My experience at SFSU

I am the first generation in my family to attend a state university. My two older siblings attended city college for a semester or two but ended up dropping out. Overall, I feel I've had a positive experience so far at San Francisco State University. 

The application process took time but it wasn't that long and I didn't have to write any essays. I felt that I had a pretty good chance of getting in because I had a good GPA but I wasn't sure, so I felt nervous and anxious to know if I had been accepted. In My Word, Blum says that the application process is very stressful for students applying to Notre Dame because there is a lot of competition and there are more requirements like having to write essays. Also having good grades isn't enough to get into a school like Notre Dame, students need to have been involved in extracurricular activities and have volunteer hours. I didn't feel stressed during the application process to SFSU. 

Now that I've had a few classes at the university I have found myself feeling stressed when I have a lot of work to do. It's hard to balance out everything I have to do and prioritize. I have classes every day on campus, I work on weekends, and babysit twice a week on weekdays. I live off campus and am not in any clubs. I don't drink or "party hard" like the student interviewed by Blum. I don't think I would be able to handle partying three times a week and have time to complete all of my homework on time and have energy for work and other responsibilities. 

I do feel pressure to do good in school because I am the first person in my family to go to a university and it costs soooooooo much money. I don't want everything I am doing and paying to go to waste. I want to graduate and have a good career so I can get a good paying job. There are some similarities between SFSU and Notre Dame, as in students feeling stress but it comes in a different way. For students at Notre Dame, stress comes from pressure to fit in and going out and "partying hard" and then not having enough time for homework and studying. For me personally the stress comes in when I'm not sure if I'll be able to take another semester at SFSU because I don't have enough money and I might not get financial aid. Also when it's time to sign up for classes, because it's getting harder to get into the classes you want and need. Last semester two of the classes I enrolled in were cancelled a few weeks before the semester started. There were almost no classes left so I took whatever I could get that met a general education requirement. 

MY WORD

The assigned reading from My Word was pretty long and contained a lot of information. Many college students were interviewed for this book so when I was reading it I tried to compare myself to them. 

I think some parents may get obsessive over their children getting good grades and being in the top schools in the country so they can get into the best college and get high paying jobs. Education is very important to my parents and getting good grades did matter. When I was in middle school and high school, if we got bad grades then some privileges would be taken away like no watching t.v. or in my brothers case, no video games. I think education is very important and parents should show their children how important it is but it shouldn't be everything. Like even people who didn't go to college are well rounded people and are able to succeed. 

I don't drink but I'm pretty sure a large percentage of students at SF State do drink because I hear them talking about it in my classes. I thought it was really interesting how some schools don't have class on Fridays because Thursdays have become the new Fridays and students are out drinking. Even though some people can keep their grades up and have that binge drinking life, I don't think I would be able to. I mean it's hard enough now with school and work, I don't think I'd be able to handle that drinking life. 

Blum describes some reasons why students cheat and they are because it makes things easier, it helps students attain the grade they desire, class work is not their primary priority, they have many obligations and goals to meet, and they are surrounded by students who scorn the nerd mentality. Sometimes students feel pressured to get good grades and succeed in college by their family and friends and they have so many responsibilities that they feel the only way to do so is by cheating. 

I agree that if a student takes a class that they are interested in then they will be more engaged and actually take time to read the material and learn it. But if a student takes a class just for credit then they'll procrastinate and just memorize the material for the tests. I've experienced this myself like in high school I took a child development class and I really enjoyed it and took time to learn the material. I had fun doing the assignments and they didn't feel dreadful to me. Once I got to college, because some classes were cut from the original class schedule I had to just take whatever I could so I enrolled in a worlds religions class and it was completely different than how I had imagined it. It had a different approach to what I had expected. I felt the classes go by so slow and it was so boring to me. When it was time for the midterm it took me really long to come up with the minimum amount of pages required and I didn't feel like I learned anything or knew the material at all. Now I see that it's really important to get into classes that you know or think you'll like so it wont be a total waste of time and money.