What American College Is Like (it's not like the movies)
Because I wanted to major in art I had to get a letter of recommendation from my art teacher. That gets sent in with the application also. I also had to send in a portfolio of my art. Then you have to fill out information for financial aid if you want it. And then you wait for your letter. By the time this is all done you're in your senior year and about to graduate. I got accepted into both the schools I applied to. I think my mom cried because neither she nor my dad went to college.
(After I got my acceptance letter I had to write to the college I didn't want to go to telling them such. Courtesy.)
From there, there's campus tours and orientations you have to go to. I got to stay overnight in one of the dorms during one orientation. They put me in the same dorm room with two guys o.O Not the same bedroom. Just the same dorm room. There's a difference. I was still shocked and I locked my door.
I don't remember all of the details but somewhere in there (probably during one of the orientations) you schedule your own classes and you get assigned your dorm if you're going to be living on campus. And then you move in. There's the standard college dorm on campus: Two - four bedrooms with a common area and then a bathroom that the whole floor shares; two people per bedroom. Then there's the dorm with two - four bedrooms sharing a bathroom with a common area. I had friends in this dorm. These are the freshmen dorms. Then there's the dorm that I lived in. It was for the excess freshmen that didn't fit in the freshmen dorms. My dorm mates were all upperclassmen. The dorm itself had three different floor plans in it and I think I got the fanciest one. When you came in there was a kitchen to the left (usually freshmen didn't stay in dorms that had kitchens), there were a set of stairs leading down and then if you walked straight ahead from the entrance there was a living room. The dorm comes furnished with basic things: couch, chair, dining table and two dining chairs, tv stand. Downstairs were the bedrooms and bathroom. Two people per room and each room comes with two beds, two desks, desk chairs, and two armoirs. I got lucky in that my actual room mate was never there so I had the room to myself for the whole year.
I took a total of four classes each semester (I was supposed to take 5 but my advisor was stupid). It should go without saying that you walk everywhere. My campus is pretty much integrated with the city so you can walk to get groceries or to do social things. I brought my car and kept it in a parking deck next to my dorm.
Since most freshmen don't have kitchens in their dorm there's this thing called a meal plan that you can buy. I never had one. At the beginning of the semester you can choose what kind of plan you want. You're essentially buying the cost of your meals in one go, like buying tickets to get on carnival rides before you actually get into the carnival. They go onto your id card and when you go to a place on campus that accepts them your id card gets swiped and a "swipe" gets used. And then you eat. There is a dining center on campus where the freshmen usually eat. It's buffet style that costs about $8 if you had to actually pay. The food is ok. Haha.
For the classes, there's three different scheduling formats. The usual is that you have one class twice a week for about an hour and a half. Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. A lot of the higher level classes (300-400) will have one class once a week for almost 3 hours. You can also have one class on three days (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) and it'll last an hour. Studio classes (art classes), if you have them twice a week, will last almost 3 hours. You can also have an art class for only one day a week but it'll last six hours. I've done that once. :(
The classrooms are pretty simple. Studio classrooms for the art classes: big open space to move around in. Science labs with big tables and lots of storage area. Lecture halls with stadium style seating. Regular classrooms with desks from high school.
At the end of my freshmen year I had to apply to my actual major (because when I got accepted I was only accepted into the art program). My school uses the Bauhaus style of study. So I had to resubmit my portfolio (along with all the other freshmen) and list the top three majors I wanted (just in case you don't get into your first choice). I listed Art History, Painting and Printmaking, and Communication Arts. I got into my first choice.
I moved out of the dorm and back home because all of the freshmen have to move out of the dorms.
And that's my first year of college.
There was actually a lot of emotional turmoil for me. I got homesick a lot. I didn't make friends very easily (but I made some). I had a friend from high school that was majoring in nursing but we didn't get to hang out as often as I'd have liked. The campus is in a city and it's not a very big city but it was bigger than what I was used to so I got claustrophobic. I cried more that one year than I had cried before or since.
I also had guys hitting on me and thinking they were the shit since they were college students. I had to kick two guys out of my dorm because they were trying to get in my pants.
Honestly, I hate freshmen. I hated being a freshmen and tried to not be recognized as one. I think I did a pretty good job.
And that's it for now because I wrote a lot. I hope I remembered everything. If you're curious about anything else feel free to ask. Living off campus, changing majors, etc.
