Sophomore Four

"Sophomore Four" is a blog is made up of four girls going through our second year of college. We're each going to different schools in the U.S. and are very excited to share our experiences! Each girl will be posting once a week with text posts, pictures, and/or videos! Please see our "Rules" page for the specific rules we have for the channel. Mondays: Anna Tuesdays: wildcard/guest day Wednesdays: Sam Thursdays: Lari Fridays: Ali Feel free to ask us with any questions you may have! Please refer to our "About" pages for personal questions or contact info!

[redravenclaw]

[sophomorefour]

Sophomore four was at LeakyCon! Yayyyy!!

[redravenclaw]

HEY LOOK! IT’S LARI’S ROOM TOUR.

So yeah. Sorry it’s so late. I didn’t feel like cleaning my room. And I had a room inspection today, so I kind of had to clean it. 

But yes. 

and I’ve done laundry since I filmed this. It’s sitting in the washer waiting for me now. 

[sophomorefour]

I posted it to the wrong account. Forgive me.

[sophomorefour]

Sam's Room Tour!

A tour of my room at school this year... hope you enjoy :)

hours of sleep last night: 8 days gone since last load of laundry: 8 tests/papers so far this semester: 8/3 plans for the weekend: Halloween stuff probably something new I learned this week: no matter how people have been in the past, they can always surprise you.

[sophomorefour]

DORM TOUR!

Woo! This is my room. It's about twice as large as my room last year, which is really nice. I hope you enjoy my tour; I filmed it in one go seeing as I have a paper to write, but I'm pretty sure I got everything in. I very much enjoy decorating my room - I mean, if you have to live in a place for a year might as well make it home, right?

hours of sleep last night: 5.5 days gone since last load of laundry: 9 tests/papers so far this semester: 3/3 plans for the weekend: Halloween party!   something new I learned this week: Rose Tyler wears really ordinary type clothes, but it's still nearly impossible to dress up as her for Halloween. Also professors really don't know how to use the word 'trolling'.

[sophomorefour]

So hello, I found this site a while back that helps you keep track of all your tv watching and it even has a little calculator that tells you how much time you're wasting watching tv! But, if you don't want to click on the link, here are a few of my regular shows.

Sunday - Once Upon a Time, Dexter

Monday - Revolution

Wednesday - Supernatural, American Horror Story (starting soon)

Thursday - Grey's Anatomy, Elementary, Parks and Recreation

Friday - Haven (I'm in the process of catching up on it)

Saturday - Merlin

See ya,

Ali

hours of sleep last night: 6 ish days gone since last load of laundry: 5 tests/papers so far this semester: 2/2 (WHY IS IT SO EASY SO FAR THEY'RE PREPARING US FOR THE ONSLAUGHT I THINK) plans for the weekend: there's a fetish party tomorrow night that i might go to? i might go see a movie? there's this thing at the school my dorm is a part of (I should explain this in another post) called Clarketoberfest and it's cute and fallcentered so i might go to that. and there's another farm festival in town that a friend of mine is working at that i might go to. PLUS LOTS OF HOMEWORK. something new I learned this week: I'm possibly lactose-intolerant.

[sophomorefour]

The case in which Lari fails!

Yeah. 

School started over a month ago. It's actually already midterms. It has been for basically the past two weeks. And will be for the next two weeks. ANDDD that's why I keep "forgetting" to post. Actually it's because I have an 8 am every day but Friday which makes me really tired (seeing as I wake up at 6 am for that class) and I choose to sleep from the time I get out of class on Thursday till basically mid-day on Friday. This is my life

SOOO SCHEDULE!!!

On MW I have:

8-9 am Music theory 1

10-11ish am (W only!) Voice Lessons

11am-12pm Women's Chorale

3:25-4:40pm Chemistry 

5:30-7:20 Media Writing 1

ON T/TR

8-9 am Music Theory

9:25-10:30 am Western Humanities 2

12-1:30pm Chattanooga Singers

1:30-2:00ish pm (T only!) Chattanooga Singers Sectionals!

3-5ish pm (TR only!) Chemistry Lab

Total Credit Hours: 16

YEAHH LOOK AT ALL THOSE EMPTY HOURS!!!

SOO that's why I sleep when I can. 

AND I'll explain the classes shortly here!

Music theory 1 - We learn about scales and time and key and intervals and I'm sure there is more but we haven't gotten there yet. I love this class.

Voice Lessons- I have jury this semester which basically says whether or not I can start my minor yet or not. So I basically get pointers on what I'm doing wrong with my singing and make it better.

Women's Chorale - women's chorus basically. Everyone can join, only part auditions are necessary. I like it. :)

Chattanooga Singers - I LOVE THIS CLASS. OMG. We're singing this mass right now and it;s so great and I love the people and the music and I'm learning so much like how to match notes to sounds and os;ikgns;id I JUST LOVE THIS CLASS OKAY. and I'm making lots of ALTO friends! Even though apparently there isn't a single alto in the entire music department. (and SECTIONALS are just an extension of class to which we go over our parts until we get the for the next test)

Chemistry - Basic stuff so far. I HATE THIS CLASS. I keep forgetting to do my homework because it is online. And basically all of my grade is tests, which I do horrible on. And I basically bring my computer every day and look at cats the entire class time. I'm a bad student

Chemistry Lab - the fun part of Chemistry. I have a friend who is my lab partner and we sit there and talk about her sorority whenever we aren't actually doing the lab. and then we hang out after class with her boyfriend and some of their friends. It's great times.

Media Writing 1 - I really hope communications isn't all about this class because I kind of sort of dont really like it and it makes me sad because I really like communications but i really dont want to be a journalist. 

Western Humanities 2 - this is the philosophy side of western humanities and I kind of like it but its a really boring class and I usually fall asleep or doodle in this class. I actually wrote this during class but don't tell my teacher that. She thought I was taking notes.

SO THAT'S MY CLASSES AND EXCUESES. AND NOW FOR TV SHOWS. 

I watch too many TV shows and I kind of want to keep this short. THIS ISN'T IN ORDER OF FAVORITES

I watch the following:

Mad Men,Gossip Girl, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory, HIMYM, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, Weeds, The Vampire Diaries, White Collar, Suits, Heartland, Teen Wolf, Doctor Who, Awkward, Revenge, New Girl, Castle, Once Upon a Time, Glee, Bones, Fringe, Pretty Little Liars, Merlin, The Lying Game, Switched at Birth, Smash, Grimm, Downton Abbey, The New Normal, Make it or Break it, Jane By Design, 666 Park Ave, Supernatural, My Little Pony.

So I watch a lot of TV, and I'm starting up some of those. SOO YEAH. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.

`~Lari

hours of sleep last night: 7? Maybe? and I nap a lot so yeah. days gone since last load of laundry: 4 tests/papers so far this semester: 10?/3 plans for the weekend: FALL RETREAT WITH PROJECT CANTERBURY. So excited for this! something new I learned this week: I really need sleep.

[sophomorefour]

What I watch on TV

This week's theme is simple: TV shows we watch! Also, I apologize for not posting yesterday: it's a hectic week.

I wouldn't say I watch a crazy amount of TV, but I do watch a decent amount. Shows that I watch that are on right now: How I Met Your Mother, Glee (but why can't they cancel it already please), 30 Rock Shows that I watch that are on break right now: Doctor Who, Sherlock, MLP:FIM Shows that I watched that are done/cancelled: Veronica Mars, Firefly, Torchwood (well that might not be done but as of now it's basically done), The IT Crowd, Arrested Development (though it's coming back!)

I'm totally forgetting something because I always forget something. But that's the gist of it. (I feel like I watch more than I just wrote down. I'm totally missing something ugh.)

hours of sleep last night: 6 days gone since last load of laundry: 4 tests/papers so far this semester: 1/2 plans for the weekend: going home! I have a four day weekend.   something new I learned this week: 

[sophomorefour]

Hey guys! So much to catch up on so I'm going to do this in bullets.

Who are you? I'm Ali! I'm a sophomore and Fridays on this blog and voldified everywhere else on the internet. I figured I'd tell you guys since it's been so long.

Where are you? Last you heard from me, I was at Muhlenberg but I was transferring. I am now a proud Smithie! Transferring has been strange but fun and exciting! I'll save that for another post, though.

Where were you last week? Last Thursday we had Mountain Day. This is a day in the first semester the president picks (but doesn't notify anyone about) to cancel all classes. We're woken up at 7 on Mountain Day with the chapel bells. Usually there's apple picking but it was too early in the season so my friends and I mainly just hung out outside. It was beautiful. But it threw off all my classes so essentially I had Thursday and Friday on Friday and it was mad hectic.

What's your schedule like? As you can see in this picture, my weeks are very hectic and I'm not done yet. I'm still looking around at clubs to join or I might get a job. I'm not sure. I'm taking four classes, I'm in a musical (Feldzieg in the Drowsy Chaperone), I'm on the cheer team, and I tutor high school students. My favorite class is definitely my english class. It's a writing intensive course called Writing About Humor and we're reading Mindy Kaling's book and it's just really interesting and fun and we get to discuss why things are funny and what humor is and how it works. Another amazing class is my Adolescent Education class taught by my advisor who also happens to be the guy who runs the tutoring program I'm a part of. It's a combination of adolescent development and educational policy and how we can use the former to get the most out of the latter and stuff like that. I geek out about it all the time. I'm also taking calc... again. My credits for that didn't transfer and it's basically the same material that I took last year so it's not too bad. I'm also taking a Women in US History Since 1865 course. It's a bit abstract/lofty for my taste (I like names and dates and such over big ideas not really applied in any way) but it's still really interesting.

How are you enjoying it? Life is really good so far here. I'm enjoying it so much more than Muhlenberg. When I'm not in class or practice or rehearsal or tutoring, I'm watching Supernatural with my friend Alana or studying or doing homework or eating or sleeping or showering. I think I need to work on balancing stuff a bit more. Hopefully that will come with time?

Talk to y'all later!

-Ali

hours of sleep last night: 7 hours days gone since last load of laundry: 8? we have free laundry in my dorm, btw. it's awesome tests/papers so far this semester: none actually. which is odd plans for the weekend: my parents are coming tomorrow!! and then I have rehearsal. on sunday I'm meeting up with a camp friend and rehearsal again. writing some essays in between there. something new I learned this week: Northampton is a great city for quirky shopping but just plain old grocery shopping requires some kind of transportation.

[sophomorefour]

Schedule Week! 

This week we're discussing our schedules. As you can see, I'm in 5 classes. Three are communication classes, one is a business class, and one is a film class. I end relatively early everyday which is nice, but I start early which is not so nice. I'll just tell you a little bit about the classes I'm taking and what I think of them so far:

Cases in Communication: This is the intro class for the communication major... it's pretty boring but I need to take it. It isn't hard at all and all of the tests are take home, so it's not a very stressful class. Sometimes we talk about interesting comm cases (like the soda ban in NYC) but it's mostly just boring theories.

Research Methods in Communication Studies: This is another required class for my major. I actually really like it so far. It can be a bit boring at times, but it's very practical and we're starting to do more stat (which I love) so hopefully it'll be a good class I can take a lot away from.

Media Communication: I LOVE this class. I want to go into TV/film, so this class is pretty perfect for me. We talk about all aspects of media, like TV, film, advertising, etc, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm also starting to form a relationship with the professor, who is awesome, and hopefully she will be a good person for me to help figure out my classes and a job eventually. I don't actually have an advisor right now since I'm in the process of transferring to comm, but she said she would be my "advisor" for now and she's awesome and yayy

Marketing: This is a class I'm taking for my business minor, but I also really like it. It's not too difficult of a class and we're also learning very interesting and practical things. It's a huge lecture and I know a ton of people in it. Only two of the three exams actually count so that's a huge plus.

Intro to Film Analysis: I'm taking this for my film minor. The professor is a really smart film guy, and he's a bit older so he's pretty old fashioned which is cool. This is by far my hardest class, just because we have a ton of reading, quizzes almost every class, and the tests are the kinds of tests where you just write everything you know and hope you hit every point. Also the concepts are very interesting but kind of difficult to grasp at first. But I love this class too! It's so interesting to analyze old films and see how everything was made before everything went digital.

In addition to my five classes, I have hillel board meetings every week, event planning for my other Hillel group (WOAH: women's organization at hillel), my internship job for hillel (I know, so much hillel. but at least my internship pays), I blog for my school newspaper every other week, and I'm a producer for a show for our media group on campus which we film for every week. Also I have my sorority and other random things I do not so regularly. 

Just like Anna, I love being busy and I try really hard to balance everything. I'm only involved with extracurriculars that I enjoy, so that helps.

If you like this blog (which i hope you do!!) send us theme suggestions! :)

-sam

hours of sleep last night: 9 days gone since last load of laundry: WAY too many tests/papers so far this semester: 2/1 (and i have a test tonight!)  plans for the weekend: date night something new I learned this week: the difference between waking up for a 10:10 class and 11:15 class is SO NICE

[sophomorefour]

Busybusybusy

That is my schedule for this semester. It's honestly not that super bad in terms of class, but I'm actually overloaded on credits this semester (19, where the max is 18 unless you petition for more credits). The reason that I'm overloaded on credits is because this semester I started writing for the school newspaper, but I just don't have that on my schedule because it's not a regularly scheduled thing.

Besides class (and learning how to write for the paper), I'm also in a bunch of clubs. I'm in Spectrum (the GSA), Russian Club, and I have an on campus job setting up sound for a capella concerts and various music functions. I also just rushed an honors frat, so the rush events took up a lot of time (I found out if I get a bid tomorrow!), so I would say I've been feeling fairly busy. I've also been attempting to go to the occasional meeting of the Swing Dancing Club and I'm trying to start a Quidditch team. 

One of my classes, Jewish Literature, also requires me to go to various speakers on occasion, so that takes plenty of time out of my day when I actually have to go to them. They're interesting, they just take a lot of time.

I really do enjoy being busy - it's nice to be involved in a lot of things, and it always gives me something to do. Of course, when the number of things I try to be involved in catches us to me and my workload it gets a little over the top, but I try to manage it the best I can (and there are some clubs I'm a lot less dedicated than others). 

hours of sleep last night: 5.5  days gone since last load of laundry: 10  tests/papers so far this semester: 1/2 plans for the weekend: Doctor Who, my job... not sure yet. It's hard to know on Mondays  something new I learned this week: I have a horrible snacking habit that I have no idea how to break (besides healthier snacks, which I'm doing)

[sophomorefour]

hey hey!

we're back!

usually i'll be posting on tuesdays but i've had a pretty crazy week...

life is good though! i'm taking 5 classes, still very involved with hillel, writing a blog for my school's newspaper, producing a tv show with my school's media group and i still find time to do this!!! (kind of, considering it's late)

ANYWAY, i'm so happy to be back and blogging with the rest of the girls! as you can see, we are SOPHOMORE four now (instead of freshmen four). we'll be blogging 4 days a week about various college-related themes and some non-college related themes! 

and hopefully we can bring back some of our other ways of posting (like videos and pictures) and have another great year!

speak to you next week :)

-sam

hours of sleep last night: 7 days gone since last load of laundry: too many tests/papers so far this semester: 1/1 (and i have a test tonight!)  plans for the weekend: homecoming! something new I learned this week: if you drive home and surprise your mom, she will cry.

[sophomorefour]

Woah. Hold up.

What's this. Why is there a post here? What's going on?!?!?!

Hey guys! We're already well into a new school year and we're back to blogging for you! If you haven't already noticed, we've gone through a bit of a name change (we're no longer freshmen, after all!), but hopefully you guys should still remember us.

My year's been great so far - lots of really exciting classes, lots of work, and my dorm room is about twice as big as it was last year. Which is really nice. I've actually been getting up at 7:30 every (weekday) morning and it's weird but it's nice at the same time? I think I actually kind of like it (besides my daily 10 am I-need-to-fall-asleep-now crash in my classes which is always pleasant). I think I'll do a bigger post about my schedule sometime soon. And my big plan this semester is to start a Quidditch team, so hopefully that'll go through! I'll keep you guys updated on how that's going (or not going...) over the semester. 

So keep your eyes peeled on this blog, because hopefully this time we won't be going anywhere!

hours of sleep last night: 6 days gone since last load of laundry: 3 tests/papers so far this semester: 0/1 plans for the weekend: it's too early to know anything (besides Doctor Who, of course) something new I learned this week: how to dress like a 'yuppie'

[sophomorefour]

Oh wow I was going to post yesterday but I forgot sorry I'm a bad person.

But anyways. The last couple weeks of school were stressful and I was going through a whole bunch of stuff and school became to busy to really get on the internet at all. But I've been back home since Wednesday and I miss Chattanooga so much. Basically the food. I loved being able to walk or drive over to the dining hall and eat stuff that was already prepared for me. Now I have to wait to make things myself. College made me lazy. But finals are done and I've moved back home which is sad and things. IDK what else I'm supposed to write. YUP

~ Lari

hours of sleep last night: 10.5 (sleep apps FTW) days gone since last load of laundry: 3 days  tests/papers so far this semester: I'm done so why does it matter plans for the weekend: Doing things. something new I learned this week: MY bed for college is so much better than the one at home. I feel like I'm sleeping on a rock.

[sophomorefour]

This isn't really a real post, because I have no idea what to talk about and also we don't really have any ideas because really there are like 75 of you you must have some ideas, something you're interested in hearing because you seem to be reading what we say or even if you just scroll past all of this put an idea on our boxes, okay? Come on, you guys. 

(I'm sorry if I sound mean, it's hell week, I'm stressed.)

hours of sleep last night: 5 days gone since last load of laundry: 1 hour  tests/papers so far this semester: 3/6 plans for the weekend: Working. D: At least on Friday, anyway. something new I learned this week: College beds were just not made for more than one person.

[sophomorefour]

Would I change anything?

So this week we are talking about "things we wish we could change." I'm going to talk about things I would change about my school generally, and my individual experience as well.

I absolutely love cornell but there are definitely aspects of it I would change if I could. Cornell is divided up into seven colleges and schools and each has their own set of requirements and classes and everything. I wish I could take more classes in varied disciplines, since most of my classes are communication classes or my specific college (agriculture and life sciences) requirements. Later on in my college career, I hope I'll be able to fit in some more liberal arts classes.

I would also make it easier to switch majors in my specific school. In other schools, it's a lot easier, but to switch in to the communication department, I have to take 6 core comm classes and then apply. Which means I won't technically be a comm major until like 2013 :/

Socially, I would change a bunch of the new rules they put in place this year concerning the greek system. My official "dry" period just ended... with basically a month left in the semester, which has made it really difficult to socialize and get really acquainted with girls in my house and fraternities since we weren't allowed to attend any "wet" events.

In terms of my individual experience, I wish I had found a roommate before school started instead of doing random selection. I know people who had a lot of luck with random selection, but I certainly did not. I wish I had used one of the facebook groups where people asked for roommates, one of those roommate-finding websites, or talked to friends of friends about rooming with people they knew coming here.

I also would have entered cornell as a comm major instead of biometry and statistics. It would have made things a lot easier and I think I would have been a lot happier last semester.

That's all I would change, really. I'm really happy with cornell and my experience here, especially this semester, but I wouldn't say that I don't have any regrets or aspects of my college experience that I would alter.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

-sam

hours of sleep last night: 6 days gone since last load of laundry: i don't want to talk about it tests so far this semester: 8 plans for the weekend: passover! something new I learned this week: Even if you study for a test for days, your professor could still completely screw you over and make the test impossible and you will be sad.

[sophomorefour]

I guess this week is "things we wish we could change" week?

So basically, I can count on my one hand the amount of people that I know that are absolutely enamored "the only thing they would change is the temperature of the orange juice" in love with their college. Which is not at all to say that most people don't love or like their college in one way or another, but it's hard to find people that are completely enamored with their school. Thus, this weeks discussion is things we wish we could change about our colleges.

Now, mine is kind of pathetic-ish, but yeah, I'm not head over heels in love with my school. I went into it loving almost nothing and have really grown to like my school, but it's not always my perfect fantasy. I think if there would be two things that I would change about my school, it would be to make it nerdier and to make it more diverse. 

I know, I know, they're silly reasons. But while the nerdy (and not just the nerdfighter but literally just the nerdy) population exists, they're harder to find. Don't get me wrong - my friends are absolute dorks, and I love them. But you don't have the general nerdy atmosphere that floats around giant groups of nerds, not usually. And also, my school is like 75% white, so it's not that diverse. I mean, I'm in the GSA and stuff, but the school is pretty white and not extremely lgtbq and I don't super have a problem with that but diversity is nice, you know? My high school was more diverse, so the difference is noticeable at times. Yeah.

hours of sleep last night: 6 days gone since last load of laundry: 7 tests/papers so far this semester: 3/5 plans for the weekend: My friend from high school is visiting this weekend! And also my parents. Not at the same time. something new I learned this week: I just can't do Shakespeare.

[sophomorefour]

Well fuck.

It seems to be a habit of mine to post on Saturday now and that's bad and I'm sorry.

ANYWAY MONEY.

I'm really lucky in the sense that I have a partial scholarship and a summer job so I do have some extra spending money (also my parents are mad helpful). That doesn't mean I don't have to watch how much money I spend. Every weekend there's a shuttle to Target (also various grocery stores and whatnot) and in the first few months we would go every week. I was so reckless with that now I barely go once every two months. So just let this be a lesson. Even if you have the opportunity and means to spend money, make a budget and stick to it.

It's awesome because when I'm home I trick my parents into paying for things for me hehehehe. I actually end up spending more at home because I guess I have more opportunities for it? I'm not really sure.

Anyway, I had enough to see the HUNGER GAMES (good segway, alison) and it was amazing and beautiful and I'm wondering what other people thought of it.

-Ali

hours of sleep last night: oh god 10 it was amazing days gone since last load of laundry: 6? tests/papers so far this semester: i think around 7 also a bunch of spanish quizzes. plans for the weekend: I have a big biopsych test on Monday so a lot of it will be studying from here on out (but god knows I want to go out tonight) something new I learned this week: Way too many people I am friends with haven't read the hunger games which immediately resulted in a termination of friendship or them acquiring the books in some way.