Freshman Year Recap

This past fall, I started my freshman year at Rutgers University. I came in feeling a bit bitter. I couldn't help but feel liked I've been duped. Why was I at Rutgers? I worked so hard and did so much better in high school than most of the kids here. I could've done the bare minimum and still get here. All my hard work has gone to waste.

Despite feeling like this, I wanted to enjoy my freshman year, have fun, and learn lots.

When I moved into Brett Hall which is one of the Honors Program dorms and the only Honors Program dorm on the College Avenue Campus. The College Avenue Campus, College Ave for short, is where the university meets downtown New Brunswick. There are a lot of delicious and multicultural food options within walking distance from Brett. College Ave is also considered the "main" campus so it's very lively with events happening all the time.

As soon as I moved in, I met a great group of friends. We all live on the same floor in the same wing. The whole first week, we were inseparable. There were no classes so we attended all of the freshman events together and even got second place for the Rutgers freshman scavenger hunt! We had some great inside jokes and bonded so quickly. We explored all four campuses together and hung out every night playing CAH or just talking in my roommate and I's room because we were lucky enough to get a room with a window unit in it. I felt like I knew them better than some of my hometown friends. I really felt like Wow. Rutgers isn't so bad after all.

Soon after, I started getting closer to "the boys." I got connected with them because one of the boys, Eddie, and I met over the summer because we have the same peer mentor (who we both don't like all that much). I soon began hanging out with the boys all the time. We have a routine where we would meet up in one of the boy's room and all walk to dinner together. After dinner, we always went to the lounge to play a couple games of HORSE, a Brett Hall special. We were basically all Political Science majors with the exception of a few stragglers. So we all clicked really well. We watched the Democratic debates together and everything. Although some of us disagreed on certain issues, we all got along :)

Classes started and I had such an interesting schedule for a political science major. I was taking Calculus (Calc 151) and Introduction to Computer Science (CS111) which are not required for my intended major. However, taking these classes proved very useful. I met my good friend and future roommate, Ashley, because of CS111. She had the textbook as a pdf and I asked her to send it to me because I didn't want to pay for it. She was a Business Analytics Information Technology (BAIT) major which is part of the business school. Since middle school, I've always had random entrepreneurial bursts of ideas and I decided to enter a pitch competition with Ashley. She was doing her dishes and I bugged her with my idea for a business. She went along with it and we both agree that that was the start of our friendship.

side note: during the first week of class, I actually sat in an empty room with one other kid because we didn't know the room number changed... When we got to class, it was so packed that neither of us could see the board at all! I immediately switched out of the class. I knew I wouldn't survive. In my new Calc 151 class, I bonded with some great Engineering kids and we all really had a kick out of our professor who had some interesting catchphrases like the word "pedantic."

I went to a new church and met more people. I even found someone who was in my CS111 lecture. He brought his friends and I brought Ashley and we all became good friends through doing projects, studying, and skipping class together. I don't know how I would've survived CS111 without meeting these great people.

I guess this is about time I entered my first hackathon. I had no programming knowledge before so I was reluctant but with the encouragement of friends, I joined a team with people in my hall and showed up to HackRU. I think this was a pivotal moment in my Rutgers experience. I had so much fun learning to code and putting together a working project with a front end and back end (and getting free food and free merch was definitely a plus). I also got to see my CS111 TA sing "Let It Go" from Frozen very passionately so that was fun. I met some great people especially these sophomores that have brought me great laughs and helped me through the rough computer science curriculum.

I decided I was going to switch to Computer Science as my major. HackRU definitely contributed to my making this decision but also, I was already unhappy with my decision to pursue Poli Sci only one class in which is not a great start.

Right after this, I entered my first case competition: KPMG. It was pretty cool! I did it with some really close friends and even though we didn't win, I was happy I did it. Little did I know, it was kind of like a precursor to what the rest of my semester would look like.

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extra things I did that don't really fit anywhere:

- I went to Princeton for the first time and it was super cute! I wish I lived there.

- I went to a lot of workout classes. My favorite is CXWorks!

- I have a radio show that I co-host with a friend called No License

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I quickly realized that I really don't have much that is considered Business Casual or Professional so I took a quick trip home to buy some clothes. Thank God I did because the next thing I did was Road to Silicon Valley.

Ashley asked me if I wanted to skip CS111 lecture to go to an interest meeting for Road to Silicon Valley which I said sure. I'm not one to pass up a reason to skip that torturous CS111 lecture. I sat and listened to the presentation and actually thought it was boring but Ashley was into it so I decided to give it a shot and apply.

Luckily, I got passed the first round 200 applicants shrunk to 70 for the second round which consisted of a group interview where I had to pitch a product and an individual interview which consisted of logic and behavioral questions. That was the most rigorous interview process I've ever gone through and I had mixed feelings coming out of it. I spent 5 hours interviewing for this club but still couldn't get a good feel for if I did well or poorly.

About a week later, I got the letter stating that I was in! I was pretty excited because I know how much time I put into just getting into the club. The first thing we did was think of an idea for the Hult Prize which is an international business competition that aims to solve one of the UN's sustainability goals. This year, it was a bold business that has a positive impact on the environment. My group and I came up with an interesting idea we called SeaWe. We decided to actually go forward and enter the competition.

The morning before we pitched, I participated in the Big Chill and ran my first 5k ever (in 35 minutes). I was super proud of myself and had a lot of fun running with friends. I quickly got ready for the Hult Prize Competition. I suited up and pitched like I've never pitched before. SeaWe actually got FIRST PLACE. I couldn't believe we beat out Nutrivide which is already a business four years in the making and with a patent-pending product.

After that, the rest of the year was pretty much uneventful. I mean, having two fire drills on the same night is pretty darn great1!11!!! I took my finals and yeeted on out of Rutgers.

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here I'll take a little break to talk about the class that had the greatest impact on my first semester. If you've actually been reading, you could probably guess what that class was.

Intro to Computer Science!!

I'm not talking about the lectures because I couldn't even tell you. I skipped like 75% of the lectures and the ones I didn't skip, I didn't pay attention. I really don't think CS should be taught with a PowerPoint but maybe that's just me.

The first day of recitation, my TA and I named a dead bug (something gender neutral so we're PC lol) and since that first encounter, I knew I would like this class. I think recitation was the only thing I was excited about, in terms of classes.

My TA taught me everything I know about Java and even Data Structures. Without him, I definitely would've failed. I also wouldn't have enjoyed learning the basics of Java programming as much. He definitely felt more like a friend than a teacher and I think it made learning from him that much more enjoyable.

I sure will miss him when he graduates in May :(

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Now we're back at Rutgers. It's Spring semester. I'm taking Calculus 2 and Data Structures. Not much happens except that we all fail the Data Structures midterm but it's whatever.

My residence hall also flooded and I thought I was going to have to sleep on someone's floor but everything got fixed within the day.

I went to my first concert! I saw Rex Orange County at Radio City Music Hall and it was amazing. I couldn't believe how good he was!

I also quit my job at the Daily Targum! We start prototyping in the Food Science lab with graduate students for SeaWe! I failed to get into this business fraternity called Phi Chi Theta.

Although a lot of seemingly negative things happened during my second semester, I learn that I DEFINITELY do not want to go into marketing!

All of a sudden, COVID-19 forces Rutgers to shut down. So sad my semester got cut short :(

And online school is not the wave.

Overall, I had a really good experience freshman year a Rutgers! I can't wait for the years to come and I hope they slow down because I really want to savor these next three years.

Tanks Rut and See You In September :)