From the Archives
Topic: Falling in the Cracks
"One thing if I had the power to change is that I could have gotten that 100% coverage [scholarship] so I didn't have to go to UCF… it’s such a large school and I wish I went somewhere more intimate. Due to the college I currently go to being such a massive school, I know they have many resources available for help, but there are so many students so I think things fall in the cracks with advising and making appointments. Less intimate with finding resources, so there’s so many resources I think but it's hard to navigate to get what you need when you need it. I know where to go. I know the website where there is everything you do need to know… but I think when it comes to actually taking steps to make the appointment is where things get a little more complicated.
Another thing I would change is living at home: Ignorance is bliss… the idea where you have a “real college experience of living on campus…. If i sit and think about it I wish I had that experience. As a Florida resident, it’s a weird move to stay in the dorms. UCF is a commuter college. I would love more than anything to live in a situation like you are at Notre dame… the whole aspect of being unified to your university is something that is lacking at my school because of its size… because of the intensity you don’t get to have a solid connection with fellow students and your class… people go to class and then drive home.. There’s less of an opportunity to make bonds It feels like I’m not even having a college experience, and the pressure to do well on school is less present. Living so far from school makes it harder to prioritize my studies so I tend to prioritize my job or socializing more. "
Female, United States
Photo: University of Central Florida
Topic: Casual Questions?
"In our sociology class, we do two topics in depth per term. The first one is on policing, race, and colonialism, it's so depressing! Really has made me ...just like ... rethink everything.
In the UK police system, black young men are the ones being targeted the most when it comes to policing. They would get put on watchlists for posting drill music. In their (police) minds rapping about doing crime is equivalent to doing crime. Knife crime is made up in 2017, so they could report a spike and put more black men in jail. These all made me so anti-true crime! There's like no such thing as knife crime, you can't define it, it wasn't even monitored until 2017. in the 1970s they (the UK police) invented 'mugging'. so they (police) just invent a new kind of crime to report a spike and justify more imprisonment.
These watchlists have like 13 year old kids on them, and if you're on the watch list you're prohibited to go certain places and see certain people.... I don't know, it's just all so messed up. It all goes back to colonialism and racism. And stuff they (the British empire) did in Malaysia and India is also so crazy... Honestly, history is all a lie. The craziest part is I can't even talk about this to other people who don't study the same thing, like how am I supposed to bring this up in a casual conversation?"
Female, United Kingdom
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Topic: Memorizing and Learning
“I think it was around 3rd or 4th grade that I guess teachers and parents started noticing that I was having issues academically, or like following along in class and that maybe I have some sort of attention deficit issue. And so I got pulled out of PE and stuff to go work with a few other students and a teacher to do extra school work, and work on lesson plans that maybe didn’t sink it all the way, and I didn’t like doing that, obviously. I was like “I would rather be in PE,” and running around and playing games and sports and stuff. But in the long run I do think it was beneficial to do that. I remember multiplication, I had such an issue with. I remember my dad working a lot with me on memorizing multiplication tables. Like on the weekends we would be going to the grocery store and he would be like, “Alright, do the 8 times tables.” I had the most problems with 8 and 7s. But it would just be a part of every day, just doing that, but I think for me it was a lot more about memorization than actually doing it, at first. I eventually got it.”
Female, United States
Photo: Jen Zdon Photography
Topic: Social Life
“Particularly to me, I am pretty good at [managing my school and social life] because I live in the same city as I go to college. One of my friends actually doesn’t so she has to commute everyday and it’s like a 2-3 hour commute with public transportation. So she takes a bus from her house to the train station and she takes the train from one end to the other and then she takes another bus to college. So we don’t get to hang around much. I would say that my social life from my friends from college is pretty much nonexistent. I don’t get to socialize with them outside of college at all because we live in very different parts of the city because it’s a huge city, Sao Paulo.”
“But I do have a lot of social life with my friends from work and sometimes I would skip school to hang out with them. We would have happy hours and I would skip school to go there and I would still manage everything else. It’s a different social life especially because you don’t live with the people you go to school with.”
Female, Brazil
Photo: Memorial da Resistência de São Paulo
Topic: Finding Balance
“Having my parents to support me and talk through all my stress was very helpful. [To manage stress] I try my best to have some sort of life outside of school. With that, I will prioritize that life over school which can be bad at times and make me more stressed academically, but I am having an ease of mind with that. When I go to the gym, I will not skip that for anything unless I have an event or exam during that specific time. No matter how much homework I have, no matter how busy I am during a certain period I will go to the gym or do things that are not academic and do things that do not make me stressed out. I will set a certain time for them and will not skip it.
I had a really big shock [in] the first semester at how like school oriented everyone is. There is barely any social life at my university. It is just school and nothing. And with that everyone is so school oriented it makes everyone competitive so it is almost like a fight all the time for grades, projects, networks, and professors. It was a really big shock at how busy everyone got so quickly and how competitive everyone got so quickly. I thought that I would have the ability to maybe take it easy my first semester and then once I feel adjusted and created some sort of schedule with myself then go out and try new things. It was right away. That was the really big shock for me.
I am exhausted. I knew that I was gonna be in school for twelve months. I would do my school year but because I wanted to get ahead in a lot of courses in high school, I would take summer school to get ahead. So, I was in school like 12 months a year prior and …I was like same thing I could do it [in college]. In the summer I would take one course, maybe two. But my summer was on full load. It was my heaviest semester in comparison to all my other courses. Like I took two classes with a lab and the other two were like calculus iii and a differential equations class. I was busy in the summer and it was just a lot. Like I did not expect myself to be so tired. Everyone else is in summer break. And I am over here in school in a study room just trying to do math.”
-Male, Canada
Topic: Tough Questions
“Since I’ve entered this university and graduated from high school, I don’t feel that stressed because of my schoolwork or exam results. I think there was competition and stress due to every student working towards the same goal in high school, but since we entered this university there are so many students with different goals and future dreams, so it doesn’t really matter anymore. Ever since I have come to university, I don’t feel as much pressure. There was more pressure in high school because there was one same goal, and everyone wants to achieve that goal. Entering university has designated seats, so students have to be in the competition. Personally, I’m a person who doesn’t get stressed easily because of other people, but I also felt a bit of stress from worrying what I would do if I could not get into this university.”
“Change is needed and change is okay, but not like “this year we’re gonna do this and the next we’re gonna do this.” This is too sudden. The pace of change should be slower because students are only in high school for 3 years. Similar to the U.S, people in Korea with better backgrounds have easier access to good programs and useful tutors. Private education is related to fairness problems. Personally, I received a lot of benefits from private courses because my family can support financially. It is difficult to say because this is the current standard and status of our system, and a lot of people think this is efficient, but a lot of others say this is unfair. Then others question “then how can we make this fair?” All equality can’t be made. It can’t be really fair if there is a competition and nobody can all achieve the same goals, so I think this a very tough question. ”
-Female, South Korea
