Hey everyone! As I'm writing this, I just finished taking my last two finals of the spring semester! Thank goodness. I'm now a little more than halfway done with college! I've got three more semesters left, and I couldn't be more excited to be almost done. It's been an interesting year, but I thoughts on college have stayed more or less the same. I actually just looked back at the post I did after my freshman year, and I still agree with what I wrote there. If you want to read that too, check out the link here. So far, my first two years have been full of boring pre-requisites. Luckily, the rest of my time in college should be spent on my real major classes. I also figured out that I much prefer the fall semester for some reason. In both my spring semesters so far, I've had two classes that were horrible to sit through. I gave up on them relatively early, mostly due to bad professors. I've done very well in the fall academically, but not quite as well in the spring. Not sure why, but that's how it has worked out so far. This post is mostly going to be me rambling about certain topics that stood out to me. Sorry if I jump around weirdly.
The thing I was looking forward to the most this year was moving off-campus to an apartment. I love living on my own and having my own room again. The freedom to cook all my meals was the best part. I hate the food on-campus at my school, so getting to pack food everyday was great. My apartment was kind of a piece of crap, and my roommate was a nasty slob. I lived close to campus with tons of other apartment complexes surrounding me. I'd always hear my neighbors through the walls and parties when the end of the week hit. It is what it is. In most college towns, that's usually going to be the case. Overall though, it was a lot better than dorm life. Luckily, I'm moving somewhere nicer a little farther from campus with a different roommate, so my living situation should be a lot better next year. I found that I don't particularly like apartment living, especially with college-aged people, because of all the noise and the close proximity to your neighbors. I'd much rather live in a house that isn't attached to anyone else's. I lived on the second floor of my building and got the noise from above and below me. After I graduate, I don't see myself trying to live in an apartment again if I can help it. I'd also like to avoid having anymore roommates if I can. On a more positive note, I found that I love public transportation. Driving through campus during class changes is a nightmare, so having the opportunity to take the bus to campus everyday is great.
Class wise, I've finally started to take a few more relevant classes. I liked my classes way more in the fall than this past semester. My schedule worked out a lot nicer then too, with most of my classes back to back and done pretty early in the day. This past semester I had a pretty spread out schedule, so I was on-campus from about 8:30 am to 5 pm every day. It was kind of draining and left me feeling like my days weren't as open. I even had a once a week class that met at 6:30 to 9:15 pm, so one day a week I was stuck on campus for 12 hours. Usually that late at night, I'm already relaxing, so having to go to class was always such a drag. It was a class I ended up enjoying, but the timing of it still sucked. I've also started to take the maximum amount of credits, 18 to 19, each semester. It's mostly by necessity, since I'm trying to graduate a semester early with two degrees. I still feel like I'd take that many even if I was only getting one degree to maximize what I could learn. I don't plan on going back to school ever again after this, so I'd like to take advantage of it while I have the chance. I'm mostly just eager to graduate and move on with my life. College is fun and all, but having to be in class, studying, or doing homework leaves you with little free time. I always feel like there's some assignment hanging over my head or something I should be studying for. This past semester I had 21 exams that I had to take. That's way too excessive. Whenever it seemed like I could relax my studying, there was always another exam right around the corner. I've never agreed with the fact that the education system views exams as an appropriate way to judge knowledge. I've gotten worse as a test taker in college, because the professors are always trying to trick you or give you like 8 answer choices to pick from. Getting to work full-time when I graduate seems better based on the fact that after you leave work you're pretty much done for the day. With school, I go to class all day and still have way more to do when I get home. Again, it's a ridiculous system, but I don't see it ever changing. Back to classes though, the main ones I enjoyed this past year were these two about basic statistic methods, an intro to finance, microeconomic theory, environmental economics, and one about healthcare economics. They all were taught well, and I feel like I actually learned a lot/was interested in the material. If you weren't aware, I'm getting a dual degree in Statistics and Economics. I'm hoping to work in insurance when I graduate or maybe do something with data science if that doesn't pan out.
One of my main highlights of my college experience so far has been my job on-campus. I just work in an office for one of the departments on campus, but it's a lot of fun and my bosses are great. I also went to a lot of interesting events this year that I probably wouldn't have typically gotten to go to. I feel like I never really hit my groove this semester. I've heard people have a sophomore slump, but I don't know if that's what it was for me. I even had a few snow days or delays this winter which is unheard of at my school. It was a good overall year though, and I'm grateful that I've had the chance to get higher education. I do think college is pushed on people too much considering most high schoolers don't even know what they want to do for the rest of their lives.
I'm expecting next year to be pretty comparable, since there aren't many major changes coming. I'm already used to living in an apartment, and I should get to take better classes. My summer plans aren't too crazy. I haven't been too concerned about finding any internships since I'll be working for the rest of my life. I figured one free summer of my life wasn't going to hurt my future job prospects. This is probably the last real summer I'll have, because I definitely need to find an internship next year. I'm so excited to have a nice, lowkey couple of months. I'm staying at my school for most of the summer, and I'll just be taking a class and working at my office job. There should be lots of videos and blog posts coming. I have a lot of new gear that just came in, so that should keep me nice and busy. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed hearing about how my second year of college went. It was much better and more interesting than the first. Thanks for looking! Stay tuned for lots more posts soon!
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