By Fred Fink, Summer Times Staff Writer
By the time you read this, ten days of our thirty-three-day short Summer session will be already over. To get inside how students from all over the world experienced their first week, six students were interviewed.
Why did they enroll in this summer program? Alex Hoyt responded, “I thought it would be a good experience because I want to do something career-wise related to computer science, so I think this course would be a good idea to test and see if it is something that I would like to do. Also, it would look good on my college applications.”
Another student who wanted to remain anonymous (although nothing she said was that controversial) called the summer program unique. “I want to do something productive over the summer and learn something new,” she said. “What you learn here you don’t get anywhere else, because this is a boarding school and there are so many prestigious teachers here, and the education is so good. Just the experience itself because we know many schools don’t use the Harkness method.”
Others said they heard about the summer program from friends and decided to try out the great experience.
How did students get along with the homework? Is it overwhelming them, or are they getting along with it?
Most of those interviewed were not overwhelmed with the workload. Sam Patterson’s answer was typical. “I mean the work, no, moderate workload, it’s not terrible, the teachers are pretty flexible. Most of it is reading, reading’s reading, you know, there’s not too much to pay attention to. Just glide over it. I think it is very manageable. The workload is very light, you know.”
However, it always depends on the class you are taking and on the teacher.
Apropos courses and teachers, are students happy with the classes they chose? Do they satisfy their expectations? Alex Hoyt said, “Yeah, I think so. I’m taking psychology, data programming, and essay writing. Psychology has basically been that I’ve been expecting. Essay writing has been a little bit different, but better than I’ve expected, and for game programming, it’s gone beyond my expectations.”
Asked what he expected from Psychology, he said, “I was just expecting that we talk about different concepts of Psychology and read different studies and talk about what we thought about it. And that is basically what we are doing.”
On the question of how students enjoy campus life and what they are doing in their free time, two students said things like, “It is really nice. I really like going to the library to do homework” and “I just like walking around campus because it is really nice. I still miss home a little and also my parents, but the school does do a good job of making sure you have friends.”
Sam Patterson said, “I love it, there is so much free time, you know, I especially prefer sports so I can go to the pool, if I’m gonna go walk I go for a walk, if I want to go to the library, I go to the library, and on and on. “
One element stands out: friends and dorm mates. Asked how they get along with their dorm mates, many said they are getting along fine.
So what is comfortable and challenging for them? The answers were very diverse. One student said, “I feel like it was really easy to make friends here because everyone was in the same situation where they were new, so everyone wanted to make friends.”
Tiffany Ogharandukun responded, “What’s easy is waking up in the morning because it is really bright, and I have two windows in my dorm. What is hard for me is walking around, it is really far.”