have to lint-roll our entire body if we have to dust our shoes before entering the lab?” (the answer was efficiency) and “what’s the point in having two lenses if one makes the laser smaller and the other just makes it bigger again?” (the answer had something to do with focusing and cleaning the beam) and other questions that I thought were inane and stuff I should have been able to understand from the papers I read. He was very nice about answering all my questions and walking me through a dumbed-down version of optics in general.
I told my PI after that I don’t ask a lot of questions in lab because I can’t tell the difference between questions that I should know the answer to and waste everyone’s time, and questions that would actually create productive discussion. And he responded that there’s no such thing as a dumb question, which of course I already know since professors say that all the time. But I didn’t realize until this morning how much I do believe there is such a thing as a dumb question, and that I ask too many of them.
The thing is, I truly feel as though I’m not smart enough to make it as a scientist. I feel like everything I think of has already been thought and answered, and I can’t remember the last time I had an original thought. I feel like I ask questions that a tourist would ask, not questions that someone about to get involved in the research would ask.Â
I think that this blog makes me look like a STEM major who knows what they’re doing and is enthusiastic about their career as a scientist, wherever it may take them. But I just want to make it clear that I am not effortlessly enthusiastic about it: most of the time I’m paralyzed by fear about not making it into a top 10 chem grad school and then either becoming a lab tech for the rest of my scientific career or going into a different field and wasting this expensive-ass degree. I have a sub-3.0 GPA, and it’s preventing me from applying for fellowships that literally everyone seems to do, like SURF in the bio department, which sophomores and freshmen get effortlessly. I’m terrified for this summer because if I don’t figure something out soon I’m going to waste the last summer I have, the only summer where I can actually create connections and a network to figure something out post-grad. And obviously I can’t apply to grad schools with a 2-something GPA. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.
But it’s not just my GPA that bothers me. These classes I’m taking, like right now I’m taking linear algebra and physics, should be easy As. I love both subjects and I feel like I’ve mastered the material we’ve covered so far and I feel confident solving p-sets. But when I go to pick up my graded p-sets, I have to flip through everyone else’s 15/15s and 41/42s to find my 9/15 and 38/42. These are classes that I’m over-prepared for, classes that are filled with freshmen, classes where professors go out of their way to help everyone get the highest grade possible. And to see myself get average and below-average grades is bewildering and beyond disheartening.
I try to make myself feel better by reminding myself “science isn’t about good grades it’s about being a curious and thorough researcher,” but then I come into the research lab and can’t think of a single other question than ones about the technicalities of the lab set-up. I ask about mirrors and lasers and why the room is always dark, when I feel like I should be asking questions about -- well I honestly don’t even know. Like the math or concepts or something. I ended up dropping a class that I was really excited about taking this semester, because it’s a grad course and I felt uncomfortable asking questions so I just fell too far behind. Other students asked really thoughtful questions and I just asked questions about notation.
So, yeah. That’s how I feel a majority of the time. I wonder every day what makes me cut out for my major, and if I’m trying hard enough. I don’t even know if I should be going into academia, because I’m not exactly excited by the idea of being plagued with impostor syndrome my whole career, no matter how many other people also experience it.Â
But I haven’t ever stopped trying in my major. And I guess that’s my point, at least of this post: I’m hopeful that science isn’t about having the grades or knowing everything, in the long run. I’m hopeful that whatever I have right now is worth something, and that I’ll be able to build a career I love on top of it. But the purpose of this post was just to let you guys know that for many undergrads here preparing for STEM careers, there’s no amount of prestige that can get rid of these insecurities. For example, even if I did get into my dream grad school (Stanford), I’d be constantly worried that I fluffed my application to make myself look good and they let me in unwittingly. So, no, being in a major I love doesn’t protect me from all the post-undergrad anxieties.
Update: it’s March 29, the day I’m posting this, and as you well know COVID-19 is in full swing in the US. Columbia was quick to send all students home, and ultimately decided that this semester would be graded on a pass/fail basis for all students, with no exceptions. If you’re unfamiliar with the system, the key piece of info is that Pass grades have no weight on your GPA, but Fail grades do (as a 1.0). Many people argue that a mandatory P/F system is beneficial to students who can’t study under their current situations, and I agree with that. I personally can’t study effectively in my situation. But I’m also panicking over the fact that I won’t be able to boost my GPA this semester, leaving me with a shitty GPA for yet another year (if we return in the fall). Many internships I was in the process of applying to will be revoked, if not because of the pandemic then because my personal statement claiming “my GPA by the start of this internship will have been brought up by my efforts this semester” will be absolutely inaccurate. Applying to grad school in the fall is a laughable wish; I’ll need to take a gap year most likely, since I won’t be able to land a job. What I really need is for Passes to weigh as 4.0s, but I doubt the university will do that. Anyways, that was just an update on the GPA part of the rant above. Hope y’all are staying safe.
February 15, 2020. It’s been a great start to spring semester on campus; I’m registered for 4 classes as well as research, but I decided today that I’m going to drop one of them. Puts me at barely 13 credits but it’s worth it: the psets for that one class had 10-15 problems each week, and it would take me around 4 hours per problem to finish. And it was only 2 credits! I only stayed in it this long because I love the subject, and it’s half a semester so I thought I could just suffer through it and bullshit my way through. BUT I love the subject, and I would rather take two years to understand it once than fail the class now then relearn it again in grad school.Â
Anyways, with the absence of this class I suddenly have 5 days of the week off, and it’s Saturday so I’m gonna take a nap then try to get some work done for research. I’m in a new lab again this semester, after the last two labs over two semesters were definitely not the right fit lol. This semester is one I’m hoping to stay in for the rest of undergrad: it’s a baby lab because the PI was just appointed at Columbia last semester. Three grad students and me, potentially a postdoc that I had the honor of sitting in on his interview of! and asking questions along with the other team members (interviews are just an hour-long talk of the postdoc’s research history and what he plans to continue). I love love LOVE this lab because I feel like an actual member of the group, with agency, like I’m going up on the website n all that :) and I can stroll into work whenever I want and the PI is training the grads and I himself, etc. The lab is brand-new, so new that a good portion of it hasn’t been set-up yet and actually a good portion of my research will be creating some of the technology!! Because we’re trying to develop a way to image single electrons, so obviously it doesn’t exist and we’ll be developing microscopes to figure out how.
Anyways, that’s my academic life. Clearly I can talk about research all day so I’m just gonna move on. I will say that I’ve been taking so many math classes that I realized like a week ago I could totally get a math concentration too if I just took like another 4 classes, so I guess I’m chem/math now! Wow a whole STEM bitch y’all could never
I’m otherwise not too involved in campus life anymore, tbh. I can’t tell if that’s the norm, because I don’t think it is but when my sorority was preparing for recruitment and we quickly introduced ourselves to the rest of the chapter a surprising number of people upperclassmen were like yeah I kinda do this and I’m in this club but I don’t rlly go to meetings anymore and ya pretty much the sorority is what i’m most involved in now. And i was like huh. I do, however, still worry about it, and i keep trying to think of ways to get involved so that job or grad school applications are easier. Research takes up most of my time so when I get back from it, I’m pooped. I either go work out or watch Netflix, or cook, or chill w my dog, and I’m honestly happy with this life. I guess I’ve kind of figured out that clubs are pretty culty on campus, and not being involved in a club doesn’t mean you’re not passionate about it. It just means that those people who are just make it their whole life/social scene, the way I make my dog and research my whole life.
On campus, things have settled down since the Tess Majors attack. I don’t think I wrote about it before: just a few days before finals week a Barnard freshman named Tess was stabbed to death in a mugging as she was walking back to campus. It was terrifying not only because she was an unarmed, white, freshman, but also because it happened with no provocation and extremely close to campus. I personally ended up deferring two of my finals to the beginning of this semester, because I was too scared to leave my dorm to study. I also spent a ridiculous amount of money on Postmates and when I had to leave I took a cab even 4 blocks. Since being back on campus, things have quieted down, but I along with a lot of other people downloaded the Citizens app, and that awareness of all the crime going on in the city makes me feel much more vulnerable still.
Also, for some reason a facebook page called Columbia Confessions has blown up; I’ve posted three or so times myself and my most recent one, a shitpost about stealing people’s Canada Gooses at parties, broke a hunnid which I’m proud of! I actually wrote it to specifically target some kid who kept complaining about his lost Valentino, and someone actually tagged him lmao.
Lastly (that I can think of), the housing process has just begun and its a weird time on campus as usual: freshmen breaking down and losing friends over groupings, sophomores just trying to avoid the drama of last year, juniors angling to see if they can get an EC suite or a nice Hogan single. I personally was offered a nice single in my sorority house which i GAVE UP because a good friend of mine we’ll call Omicron wanted to room together and I’m tired of not having friends lol. She’s got ODS accommodations and theoretically so do I, so we’re trying to go for a Watt, EC, or Woodbridge 2-bedroom suite. I don’t know which I want because I’ve never been in any of those dorms, besides an EC townhouse, so I’m feeling really nervous about giving up my brownstone room. But I don’t really fuck w my sorority anymore, and worst comes to worst I’ll live in River because they have some HUGE ass singles, so for now i’ll trust Omicron and hope that we get a Watt 2br because they have lounges.Â
OH lastly for real, I’m in art hum this semester! so keep ur luscious eyes peeled for a Core Review at the end of this semester~
October 24, 2019. The strangest thing is happening: I’m, like, exercising and eating well? I made a new workout plan and I’ve been pretty consistent over the past week. My legs keep buckling under me as I walk and my neck is always in need of a good cracking but otherwise I feel great! crazy how that works
I also keep buying good groceries because i used to buy sweetgreen or shake shack all the time, and i wouldn’t say sweetgreen is unhealthy necessarily but it’s also $15 bucks a meal, but then I realized the grocery store is literally right next to the two like it’s literally right there so i just figured i’d spend $30 on groceries for a week instead of on two meals. Usually the first thing I’ll put in my cart is like oreos or some dumb shit (because I keep making the mistake of shopping while i’m hungry) but then my cravings will subside and i’ll get, like, fruit. I bought grapes and baby carrots yesterday. I also bought soup dumplings like a week ago and, combined with the instant pho my mom gave me when i moved in, I haven’t eaten in a dining hall since! Basically it’s just some pho noodles with some seasoning oil in a packet, which i boil with some chicken broth then add the dumplings! Yeah I fuckin bought chicken broth like an adult! Boom a meal right there.
Oh I also bought bagels and cream cheese yesterday, which was literally an out-of-body experience, I didn’t buy like a sleeve of bagels like normal I got half a dozen bagels by picking them out myself from the like thing grocery stores got? You know with the tongs on springs attached to the wall, and wax paper? Do It Yourself? Fresh-ass bagels, minding their own business? Yeah the last time I did that was at a Shoppers when I was like 10 with my dad. Surreal shit.
Anyways I have a midterm tomorrow for orgo but i’m not worried; i probably should be but honestly I already studied the reaction mechanisms so i really have not much to study. i’m just chilling
What I am looking forward to is Basketball Mania tonight; it’s been a long time since I’ve caught a basketball game and I’m excited for this season. I’m going with a friend and we’re catching dinner before; apparently the first 500 people to Mania get a free tumbler. idk but i want free shit also i think there’s a raffle for free tuition or something? Columbia’s wilding
Otherwise life is great and the weather makes me happy and I’m glad to be here :)
October 9. Exactly a month later, funny how I work
What’s good, I’m still thriving hope you are too :)
Only a month in and I’ve already had one midterm; I have two more before Friday (it’s Wednesday). Usually I know how well I’m going to do going in; these two? I absolutely do not. It’s mostly because I have never taken classes remotely similar to either before, yet I’ve gone to every lecture, so it’s really just roulette at this point. But I’m rolling with it!
I got a job: I walk dogs with Wag! I get to walk some heckin cute dogs, and my step count has shot up to a daily 15-20k effortlessly. It’s actually been pretty slow this week, but last week I made about $80 which was nice pocket money. I had to spend it all bc I had a few haircare-related emergencies but I plan on using the money I earn from now on to open a Roth IRA before the semester ends, and then after that saving for a nice spring break vacation w my boo. when i said i’m thriving!
Academically, I do need to find a tutor for physics, because my prof is a pretty bad lecture and I’ve fallen behind on textbook readings, so if any of y’all know good Columbia peer tutors for 1401, please hook a girl up. Also, I’m (finally) taking gen chem lab, and I am somehow failing! My TA has her head up her ass and takes points off for incredible things. But on the other side, I haven’t missed a single pset in physics or a single lab report in gen chem.Â
I’m actually taking an intro course in coding (in Python) this semester, and it’s my most rewarding class and also the class I’m doing the best in! With minor help from friends, I’m completing all the projects by myself and I couldn’t be prouder. It’s also my only 4-credit course this semester, so with any luck it’ll cushion my GPA. I’ve always been intimidated by computer science, so my success in this class so far is really validating.
I know it sounds like I don’t have much of a life outside of classes, and that’s kind of true, but I’m actually really happy with my life as it is! I don’t go out into the city much, but the thrill I used to get from that, or from going out with friends weekend nights, I now get from staying on top of my classes. That might be because I’m taking all STEM courses this semester for the first time, which really excites me! These days, if I’m not in class, studying or at required sorority/URC events, I’m either in the lab, playing/running with my dog, or in my dorm watching Netflix and snacking. I get the occasional meal--maybe 5 meals a week--with a friend, and I have frequent study sessions with the new friends I’ve made in my intro-level courses. Weekends I usually run errands and do chores, with Saturday being my “veg out” day and Sunday being my “weekly cleanup” day (laundry, vacuuming, grooming my dog, etc.). Mondays I’m back on my bullshit!
Thanks for checking in; catch you in the next one :)
September 8. What’s crackin yall fall semester has been off to a great start; today marks the end of week 1 of classes for us! This semester I’m taking mostly chemistry courses so I won’t be updating on Core classes, but here’s a general overview of what I, and the rest of campus, have been up to so far.
I moved in last Saturday, so this week has mostly been me figuring out what the hell to do with my room. I’m living in the same dorm as last semester but a different floor, which is nice because I can actually take the stairs if I don’t want to wait for the elevator. The only downside is that my room gets practically no sunlight until like 3 PM every day. I’ve done a lot of shopping for some reason, been feeling like an adult I guess, and bought things like a cutting board and knife, a dish rack, disposable gloves, and an ice cube tray, among others. Sounds trivial and super boring but lemme tell you that shit gets me going
In academic news, I visited a professor (PI) yesterday to talk about joining his research lab and there’s a good chance it’ll be a match! He’s incredibly understanding and patient, and even took me around the lab to visit the students currently working--they’re all men but they seemed genuinely kind and passionate about what they’re doing. I was even able to impress the PI by recognizing one of the lab equipment, an x-ray diffractometer! My next steps are to get in contact with one of the undergrads to find out about her experience, and hang around the lab the next few weeks to get a hang of things. He (the PI) said that RAs basically make the lab their “life,” so instead of me clocking in and out regularly I’d just kind of head to the lab whenever I have spare hours, at all times during the week. Which I dig.
I’ve gotta get textbooks, I’ve been trying to torrent them but most classes this semester want the newest editions which aren’t available yet :/ But I’ll figure something out. I’m also taking a comp sci class for the first time in my life, and so far it’s really exciting! Actually I think there might be office hours today which I should probably go to. Our first project is to “make a website” on our UNI from a remote location--i.e. our personal computers. idk
Sorority life is going well--a lot of ppl came back from study abroad and it’s good to see my little again! We had a meet-and-greet a few days ago, as well as the activities fair, and it was good to talk to PNMs and just catch up with sisters in general. I really wanna get more involved this semester so I applied to be a chair of the recruitment video committee.
Life is pretty good! I’m exercising regularly, I’m eating good, I’m on the lookout for a part-time job, and I don’t feel like I’m drowning in classes yet, which usually happens to me the first two weeks of school. So I’m looking forward this semester! catch u in the next post :)
De jure: a one-semester class that is a bit less demanding than Lit Hum or CC: 1.25 hour classes rather than 2 hour classes. Still twice a week, and still capped at 22 students although I weaseled my way into my class so we had 23. A class designed to introduce you to music history as well as equip all students with the most basic of musical terminology.
De facto: This is a class that teaches you arbitrary things at best. As someone who has a well-developed background in classical music, I was severely let down by this class. Just like Lit Hum and CC, it depends totally on what professor you get, and mine sticked to no clear pattern when picking works to study other than sheer diversity and obscurity.
For example, the Baroque era was exemplified by Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. While that’s a wonderful opera, who gives a fuck about Monteverdi? I promise you, if you want to hold a conversation about opera with a Juilliard musician, they are not going to be impressed you know anything about L’Orfeo. They’re going to be weirded out and wish you would talk about Marriage of Figaro or something.
We studied Schoenberg for modern music, and I actually got a point off my final for not knowing the word sprechstimme, which is 1. fucking GERMAN and 2. hands down the most obscure thing in the history of music, one that is of no use to anyone other than people pursuing music professionally.
The workload is pretty light. In my class we had 5 discussion sections, which were just five class periods throughout the semester set aside so we could discuss whatever piece of music we were studying. Then we had to go see an opera performance, and write a 5-7 page paper on it. Then we had two midterms which were laughably easy, either multiple choice (“which of these is not a dynamic?”) or passage ID (she would play a clip of a piece and we had to say what piece it was but it was like if I played you the first 10 seconds of Toxic). The final was writing two 2-page essays, double spaced, that we were given almost 3 weeks to write before bringing it to the final. Again, I have no idea how I didn’t get an A in the class. (I just heard back from my prof and she said I got a 92% on the final so where’s my A minus coming from?)
Tips for acing the class:
Make a playlist of the pieces you study in class and listen to it when you can so you don’t have to cram for listening ID exams. Like when you’re walking to class, or when you’re studying. Because believe me, it’s impossible to cram for music hum exams.
Professors in this class don’t like people who act like they’re better than everyone else just bc they play an instrument. So don’t be that person.
Every class is required to go see an opera during the semester. To make it easier on yourself when you have to write an essay about it later, I highly recommend seeing the opera on your own time before the class goes. It’s hard to write an essay on an opera you’ve never seen before and can barely remember. Also the Met offers nice student discounts.
If you’re not understanding what happens in class, record the class and listen to it at home while Googling the pieces of music. Usually Wikipedia covers everything you need to know for class.
May 24. Final grades finally came in, so in the spirit of this blog here’s my sweep:
organic chemistry: A-
calculus iv: C+
music humanities: A-
independent research: A
Lands me at a 3.4 GPA this semester. This semester was the best I’ve had in a long time, so I thought I’d break it down for you and offer my musings:Â
I’m a bit disappointed by orgo, since I worked my butt off for that class and I really thought I knew the material yet apparently I must have done horribly on the final since an A-, post-curve, translates to mid-80s for that class. I scored above average on all the midterms, usually top 10%. We also have daily online assignments due, and I blew almost all of them out of the water, except for the last 3 weeks or so because I was in the hospital. So I’m not really sure how I ended up below a 90% raw, unless I really bombed the final. I’ll find out in a few days; I just emailed the prof asking for a copy of my exam.
Update: I apparently got a 66% on the final. That explains it.
However, my disappointment in orgo is tempered by the curve in calc, which I genuinely thought I would fail because I’ve been scoring sub-50% on the exams (yikes). I also haven’t been doing the homework. However I taught myself a huge portion of the end of class, which was the hardest stuff: calc of variations. And for that i’m really proud of myself. (I even tried to hire a tutor who’s getting a Ph.D. in mech e and they didn’t understand the stuff.)
Music hum is whatever, I’m honestly not entirely sure why I didn’t get an A since classical music is kind of my thing but I figure it must be because I did pretty horribly on one of the listening reflections. I must have also messed up the final too because we had a pretty heftily weighted essay that I got a near-perfect score on. Idk though I could care less about that class. Just a Core req.
And lastly, maybe the only A I’ve ever gotten in a four-credit course: supervised independent research. As it turns out, getting credit for research is probably the easiest and most effective way to boost your GPA, and I’ll probably be doing it every semester from here on out. I spent every Friday in the lab, and while it was usually 3-6 hours straight, it pales in comparison to the 12 hours a week a typical four-credit course demands. Like, CC? 4 hours a week in class alone, then I’d spend every free second reading the texts and writing daily responses.Â
Anyways, that’s my semester for you, academically. I am kind of wondering how I’m supposed to ever get a 4.0 if I can’t even pull an A in orgo, a class I’m retaking and I love, but I’m trying not to let it bother me too much. A Summary of Junior Year and some updates on the Core Review are coming up shortly. Stay tuned~ :)
May 19. Seems like I couldn’t deliver on my promise to post more this semester. However in my last journal entry I wrote that I set myself up for happiness this semester, and I’m glad to say that that came pretty true. Honestly, I started this semester feeling so happy that it almost wasn’t normal; I was just so happy to be back. Now, I’ve been home for a few days since my last final was on Wednesday (it’s Sunday), and I feel happy but normal again. End-of-year depression has set in, but that’s normal for me when I don’t have anything planned for the summer (I don’t have anything planned for the summer). But I plan to exercise and study for fall classes and start side projects I’ve been putting off all semester. And that’s a start.
So yeah, finals were a thing. I’ve already gotten two grades back; one was an A in the only 4-credit course I’m taking, so hopefully I’ll get above a 3.0 this semester??? The reason I don’t know is because I’m in danger of failing one of my courses; I’ve been horrible on doing the homework. But my professor is so kind and I’m trying to get all my missing work in before the grades are due. I finessed a third of a letter grade out of another professor, landing me at a C +, and my last two classes are almost guaranteed As but one of them doesn’t affect my GPA because I’m retaking the class (orgo) which is a whole load of bullshit that my advisor didn’t tell me before I prioritized orgo over doing homework for other classes (which I did because I’m a chem major, and major GPA matters in STEM fields). So i might literally land a 3.0 if I’m lucky and don’t fail this class I’m worried about.
Other than that, it’s been a chill semester, and I’ll be posting a summary of junior year soon. I’m currently at home, on Netflix 24/7 because my dad somehow got us a year of Netflix free?? idk. rewatching The Flash for what feels like the 100th time now ~
is it possible for sophomores to do formal recruitment at Columbia? as a first year I’m still not sure if I want to join a sorority
Yes!!!! we actually had a few juniors accept bids this year! it’s literally never too late to join a sorority and benefit from the network and opportunities. i rushed sophomore year for the same reason as you–i didn’t know enough about sororities and wasn’t sure i was that type of person. just keep tabs on us to get a feel for how you’d like it, and feel free to rush again next year!!
January 29. It’s 8:30 AM and I’m currently in the srat house studying before class; I missed last week’s class bc of sorority recruitment. Yesterday was bid night!! Honestly it always looks like it’s gonna be super corny, and from the outside (aka new members) it usually is, but as a member on the other side I had so much fun and I hope they understood that we genuinely love showing them how much we love our sorority. Also I had a blast dancing to the afterparty music and I helped clean up with some sisters and blasted my own music. I’ve been trying to scout out who my future little might be (!!) and I think I have some good ideas! The shirts were cute, there was free food, and the theme was easy this year so no one felt left out :)
Otherwise, not much to update y’all on. I’m trying to deliver on my promise of posting more this semester but honestly I just have so much going on. Last week was the first week of classes and I’m already swamped. Not necessarily with work, because I’m taking super easy courses this semester, but with meeting people and getting meals and taking care of my dog and remembering to do homework that I’m not used to (fucking online assignments will be the death of me). At least I’m sane and happy! I really set myself up for happiness this semester. Not to jinx anything.
wait do you mean bringing a little boy like an actual literal little boy? like do you mean a puppy or boyfriend -- or did you give birth - if so, congratulations!!
wow wtfffff there is Not enough activity on my blog to justify anyone noticing this
hey there first off thanks for your always honest takes on life at Columbia. just wanted to ask if you had any tips for transfers? advice for social life (how to integrate lol and if transfers are treated any differently) and how catching up on the core works? (hopefully will be on campus as a sophomore).
I don’t know many transfers but the few that I do know ended up adjusting a lot faster once they joined some kind of a community. I highly recommend Greek life for this purpose, either on-campus (mostly white) ones or off-campus minority ones. Joining big groups for any other identity you have, like the music groups or racial student groups or political groups, also helps bounds. Transfers aren’t really treated differently by other students, but maybe by the administration if you get placed in transfer-specific classes. No one will know you’re a transfer unless you tell them. In terms of the Core, I believe you get to choose between starting with CC or LitHum, but I recommend starting with LitHum, and you can place out of FroSci and UWriting if you’ve taken “equivalent courses” at your last college. But don’t quote me on that.
Also don’t be afraid to ask for help on social media! I’ve found that it’s some of the most genuine ways to get relevant help from otherwise complete strangers, and you can always invite them to grab a meal later if you want to make friends. Facebook is a godsend, but even a story post on IG can do wonders. I’m friends with about 20 current freshmen that I’ve literally never met bc I’m not on campus this semester.
Oh and don’t forget to NOT take more than 4 classes your first semester! It’s always my biggest tip to anyone starting at Columbia.
December 17. Long time no see. This blog hasn’t been active since, I think, July? Fucking July??? But I figured, with the year coming to a close and yet another ED application cycle done, an update is long overdue. This is a long-ass post but, in my professional opinion, worth the read (or at least worth a thorough skimming).
Oh also? It looks like my audience has changed quite a bit (since fucking July) so Please shoot me suggestions from what kind of content would be helpful for you! I’ve definitely slacked on advice posts so yeah that’s something I can bring back if you want. Ask box is open :)
So, I took a semester off. That’s the biggest update. DM me if you want me to go into specifics, but basically those of you who remember my summary of sophomore year remember that I said I was considering retaking a class because I had horrible grades and I was behind on my major. Instead, I ended up deciding to take a semester off and I’ve been back home, working an internship and taking care of myself.Â
I also remember telling you guys last year that I was taking a break from this blog because “I’m not really living the life of an average Columbia student, which defeats the purpose of the blog,” or something along those lines. And one thing I’ve learned during my time off is that I was pretty damn wrong. A lot of people need to take time off, a lot of people want to take time off, a lot of people study abroad or take co-ops, a lot of people graduate in the winter instead of in May. And one of the most dangerous but cliche things about being in a bad place is that you feel very estranged and feel like you’re going through things completely alone and you’re almost always wrong. Go figure.
One of the best things about taking time off, aside from having the time to take care of my mental and physical health, is having the time to really just float through life for a while and do exactly what I want to do. And that’s what I did. I took an internship that was completely out of left field and I loved it so much that I am seriously considering pursuing that career, somehow combining it with my chemistry major. I had so much free time that I interviewed almost 30 high schoolers who were applying ED. At one point I literally sat in a Starbucks from 9 AM to 3 PM just conducting back-to-back interviews. Some were horrible (one girl told me she was applying “because Obama went there,” another was a Wharton wannabe to the point where he used U Penn terminology in the interview), but most were incredible peers that I genuinely think will get in and I’m excited to see on campus next year. Some of my questions were never asked because we were having such good conversations about the apocalypse or Brett Kavanaugh or chord progressions.
Being off campus also gives me interesting insight into life on campus. Through Instagram I can see in painful detail exactly what I’m missing out on. I missed being able to get involved in research, or taking over the Admissions Instagram stories. I missed my best friend transferring to her dream school, and I missed becoming true friends with a freshman I had helped a lot over the summer; he’s now found his squad and settled in, and I’m not gonna stop him from living his life. But I also get to see people being messy, people barely surviving their 9 AMs, people stressing out about midterms, people going for midnight snack runs and being obnoxious in the dorm lounge, people getting over exes, people making the same mistakes I made and pushing on. I never really got the chance to sit back and watch everyone run around on campus, because I was always so focused on myself. We always are.
But being forced to miss out really does wonders on FOMO. You can’t fear missing out if you have to. FOMO is such a big problem on campus because we have the possibility to not miss out; we’re all in charge of our own schedules. It leads us to believe that we have to try to do it all because everything has such value and we can’t miss any of it. It leads us to believe that if we can’t do something it’s because we’re not trying hard enough, not because we are physically prevented from doing it. That’s a really stressful mentality. Taking a semester off has, for me, been like being forced to take a cold shower: fucking torture and extremely humbling at first, but once I’ve accepted that I can’t escape, it’s freeing, because I don’t have to worry about the heat bills or the health consequences of taking a hot shower. I can let the water run as long as I want.
I’m sure you’re wondering: what’s life back at Columbia like? I followed you to hear about Columbia, not about you! Well, here’s what I’ve gathered, from Spec and from Facebook:
Columbia finally decided to bargain with the grad students, so they might be unionizing soon. Update: the grad students accepted Columbia’s bargaining framework.
A horrible comedian was invited on campus and not only was he not a good comedian, he made insensitive jokes at the expense of minorities. Freshmen have a lot of opinions.
Columbia Housing has gone off the walls and literally no one in EC is happy living there even though it’s supposed to be the best dorm. Housing does not take any accountability for the shitshow that is dorm life.
There are new vending machines for Plan B, condoms, tampons, and meds like Advil. The Plan B is crazy cheap, too.
Columbia’s working on an African American and African diaspora department. The board of trustees’ approval is all that’s left atm.
So yeah! That’s about it! I’m coming back to campus in about a month, and I’ll be starting like I never left. Hopefully. I’m only taking 4 classes, maybe 5 if I count research, and I hopefully won’t be doing too much else so I can actually enjoy this semester and do well. I’m learning that I really need to be selfish with my time. I just hope I can stick to it. I’ve also got a little boy coming with me that will take up a lot of my time, what with training and everything, so yeah I can’t really get that involved this semester. Which is really a bummer, because I won’t be able to set myself up for leadership positions in future years, but I’d rather do well this semester and cross that bridge when I get to it than try to do it all and fail spectacularly again. Here’s to hoping that my sex life stays active though. :/
Hope that was everything you’re looking for, and DM me or shoot me an ask if it wasn’t. Next time I post will definitely be in 2019 :)
