A Day in the Life of a College Student

7:20 – Corey’s alarm goes off. I wake up, look at the time, groan, and then doze for ten more minutes before I fully wake up and get up. After that, I wake up, get ready for the day, eat breakfast, do homework, go to the pool and use the free internet to check email, etc. After enough time has elapsed, I get ready to head off with Corey to the campus – a three mile ride away.

9:30/10:00 – Depending on the day, this is when my first classes start. Let’s use Thursday as an example. After biking to campus (arriving at about 9:20), Corey and I split up, then I head to my first class – good ol’ humanities. Dr. Thornton will be sure to give you at least one rant per class about either: the goodness of GMOs; the fact that Americans have it easy; or, the stupidity of rabid environmentalism and the praising of industry and modern technology and agriculture. Otherwise, you get to hear a lot about Odysseus and his travels, which is actually really interesting. This class lasts until 10:45, at which point I leave for the Honor’s Office, which has free food, free computer labs, and studying space, as well as a quiet environment that makes it the perfect choice for a study area. I stay there doing homework until 1:40, at which point I head out the door to my next class which starts at 2:00. Corey has a similar method of study, but since he doesn’t have access to the Honor’s office, he likes to study in a computer lab in the engineering building in between classes – at least when he isn’t tutoring.

2:00-3:15 – CE85 (Intro to Civil Engineering). This class teaches you everything you need to know about civil engineering (though I dare say it doesn’t teach you everything you need to know about practicing civil engineering). If you want to know what a civil engineer does, then go no further! Dr. Wright will show you the ropes – unless he has a meeting during class period, in which case he’ll rush in, put a DVD about dams or some other type of structure (the movies are incredibly interesting), then rush out immediately after the movie starts. He's a very capable professor, though extremely busy. After the class ends, it’s back to the Honor’s office!

3:15-4:40 – More time at the Honor’s office. More time to do homework/study/eat free food!

5:00 – off to CE20 (Engineering Mechanics – statics) where Dr. Monfaredian will teach you all you need to know about keeping an object static! He’ll vector you and vector you until you dream about calculating resultant vectors. Soon we’ll be getting into the good stuff – so far it’s been mostly review. He obviously knows his material - and knows it well.

6:15 – CE20 ends, and 45 minutes until the Honors meeting (colloquium). But the Honor’s office closes at 5:00! It was quite a dilemma - which I solved today by going to the colloquium classroom 45 minutes early. Better early than late! Also, if you need, you can write statics problems on the whiteboard if you need any practice – at least until people start to arrive.

7:00 – Honor’s colloquium, which on the schedule is supposed to go until 9:00, but thankfully doesn’t. Today, I got out at 7:30, and that, apparently, is typical. Then, it’s back on the bike for the ride back to the apartment!

7:45 – Back at the apartment. Eat dinner, talk to Corey, do homework; if we have time, we’ll play a game, etc. Then, I take a shower, and go to bed somewhere between 10 and 11, preparing for another day on campus.

This basic pattern is typical for all my days – bike to campus, class, Honor’s office, class, Honor’s office, class, bike ride to apartment. Thankfully, I can't say any of my classes are bad...I've got good professors who are all nice.

That is my typical day at college (*virtual bow*). I hope you enjoyed it!

Casey