Here’s something they don’t tell you at Admitted Students weekend: Freshman year is absolutely crazy. It’s so crazy that I hardly remember most of it, and I’m still in it. I can barely recall all the things that seem unreal yet that I somehow managed to experience — like attending classes that I loved, renting a car for the first time and driving through Manhattan, getting locked in the library overnight, realizing that Greek life is amazing, seeing 27 Broadway shows in a semester, and, um, because my mom reads this, other things I can’t even mention (like going to Staten Island — that was a bad choice).
Freshman year obviously involves learning and studying and going to class and talking to professors, et cetera, et cetera. But what I’ve learned the most is that freshman year is when you start learning how to become a person. It prepares you for autonomy. It prepares you for independence. It prepares you for all of life’s challenges.
You know what’s a challenge? Time management.
Before coming to Stevens, my parents told me that I’d have so much free time in college. They made it seem like I would go mad at college, locked up in my room with nothing but time. But free time is the biggest lie ever, especially for Stevens students.
Most students here become busy very quickly, either doing work for the student government, the Stute, service organizations, or Greek life, or even starting their own organization. Or if they’re like me, they do all of that. Our organizations take themselves very seriously — and for good reason! — because each organization is like its own family. You have to remember that Stevens is a small school, so all of our organizations are relatively small, too.
As for the Stute, we’re a group of around nine nerdy writers who, each week, scramble to assemble a newspaper for the school. We dedicate our entire Thursdays to this club, finishing articles and putting the final touches on our paper’s layout. It takes up so much of our time and our lives — yet we love to do it.
Same thing for student government: My guess is that, over the course of the entire school year, I’ve dedicated a combined two weeks on student government. I love the committee meetings, attending events, working with the administration, and advocating for the rights of students. Students have to look out for themselves here, so it’s so important for us to do this ‘play government’ work. It’s frustrating. It’s necessary. But it’s oh-so-fun.
And then there is New York City: I’m always reluctant to check my checking account after going to the city because I know I may see some negative signs. At the beginning of the school year, I used to think of the city as an extension of the Stevens campus. I even went to the New York Public Library every week just to study, only because it takes twenty minutes to get there. One of my favorite memories from freshman year is from the city, in fact, and it involves me and a few friends running around Washington Square Park at 3 a.m. with ice cream in one hand and slices of pizza in another.
I don’t know what it’s like at other schools, but I’ll gladly vouch for this one. No school is as unique as Stevens, for it represents the highest ideals of nerdiness, theatrics, passion, education, and dedication. The students here know how to work hard, and they know how to love what they do. If you really want to know what it’s like here, know that it’s fun, weird, and one of the best $65,000 investments you can make. You’ll learn how to be a better you, and you’ll learn that you’ll love Stevens, even when you didn’t think you ever would.
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