That Much Closer!

Orientation, finally! By this point we’ve all attended Freshman O, registered for classes, and significantly increased our number of facebook friends. Congratulations! We have survived our first steps of college life! From first walking into Shriver and being sent off to sign in and take our ID pictures, to registering for classes and trying to figure out the best schedule to avoid morning classes, the ball was in our court.

I just clicked “finish” on my freshman orientation survey which means our first complete college experience has been completed. Regardless of your small group or what classes you registered for, there was a common sense of initial social awkwardness, excitement, and anxiousness. Though I must admit that though I was a bit nervous to be on my own for registration, I was immediately put at ease upon running into a familiar face. This was not one of my fellow alum but Megan, whom I had met during the Bridges Program in October and had lost touch with. We instantly bonded and put our chance meeting down to fate. Honestly, seeing a familiar face was what made orientation so much more amazing than it already was.

Okay so to the parts that made me fall even more in love with Miami:

1. The Vignettes- My personal favorite was the final sketch on alcohol abuse and sexual assault. As a girl, I feel like there are certain risks that can't be afforded such as being under the influence of absolutely anything. The SOULs were great actors, making it that much more real.

2. Small Groups- My group a.k.a the Baker’s Dozen was so much fun! I loved that we all clicked immediately and had fun, but when it was time to do Cross the Line, everyone took the activity and the discussions seriously. It was a relief to know feel that everyone’s experiences and viewpoints were and are respected without a second thought.

3. Class Registration and Academic Advising- Right before my meeting with my advisor I like, everyone else had tried to translate the course guides and made up a list of what I thought my schedule would be…RIGHT! My advisor was amazing and I was very surprised and relieved at how genuinely interested he seemed in my career goals and academic planning. That being said at the end of the day I have four science classes that I’m super excited about, my honors 181 seminar and my new experience for the year: theater 101, 103.

When it comes to surprises, it’s safe to say that the sense of community was the biggest one by far. Since my first campus visit, Oxford has felt like home but now there’s a family with it. My SOUL Cori, was honest and open but treated us and expected us to behave as equals. Because of her, I’m really excited about getting involved in the Miami Community and applying to be a SOUL next year. When it came time for the social, our group was a little late due to the fact that we were battling another group in Ninja. Can you say, AWESOME! After the social, Megan and I had our first p.m. college experience as we stayed up all night chatting and eating cold pizza…

I think it’s safe to say that my college experience is off to a good start. In about a month, I’ll be on campus and moved in for MADE…I can’t believe it’s almost here but now I feel more than ready to take on my 8am classes and theater anthologies.

The Experiences of Summer Orientation

Hello everybody. I am here to talk about my second blog. This time instead of talking about why I choose to attend Miami, I am writing about my experiences at summer orientation. Before attending summer orientation in mid June, I didn’t think I was going to get a lot out of it besides taking another tour on campus, finding out my living learning community, and finding out my class schedule for first semester. But thankfully, I was wrong.

The whole time I was at orientation, there was not a single hour where I had free time. There were a couple of events that stuck out in my mind at summer orientation. I liked many of the speeches during the day including the speeches of two of the Farmer’s Business School professors. Another event that stuck out in my mind was when everyone was split up into groups with their SOULs or guides to take a tour of the campus and to talk about what to expect first year of college. I thought all of the staff especially the SOULs helping out at orientation were extremely nice and helpful.

I thought the most important thing I learned at orientation was to get involved in the campus community. What I mean by this was to get involved in campus activities by joining clubs and other organizations that Miami has to offer. Another important thing I learned at orientation was not to be afraid to ask my professors for help if I didn’t get the material they were teaching that day. Also, if I need additional help outside of my classes, I know can always meet with a tutor regarding my coursework.

Overall, I thought summer orientation was more than I expected. I knew I was getting my class schedule, my Miami ID card, and learning more about the campus. The one thing I didn’t expect was how involved and busy summer orientation was. When I left orientation, I knew what I needed to do to have a successful first year at Miami. I had so much fun at orientation that now I can hardly wait for move in day next month. Some of the exciting moments I had during orientation were meeting new people around the country and experiencing the amazing spirit Miami has to offer. I also hope that you had a great time at summer orientation and you are also excited for move in day next month too. So now, I can say that I am ready to start my college career and I hope you are ready too, Class of 2014!

My Decision to Enroll at Miami

Hi everybody. My name is Alex Rosenblum. I'm currently attending Henry Sibley High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. As a prospective university student, I had no idea what university I would be attending next year. I applied to ten universities around the Midwest and visited five universities, trying to find the one I wanted to go to. I knew choosing the right university for me would be a difficult decision to make, but over time I chose to enroll in Miami for a couple of reasons and let me tell you why. Before visiting the campus, I didn't really consider moving to Ohio, because I was so focused on going to a university close to Minnesota. It was not until I saw the campus for what it really was that I made my decision to enroll at Miami. During my visit, I saw a university with people that were very friendly, the most beautiful campus I have ever seen, and school spirit that rocked the university. I attended a macroeconomics class and had dinner with some prospective students visiting the university. It was really great. The other reason why I chose to attend Miami of Ohio was because the university seemed to act as a small liberal arts university even though there are 14,000 undergraduate students. Class size and student to professor ratio are very important to me. Miami of Ohio University gives me the opportunity to get more help from teachers and tutors than a typical large university offers. After enrolling at Miami, I knew it would be a difficult decision moving away from my family and friends. Inside myself, I felt comfortable enough to move away from Minnesota because my dad, who attended Yale, inspired me to explore a university outside Minnesota. I also didn't have a problem moving away from Minnesota because I didn't want to attend the same university that my high school friends were going to and I wanted to meet new people from around the country and the world. As a new prospective student at Miami, I am looking forward to an exciting university experience including making new friends, getting involved in university activities like intramural broomball and succeeding academically. I am also looking forward to finding the perfect major that fits me and my aspirations for the future. I hope other people find what they want to do while at Miami. Go Redhawks!

Hello Everybody

My name is Alex Rosenblum.  I am currently attending Henry Sibley High School in St. Paul, Minnesota.   For my first year at Miami, I am interested in joining a fraternity and other organizations such as Hillel when I get to campus.  Later in my college career at Miami, I am interested in studying in the area of business as my prime major.  During my four years of high school, I was in organizations such as debate, the tennis team, and Business Professionals of America.  In school, I have also been taking Spanish for five years.  Outside of school, I was on the local downhill ski team and Boy Scouts, which I will be getting my Eagle Award in the upcoming month.  My interests are downhill skiing, playing tennis, poker, video games, golf, watching TV, and listening to music.  Most of summer I am working at a local move theater but when there is time, I will probably be hanging out with my friends before going away to Miami for college. Let's go Redhawks!

Growing Pains

The closer it gets to graduation and as the national college confirmation deadline has passed, senior year becomes a whirlwind of decisions and growing pains. Since 6th grade, when my group of friends first met and became inseparable, each of us has had each other to lean on and advise in what we thought of as the big decisions in life…what electives to take, who our other friends were, and what extra-curriculars we signed up for, some together, some not. Everyone knows that graduation means a parting of these ways and new groups of friends. For me this fork in the road has been a particular rollercoaster of emotions and opportunities and I am learning how to balance wanting to grow and be independent without leaving behind my classmates and friends.
My high school (Northwest) is about 30 minutes south of Oxford and usually has a decent sized group of students go to Miami each year. This year however is one of the largest groups and all 10 of us have spent almost all of our classes and free time together for seven years. I suppose the hardest part is that to be honest, when you’re finished with high school and feel ready to start college tomorrow, you realize that you’re ready for new people too. Granted, we’re all friends and have seen each other through the good and bad, but in high school your friends are mostly based on zip codes and class schedules. I can’t wait for college, to make friends with people because we have the same passions in life and want the same successes.
Succumbing to my need for structure and concrete outcomes, I applied Early Decision and had confirmed by the end of winter break. At our Accepted Student’s Luncheon with Dr. Hodge (in mid-April), one of my best friends and I decided that the most exciting and fun experience would be if we roomed together at Miami. Within weeks, the crossroads between high school and college caused me to have second thoughts. It seemed like everyday people were more stressed out about high school and the status quo than ever before. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I wanted a fresh start. I want to meet new people, have challenging discourse, and be able to learn from those around me. Hearing the same conversations everyday, I just became more anxious to get onto a college campus. It was a hard choice at first, but because she understands and seems to share my desire to branch out, my then soon-to-be-roommate also understood that I would rather utilize this chance to meet and live with a new person by having a random roommate.
The past few months have almost been like watching high school from the outside and every time I find myself on Miami’s campus, it’s that much harder to go back. My high school was my second home for four years but these last days have made me realize something: This is it. This is when I have to be sure of who I am and what I want for my future. I want to grow up and be my own person. I want my passions, not my clique to define me. Of course I’ll keep contact with my old friends, but I fully intend on making plenty of new ones and I’m not really worried about the balance. I look forward to making friends that share my goals and aspirations, and meeting new people from all walks of life. Don’t get me wrong, I will always cherish old ties and the people that have been there for me, I just feel like we are slowly redefining the connections that kept us together through thick and thin. Amongst my group of friends, we’ve always understood one another’s life goals and have learned to be supportive. Who knows, maybe four years from now we’ll be closer than ever but for now, I feel the need for a fresh start and can’t wait to meet my new roommate!

Fun Fact: The Voice over for Bugs Bunny was allergic to carrots! :)

Allo!

Hello! I'm Sarah Jeanette Haynes from Cincinnati, Ohio by way of Northwest High School. My major is microbiology and I'm considering a minor in French. In high school, I was on the Varsity Girls Cross Country Team for 4 years and absolutely loved every minute of it. I was/am also involved in Student Senate and National Honors Society and plan to be involved in Student Government and Running Club at Miami as well. My plans for the future are medical school for immunology and possibly teaching (high school or college level).
I am the type of person that requires structure in my life, meaning that I am always ten minutes early and have an irrational fear of being lost. This is balanced by my tendency to be occasionally scatter-brained, so if my posts are ever a little foggy or muddled, feel free to let me know or ask questions. I am unbelievably excited about Miami and cannot wait to be a Redhawk! 2014, here we come!

Fun Fact: Hagaan Daaz has no real meaning in any earthly language. It is simply Ice Cream in gibberish :)

Welcome!

Congratulations, Class of 2014!

Welcome to the Miami University First-Year Experience Blog!  This blog is coordinated by the Office of New Student Programs and the Office of Admission at Miami University (OH).  And though it's coordinated by University offices, this blog features student voices.

Two members of the Class of 2014 will be blogging about their experience throughout the year - starting before Summer Orientation, and continuing through the end of the Spring semester.  We invite you to bookmark this page or sign up to follow the blog so you can keep up with Sarah and Alex and read about their thoughts and experiences as they go through their first year at Miami.  Feel free to post comments and questions too!  If you have any questions about the blog itself, you can contact me, Buffy Stoll, Director of New Student Programs, at stolle@muohio.edu.  Enjoy! 

Finals

I can't believe it's the week before finals of my SECOND semester... I would believe it if I was just finishing up my first semester, but this year has literally FLOWN BY!

I've gotten so much accomplished and learned a lot this year. I've made some great new friends, and have gotten pretty much every illness you can imagine. I've studied more and pushed myself harder than I ever thought possible...

And I've had a GREAT time doing it.

Now I'm sitting at my cubicle in the library starting to delve into all the material that we have covered over this past four months. Slowly I'm starting to become nostalgic of my freshman year, and I'm coming to realize that I'm going to miss Miami over the summer.

Within the next week I'll have to say goodbye to all of my newly formed friends... I'll have to take one last jog at the rec... and stuff one last piece of carrot cake and a warm cookie in my mouth.

This summer is four months, and I'm certain by the time that it is over... I'm going to be ready to take sophomore year by storm!!

Sophomore Room Selection

Steps to Sophomore Year Housing:

1. Figure out what sort of room you want to live in (single, double, triple, quad, or apartment style)

• Miami offers a bunch of great options which make living on campus sophomore year hassle free. If you are in a sorority or fraternity you live in the sorority dorms or in the fraternity house. If you are not Greek you have your choice of living in the dorms or there are Heritage Commons which are apartment style on campus living.

2. Pick a roommate/roommates

• By this time in your freshman year you will have met so many people! I'm so excited to live with my roommate next year. Kori and I get along so well, and we can't wait to be rooming together. She lives in a different dorm, but since we've met we have spent so much time together... it is going to be so nice to have her sitting on the bed right next to mine!

3. Sign online on a specific day to receive your lottery number

• We were sent an e-mail reminder to sign onto our mymiami page between April 5 and April 9 and "pop a balloon" to receive our lottery number.

4. On the day of room assigning sign in at your time and bid on your room

• Room assigning day was April 14, and the time that we received from popping our balloon was the time we could sign online and pick a room. Kori and I spent an entire day walking around campus to all the different dorms to check out the room layouts. It was really nice that we have the option to choose which dorm we wanted to live in. Watch out sophomore year here we come!!!

It's HERE!

As temperatures break records... hundreds of Miami students scurry to Shriver for something....

No... it's not to sunbathe, no... it's not to purchase tickets to Kid Cudi (that was last week!)

Miami hockey is playing in the final four! Miami is even offering bus passes up to the game in Detroit for only $15!

However, for all those students who have classes, or cannot afford the $189 ticket into the game Campus Activities Council is offering a exciting alternative!

"The Road to Victory, Frozen Four" party takes place on Central Quad starting right when the game starts, 8:30 p.m. A huge tv screen will be placed for viewing pleasure! Not only will there be a screen, but Miami Concessions will be available for a little snack!

Just another exciting week on Miami's campus!! Oh... GO REDHAWKS!!!

Spring is Near!

"I see trees of green..."

Spring has finally arrived! Although I'm sure that I just jinxed the weather.. the sun has finally shown itself from beneath the dull and dreary clouds of winter.

Kids have come out of their dorm and started being social on the big green lawns. Girls laying out on blankets, chatting with their friends, or reading a book. Boys playing frisbee, throwing a ball, or running around.

I felt like I had finally become social again... after a long winter of being cooped up in the dorm I was starting to see familiar faces that I recognized from the fall.

I talked to people who were planning on going to lacrosse games and outdoor events! Uptown was bustling again as people decided to emerge from their winter siesta and decided to fiesta!

Sitting in my classes I anxiously watched out the window as the beautiful sunlight streamed through. I couldn't wait to get out of some of my classes just so I could walk down the street and feel the warmth on my body and the sun on my face.

There is nothing like spring in Oxford. It is beautiful... I can't wait to watch the trees blossom, and the grass turn green again. The nice thing about Oxford is, no matter the season it is always beautiful!

In the fall the red, orange, and yellow leaves complemented the brick buildings, in the winter a blanket of snow quiets the town, and in the spring beautiful flowers sprout and the trees begin budding!

What a beautiful place Oxford is!

Rushing at Miami: Part III

I suppose I could have titled this post "Pledging at Miami" because once you submit your choices for sororities to Panhel then you are in the process of pledging a sorority.

On Sunday I laid on my bed impatiently waiting on my GLG to deliver my bid to my dorm. Finally, around 4 p.m. she knocked on the door. She handed me an envelop and left. I slowly tore open the envelope and received a formal bid that announced that I was apart of the Pi Beta Phi Baby Angel 2010 Pledge Class!

There was an invitation to meet at 6 pm at the suite. I was so excited! I could hear screaming outside of the room. Girls were running up and down the hallway to their friends rooms, knocking on the door and announcing their new sorority.

I opened the door and came eye to eye with the girl who lives across the hallway. Kathryn had excitement in her eyes, "I'm in Pi Phi! I'm a Baby Angel!" She announced. "I AM TOO!" we started screaming and she picked me up and spun me around "You're my sista!" she kept saying.

Her roommate Liza was also a Pi Phi, and two girls down our hallway, KK and Julia, were Pi Phi's too. We all got quick showers and had to wear a white top with jeans. I was so confused as to whether I should wear a nice white shirt, or if it would be a shirt that would just go underneath a new shirt we would get.

Millions of questions were going through my head, who was going to be in my sorority? Would I know anyone? Would the girls be nice? Were they as nervous as I was? What were we going to do tonight? Were the older girls going to be nice and welcoming, or are they going to be mean and unwelcoming? When do we get to start going to parties with fraternity boys?

The most important question was, am I going to find my new best friend in Pi Phi?

We showed up at the suite. I could tell everyone was nervous... I noticed that one of the girls who was in my Travel Group was in Pi Phi. I was so excited! She was really nice... I walked over and sat down next to her.

We spent an hour getting to know the other girls in our pledge class. We told embarrassing stories, and then we were assigned our Beta Buddies. Our Beta Buddies were partners for the night, our seat partners when we got on the bus, and we got to know them better.

My Beta Buddy was Charlotte. She was loud and boisterous. We got along great! We spent the evening laughing and getting to know some of the other girls in our pledge class. We were introduced to the sophomores who would become our bigs and took our PI BETA PHI PLEDGES 2010 PICTURES.

It was a very exciting evening, and suddenly I had lots to do. We had sisterhood events, philanthropy events to participate in, and parties with other sororities and fraternities. My life seemed to be engulfed by the Greek system!

Wonderful things happen both when you are in a fraternity/sorority, or when you are not involved in Greek life. The only thing that matters is that you are having a great time!

Rushing at Miami: Part II

The whole purpose of such a long and rigorous rushing process is to ENSURE you will end up in the sorority that best fits your personality. You are not only choosing which sororities YOU like, but the sororities are choosing which girls they see fitting into the pack.

The girls who were rushing came back to school on the Tuesday before school started. It was a freezing, snow covered day... the dorms opened at one o'clock and the girls hauled our nineteen suitcases up the steps and back into our dorm rooms.

I was kicking myself for bringing my entire wardrobe home... I had spent most of my break soaking up the rays on the beach of Cancun (sorry... I had to rub it in a little) and couped up in my house recuperating from my lack of sleep over the first semester of college. Needless to say, I hadn't worn half the outfits that I packed, so as I sweated up the steps pulling my 100 pound suitcase I was definitely upset with myself.

On Tuesday evening our GLG called a mandatory meeting. We all gathered in the lobby, anxious to find out what this week brought us. Meg (our GLG) handed out t-shirts that were to be worn during the Open House round of rush.

She told us to go get ready for the next day, and that our schedules would be e-mailed to us around midnight... I basically freaked out. I am the kind of person that needs a solid nine hours of sleep to function properly. If I didn't find out my schedule until MIDNIGHT and then I had to wake up at 6:30 to get ready for my first "party"... that's only 6 1/2 hours... I would not be a happy camper.

Open House was split into two days. You were assigned a "travelling GLG" and you, your travelling GLG, and your travel group went to all 18 sororities. We spent 15 minutes at each sorority, learned a little about them, and chatted with some of the sisters.

My GLG travel group was assigned 15 parties in one day... we basically went to parties non stop from 8 am to 10 pm.. talk about a long day. My face was frozen in a smile, and it hurt to walk... my flats had rubbed the back of my feet and left big blisters. (TIP #1: wear comfortable shoes for the first couple days)

When you have down time you pretty much lay down and die on your bed. Make sure that you bring lots of movies and snack food for when you are not at parties because all you are going to want to do is eat, relax and sleep! CAUTION: DO NOT HANG OUT WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHEN YOU HAVE DOWNTIME... you are so tired all you should do is sleep!!!

The evening of Thursday we gathered in the lobby with our GLG and we narrowed the 18 sororities down to 12. We also ranked our bottom 6 sororities (the 6 that didn't make the cut) just in case we didn't get asked back to the 12 that we liked. We went to bed, and the next morning at 10 our GLG showed up in the lobby and gave us our schedule for Round 1.

Round 1 took place Friday and Saturday. In this round we were told to wear a cute shirt with jeans and flats. I was happy to begin Round 1 because I could put my own personality into the clothes that I chose to wear.

I was very excited when I got my list on Friday morning... I got my top 12 sororities that I had hoped to get. I had to race upstairs and change because my first party was at 11.

The rounds progressively get more fun because you cut the "small talk" and really start to get to know the different personalities of the sororities. Also, you would learn more about the history of the sorority and got to help create a craft for the different philanthropies.

Sunday was round 2. We received our narrowed down 7 sororities that we were going to visit. The night before we ranked our bottom five just in case we didn't get one of our top 7. This round was business casual attire, and was forty five minutes long.

Many sororities did a skit and a video about what life is like as their sister, and their was more time to talk. By Sunday my face was numb from smiling so much, and my eyes were watery from being so tired, but I tried my best to remain interesting and fun to the sororities... I really wanted to make a good first impression.

What killed most of us was the fact that after Sunday we had to wait until the following Saturday for our final round... PREF ROUND. We didn't even find out if we got our top three picks until Wednesday. School dragged on for those 72 hours, and when we finally got our top three we had to wait ANOTHER three days until we could go back to those sororities for a visit...

Pref Round is unlike anything that I had experienced so far. I wore a nice cocktail dress and high heels to the sorority suites. Each sorority had decorated their suite so that it was almost unrecognizable, and we spent an hour in each suite partaking in different rituals and talking to more of the sisters.

After we went to our three parties we were finished. We returned to our dorms and waited anxiously for Sunday..... Bid Day.

Greek Life: Part I

Greek life is a very hard topic to talk about in one blog post because there is so much information to share, so I decided to break down the topic into part I - about Greek life, part II - rushing at Miami, and part III - being a pledge.

Ever since I started high school I always wanted to go Greek. I went to an all-girl's high school and loved the closeness and "sisterhood" that had developed between my class and girls in other grades. I wanted to continue to form close bonds with my new friends, I wanted to be able to participate in fun Greek events, and I wanted to continue in the philanthropy work that I had done in high school.

I was looking for a college with a big Greek system... but I was also nervous that I wasn't going to get into one, so I wanted the campus to also have lots of non-Greek students... and that is another reason why Miami appealed to me so much!

Miami's campus is composed of over 50 Greek chapters... these sororities and fraternities focus on learning, leadership, philanthropy, community, scholarship, and brotherhood/sisterhood. To learn more about the Greek system visit: http://www.units.muohio.edu/saf/GRA/

The nice thing about Miami Greek recruitment is that rush is not the first week of school... so many of my friends had to deal with not only entering a new and strange environment, but they also had to deal with the pressures of rush. The first formal introduction to Greek life at Miami is through the Greek Mega-Fair which took place in October.

After the long trek down to Millett Hall we were able to visit all the sororities (and fraternities). They set up booths around the outside of the basketball arena and we could chat with girls (boys) from the sororities (fraternities). It was nice to be able to talk to girls who had gone through the recruitment process the year before. I found myself asking thousands of questions about the different rounds, and I got more and more confused as they attempted to explain the hectic week of girls rush.

Throughout the fall we attended things called "sprite dates." These were informal parties that took place in the sororities suites. They had cute themes like "Desserts with DG" or "Fondue with Fuzzie" and it gave us the opportunity to check out their suite, get to know the personality of the sorority, and meet girls in the sorority that we could talk to.

The boys did a similar sort of informal introduction... these events were called "coke dates." Many of them took place at the fraternity house, but some of them were at other places and required an invitation.
One thing that both boys and girls had in common was a Greek Life Guide. A GLG was assigned to each corridor in each dorm. He/She was our guide to the Greek world. We had meetings once a week where they would go through the ENTIRE recruitment process and answer all of the thousands of questions that we threw at her. The nice thing about the GLG was that we didn't know which sorority she was in... this allowed us to ask questions without worrying about her feelings. She did a great job at answering questions without giving us biased answers like "MY SORORITY IS THE BEST!!!!"

The boys attended open house before they left for Christmas break. Open house was on Saturday and Sunday of one weekend, and the GLG led the boys to each house to visit for 15 minutes. When the boys returned from Christmas vacation they spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights revisiting the houses that they liked.
Us girls on the other hand... [insert chuckle here] we had QUITE a different experience...

First Semester Reflection

First semester freshman year was full of unexpected twists and turns, ups and downs, and surprises.

I came into college expecting something completely different than what it became, but I am so glad that it was not what I expected because it turned out to be so much better!

I came to school figuring that college would be much like high school, i would have a select group of friends that I would hang out with, and we would all be as close as the group of friends that I had in high school. Sure, I quickly made friends with a couple girls down the hall and we started going out together, but what I didn't realize is that I would make many other friends in the classroom and in extracurricular activities who I would also spend a great deal of time with.

I was so nervous for classes. I realized during my first week of school that yes, my professors did care about how I did, but they were not going to hold my hand through the semester like some of my high school teachers did. My professors were not going to approach me and suggest we sit down and discuss how I was to improve my grade, instead... it was up to me to approach them.

However, I tried my best! I spent days trekking to the library, and long nights making color coded study guides for biological organisms that gave me nightmares. I wrote papers that I never thought that I could produce, and I learned all about the jazz music that originated in Africa up to Jimmy Hendrix's rock-fusion. All the late nights, coffee runs, early morning workouts, thousands of notecards, hand cramps, and tears produced a GPA that I am very proud of!!!

The outstanding academics is the main reason why I chose Miami, but there were also other parts of college that I wanted to make sure I altered in, like a campus that felt like home, students who I felt that I would fit in with, enough extracurriculars that I could keep busy, and of course the most important thing... food that will satisfy my picky taste buds.

I was so nervous to leave my high school friends and meet new people. It might sound silly but I thought that they wouldn't like me. I guess I didn't realize that everyone was in the same situation that I was in....

And I have to admit that I have never met so many nice people in my life. In every class I would nervously look for a seat close to someone who I could be friends with. Before I knew it my phone doubled in the amount of numbers that I had, and when asking people for the phone numbers you had to ask for their area code!

I made friends in my business fraternity, CAC, classes, dorm, even in the dining hall!!! When I left for Christmas break I was strangely sad to leave my newly founded friends. And when it was time to return to Miami I couldn't help but get excited to go back and see everybody.

Gorgeous brick building, spacious areas of grassland, TREES... these are all things that are most often not located on college campuses. When touring other schools with my parents I couldn't help but feel depressed by the cold, concrete and clustered campuses. I didn't want to live in a dorm that looked like a prison, and I didn't want to go to school in a huge city. I wanted a college experience that allowed me to immerse myself solely in the campus, the student life and my studies.

Miami is located in the small town of Oxford, Ohio... and while there are not skyscrapers, shopping malls or speed limits over 35 miles an hour there are lots of things that I have come to love during my first semester:

1. Instead of pedistrians looking both ways before they cross the street, cars have to drive 5 miles an hour, staring intently in front of their car, to make sure that they don't hit a student who decided they could dash across the street... if Oxford was located in a big city those student's would be "road kill"

2. Uptown on the weekends caters to the college scene. Restaurants turn into nightclubs where kids can go dance and hang out with their friends and fast-food places serve late night specials (some even deliver!!). You might even catch a few "townies" (residents of Oxford) selling food on the sidewalks.

3. The bell tower... although some kids hate the clanging of the bells at all hours of the morning I personally love them. I suppose I don't mind since I had an 8 am 3 days a week and so I had to be up anyways, but there is something magical about walking down a snow covered sidewalk and hear the bell tower playing "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music.

There are many more wonderful parts of Oxford that I have come to love over my first semester of school, but why would I ruin the adventures that you would soon experience?

FINALS Have FINALLY come

At the end of the semester no matter what year you are in school, everybody seems to just relax and kick back... even though school is still going on.

After Thanksgiving break I honestly was ready to just ride out the last two weeks until exams. I figured that I would have PLENTY of time the weekend before exams and the week of exams to study... after all it is not like we even had classes that week and my exams were spread pretty far apart.....

Needless to say I am VERY glad that I kept the pedal to the metal, and cruised through those last few weeks of class. I kept up with all the assignments my teachers gave out and I printed off the final study guides. I tried to do everything that my professors recommended...

I stayed up to the wee hours of the morning cranking out notecard after notecard. I ended up with stacks of color coded notecards that even I did not understand!!

In the end it all paid off. The best advice that I got while preparing for finals was to START STUDYING EARLY!!!! As much as I hate to admit it... it was indeed my mother who gave me that advice. I rolled my eyes and thought she was just being a mom, but when it got to "crunch time" for most people... I was ready to take the exam!!!!

A couple tips that I learned with taking my exams.

#1. Get LOTS of sleep - it may seem like a dorky thing to do... to go to bed at 9 or 9:30 but when you are well rested you will not only keep yourself from getting sick, but you will also keep yourself from falling asleep when you should be studying.... or worse, during your exam

#2. Make sure that you start studying ahead of time - this also may seem dorky, but you won't realize until exam week comes around how EXHAUSTED you are... I know I was glad that I had time to relax since I had already been preparing for my exams.

#3. Make sure you know where your exam room is - lots of professors end up giving their final in a different room... finding the correct building amongst thousands of two story brick buildings is like trying to find a needle in a haystack for us freshmen.

#4. If you are going to go to the library you are going to need a tent so you can camp outside the doors until someone leaves... if you are going to try and get a cubicle you need to get to the library at the crack of dawn!

I tried to do all of these things, and in addition to hours and hours of studying, it did pay off! First semester not only allowed me to meet new people, but it also led me to believe that I CAN AND WILL SUCCEED IN COLLEGE!!