Class of '25 College Check-In

College life so far: It’s nice living with your friends and going out into the city because Chicago is like a metro ride away. For clubs, everything is a lot more involved, and you can really apply the work you’re doing in the clubs to the community around you.

Magnet preparation for college: In terms of physics and math, it has really prepared me just because most of the classes I took and had to spend more effort in were in those two subjects. I highly recommend taking multivar because you’ll probably have to retake it in your first year of college, and Schwartz’s class was so much harder than what I'm doing now.

Favorite Magnet elective(s): Neuroscience. I found the class really interesting, and there are a lot of ways for you to explore on your own. I’d also say that Quantum [Physics] with Schafer was a really nice class. It sounds like it could be a really difficult topic, but he breaks it down in a very fundamental way.

Favorite clubs: I was part of the tennis team, and I highly recommend a sport to everyone because it’s such a great community that you get out of it. I was also part of DECA, which was great because it brought me a lot of exposure and a good network of upperclassmen that I could talk to. It’s a nice club if you want to do higher competitions and go on trips with your friends.

How is college different? I have met a lot of really nice people at Cornell. Since I’ve lived in Maryland my whole life, everyone is congested together. I’ve been around the same kinds of people my whole life, with, for the most part, the same sort of experiences. But here, there’s people from all over the world. There are so many cultures, so many types of people, and I feel really lucky to be able to interact with all these types of people. I’ve met people from Singapore, Turkey, China, and so many places I can’t even remember all of them. I really enjoyed being at a super diverse school where I can get to know so many different types of people.

Clubs: college vs. high school? If I could go back in time, I’d join more clubs. I remember in freshman year, I started off doing some stuff, and then I just stopped. In general, I wish I had done more academic clubs. I played tennis, and then in the last semester of high school, I tried theater because I wanted to try something different. I also did FBLA and DECA. In college, I’m in the acapella group right now. It’s not academic, but I think joining the acapella was one of the best decisions I made because it allowed me to meet people in other grade levels. I'm also on the e-board for the biomedical engineering society here.

What do you miss most about Blair? I miss the tight community. Blair [Magnet] had only 100 students, and I don't know for other years, but at least in my year, everybody knew each other. I could be friendly with anybody in the magnet, and it was almost like I'd talked to every single person in the magnet, whereas at Cornell, there's an endless number of people. It's a good thing and a bad thing, because I can keep meeting new people if I want, but there's also not the same tight community I had at Blair.

How is College different? One of the biggest things about going to college is that you have the opportunity to meet so many different people. In high school, it’s kind of the same people in all your classes, especially when you’re starting out. The cool thing about college is that you're forced or required to take all these different classes, and you join so many different clubs. You meet people with completely different backgrounds and stories, and I think that’s really cool. I’ve met people who did robotics, people who play DI football, people who flew planes in high school, and people who were on TV for quiz shows and competitions. I feel like everyone has a different story, a very different background, and I think that’s a really interesting part of culture.

Magnet Preparation for College? I think that the Magnet program is probably one of the most helpful things in preparing for college. I’ve been in so many classes this year where it gives me flashbacks to exactly what we learned in Analysis II, or what I studied in physics. The Magnet made the transition to college so much easier in terms of expecting how much work there’ll be, knowing how to ask for help, knowing when to go to office hours, and knowing just how to study. I think all of that came from being in the Magnet and taking these really hard classes. Even if they feel very hard at the time, it pays off a lot in college life for sure.

College Life so far: I would say that college life has given me a lot more freedom, but also a lot of added responsibility. For example, you have to be sure to do your laundry, eat your meals, complete all your assignments, buy necessities, etc. I’ve had a great time building new connections with other students here and got to know a lot of people through clubs/study groups/classes (a lot like high school).

College Compared to High School: I would say that a lot of people are very similar here, whether in terms of academics or social life. There are a lot of driven people who work hard and play hard, so it’s been pretty fun. That said, college is also super different. You’re given a lot more freedom with really no one to make sure you’re doing the things you're supposed to.