A Day in the Life by Summer Varin

Hello my name is Summer and I am a freshman at the University of Arizona. I live in a dorm with one roommate. My dorm room is about 230 square feet. We have community bathrooms that we share with the other girls in the hall. Living in the dorms has been a big adjustment for me because I am used to having my own room back home in Phoenix. It is also a big change for me to share a bathroom with twenty other girls. My roommate and I had never met before I came to school in Tucson. I lucked out because we get along very well. Even with the changes I have really enjoyed living in the dorms meeting people and having great freshman experience.
My day normally starts out around ten when I have my first class. I have to walk about 10 minutes to get to my classroom. The class is English and we meet only three days a week for fifty minutes. There are twenty-five students in this class. All freshman English classes are small at this University. In English class we each have picked a Television show to analyze and write an essay about. After class is over at ten fifty my friend and I normally go and get breakfast. They have a bagel shop right next to our dorms so we eat there. Then after breakfast I go back to my dorm and I have free time to do whatever I want until my next class, which is at one. I either watch television, catch up on my homework, hang out with friends, or go on my computer. Having this free time is really nice, but sometimes it’s hard to manage your time because you do have so much of it, and I am not used to it. This is because in High School we had a full day of classes that occupied my time.
My next class is called Life on Earth. This is a general education class that is needed in order for me to graduate. There are about three hundred people in this class. It is the biggest class that I have ever been in, but a normal size in a University lecture. This class covers the general ideas of sciences such as biology. In this class right now we are studying human evolution. We recently had to do a project on identifying the different stages that the human skull has developed from. This is not one of my favorite classes though.
I am a member of the University of Arizona Pomline. This is a dance team that cheers on the sports teams at the university. We cheer at all the men’s football and basketball games. The pomline is an auxiliary to the Pride of Arizona marching band, which has almost three hundred members. After class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at two fifteen we have practice. Our practices last for about three hours. We also have practices on Saturday mornings from eight to noon. During practice we go over all the choreography that we have been working on to refresh our minds. We also learn new choreography for half times and the sideline routines that we do. In the beginning of practices it is only with the team, but at around three thirty we have to go outside to practice with the band. While we practice with the band we have to figure our formations out on the field and put our choreography to the music and the different formations. Practices are very long, but it is definitely worth it to be able to be on the field cheering at the games.
After my practice I will normally get some dinner on campus with my roommate. Then after that I will come back to my dorm and work on homework or just hang out. Then around eleven I will go to sleep and start the day all over again!

Life in College

College in my opinion is one of those life-changing experiences. There is really nothing that compares to the experience that you gain during your time in college. I have been in college for about two and a half months and I have already made lifetime friends and I have an uncountable amount of stories that I will be able to tell over and over and it will never get old. In the little amount of time that I have been in college, I have already learned things that cannot be taught and can only be learned through experiences. Some main examples of this are living on your own for the first time without your parents to warn you what to do and what not to do. Another example is something that is almost unavoidable, drinking alcohol. This is one of element of college that few college students are able to avoid. Personally I haven’t been able to avoid it, but I make sure that it does become a big part of my life and most importantly, it doesn’t effect my performance in school. Personally I think I have been able to keep it to a minimum and it hasn’t been a problem, so the situation I am in is one that works and therefore does not need to be changed. This proves that despite what people say about drinking, I believe that it is not a problem unless you make it one.
One of the most important things that college students need to do in order to succeed in college is to make a list of priorities. People have to understand that you are in college for a reason and that reason is to go to school. There are many students who come to college and don’t care about their schoolwork and just drink and go to parties all of the time. Those are the students who you will not see back the following semester. Of course I think that it is important to be social during college, but you cannot let your social life take over your life. As mentioned before, school has to be the most important thing when you are in college. There is a reason why it cost so much money to attend college because getting a good education and a degree is important when it comes to being successful in life.

My college life by Sahil Arora

Hello my names Sahil Arora and I think its really cool how you guys are interested in seeing how our lifestyles are, and frankly I don’t blame you. Life here is different from anywhere else in the world, trust me. I was born in the country of Canada but my parents are from India. The most interesting thing about college in America is the lifestyle. Ill take you through my daily life and ill let you decide how different it is from your daily lifestyle. I wake up in my dorm room around 9:15 am because my first class is not till 10 am and the building is in short walking distance. I shower in a community bathroom which is shared by other people from my dorm building, and then get ready (usually without eating breakfast) and rush to class. On my way to class ill usually see thousands of other kids walking around. You’ll also sometimes see people playing sports in the grass area at all times of the day. When I get to class its either a class in which there are 300 students where it’s mainly the teacher just lecturing, or ill get to a smaller class with about 30 students in which all the students are required to participate, ask and answer questions. I have about three classes a day, which have at least an hour break in between them where I usually go home to rest or eat food. When my classes are done, usually around 4 pm, ill grab a bite to eat and go back to my dorm room. My dorm room is a pretty big room. I share the room with another student. Our room has a television, a microwave, a fridge, 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 dressers are three closets (I have included a few pictures so you guys can check it out! Are they bigger than your dorm rooms?). I believe we have an extra closet because originally our rooms were supposed to have three people to a room but we got lucky and only had two kids assigned to our room. I live in a building that is 9 stories high that has both boys and girls, with halls being either all boys, or all girls. This does not stop guys and/or girls from visiting each other, as it happens very often. I usually leave my dorm room after I get home to go to the gym and work out, or hangout with friends (hangout meaning spending time with friends while relaxing and having fun). When my friends and I hangout, we may grab a bite to eat at one of the many local restaurants all in walking distance, or we may go to someone’s dorm or house. There is not much to do in the city of Tucson for fun outside of campus and friends houses. After hanging out, its time to do homework. College students have plenty of homework from all their classes and must devote plenty of their night to completing their homework. Homework may take a short amount of time on rare lucky days, or a majority of the day, which requires you to sit at your desk and work. After the long strenuous week, it is finally time for some weekend fun. Weekends in colleges are very crazy. There are hundreds of parties going on and nearly 100% of them have alcohol in which kids get drunk and go crazy. Drinking in American colleges is an activity where most of the college kids take apart in during the weekends. Parties mostly happen on Fridays, Saturdays, some on Thursdays and a few scattered throughout the week. Saturday is the big day where kids can wake up late and stay up late to party. On some Saturdays, there are football games played on campus by the universities football team against other universities. We take these games seriously. Unfortunately, our team is not very good, but we still support them. Football games are usually Saturday nights, followed by many parties. Sunday is the time where students recover from the crazy weekends and do homework. Sundays can be relaxing days if students have moderate homework assignments due, or they can be stressful with a lot of work to do. When Monday comes around the whole week starts over again. This may sound repetitive, but everyday brings a new journey and a challenge. College life is very different from the normal life and a lot of fun. You guys should come check it out one time!

Life at the University of Arizona

Hello, my name is Natalie and I'm a freshman student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is about my third month here in Tucson and I'm absolutely loving it here so far. I moved here from Scottsdale, Arizona which is about two hours away from Tucson. The weather is beautiful and every morning I wake up to sunny skies and fairly cool weather. I am studying to be a Nurse and I am a student majoring in Pre-Nursing. I am a member of P.A.I.N (Professional Achievements In Nursing) which is a Nursing Club here at the University of Arizona. I am taking 13 credits worth of classes and my classes include English, a Psychology class, a Chemistry class, and a Spanish class.

My day as a University of Arizona student consists of waking up at 9 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I get to sleep in till 11 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays because my Spanish class doesn't start till 12 PM in the afternoon! It takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to walk to my classes from my dorm. I live in a college dorm called Arizona - Sonora that has many many floors. Hundreds of students live in the dorm overall. In my dorm room, there is three of us; me and two other roommates. I have really great roommates and we get along extremely well! All of the people i have met since I've been here are very very nice and easy to get along with. I also have really wonderful teachers for all of my classes. My English class has around 20 students in it, but my Psychology class has over 400 students in it!! I have really enjoyed my time spend going to school at University of Arizona, and I have loved living in Tuscon so far! I can't wait for the next years of my life that I am going to spend going to the University of Arizona. I hope this letter has given you some great information about what being a student here in Tucson, Arizona is really like! I hope you've enjoyed learning about what our lives are like here! =)
- Sincerely
Natalie Matar
(Student - University of Arizona)

Life of a College Student

Hey! My name is Melissa and I'm a college freshman at the University of
Arizona in the sunny state of Arizona. I was born and raised in Tucson, AZ and
can't imagine my life without this beautiful city. Each morning I wake up to
the beautiful mountain view and roasting hot weather and I remember why I love
it here. It is quite common in American tradition for a college student to go
away for college whether that is out of state or out of the country even. But
honestly, I have a hard time leaving on a vacation so leaving for sixth months
is not realistic for me.
College Life. It has definitely been an experience for me and quite a change
from the comfort of my parents' home. I wake up each morning in my dorm,
force open my sleep deprived eyes, and make the usual bowl of oatmeal in a
paper bowl hoping each time that it doesn't catch flame. After filling my
empty belly, I wonder around my usually messy room in search of clean clothes.
After covering my body with anything I can find, I wonder down the hall to the
bathroom for my wake up shower. Once my seemingly boring morning routine is
complete, I begin the journey to class. I hop on my bike and make my way to
dance class which begins at what seems like 4 in the morning but is really
8:00am.
Dance is my favorite past time, workout, hobby- whatever you want to call it.
It has been my passion for over 8 years now. So as early as 8:00am may seem,
it is worth the struggle to wake up to get to dance first thing in the morning.
Who wouldn't want to frolic around freely first thing each morning? I love it.
After dance, the rest of my day is a few classes and then off to work.
I work on campus, so it is a convenient 5 minute walk from pretty much anywhere.
My office is called Room and Course Scheduling and I basically sit in front of
computer for 4 hours each day and process a bunch of memos. As not mentally
stimulating as this may seem, it is a job that helps pay my rent, so I don't
complain. I also get the opportunity to work with some of the nicest people I
have met here at the U of A, so I truly can say I enjoy going to work each day.
After the usual day of class and work, I try to find a little social time.
Usually this comes in the form of food and drink.
Meals here at the U of A seem to be more about socializing than they really are about eating. As everyone filters out of their various classes, they find their friends and make
their way to the Student Union for dinner. It is rare and quite uncomfortable, in my experience, to eat dinner alone in the Union or really anywhere on campus. If I do end up going alone, I usually take my meal to-go and head home to my dorm with hope that my roommate is around to hang out. Another interesting part of dorm life- The Roommate.
I really did get lucky when it comes to my roommate. I've heard my share of
horror stories about fights between roommates and even girls moving out. My
roommate has quickly become my best friend this year. When she's not home I
am actually quite sad. On weekends we tend to be inseparable and I absolutely
love her.
The Weekends. College weekend life is by far the most fun part of the college
experience. Friday nights begin with the usually cramming of homework (for
some reason teachers love to make things due on Friday by midnight). After
that, my friends and I usually head to one of our friends' houses. A few
lucky freshmen chose to live in a house off of campus instead of a dorm. This
decision ends up being very beneficial to those of us living in dorms because
it gives us somewhere fun to go on weekends. The nightly events can range
anywhere from watching a movie to throwing a 100 person party. And either way,
it ends up being a ton of fun.
Overall, the college experience is one that I have grown to love and I'm
really happy that I made the decision to stay here in my hometown of Tucson,
AZ. I hope the experience continues to be a positive one in the years to
come.

Matt Jehling

College life here is always an experience. There is always something to do. This year I have a dorm room with one roommate. The room is a pretty good size. We have two beds, closets, and dressers. Every dorm here has a TV and if they don’t it seems odd. When you walk around my dorm it is three stories and is shaped in a U. However every hall looks the same so it is very easy to get lost. The dorms are air conditioned and there are two bathrooms for my hall. My hall consists of sixteen rooms so about thirty two people. A lot of people here are from California and Arizona, but I am from St. Louis. Everyone in my hall is nice for the most part and a lot of people play videogames. This is mostly guys because the girls aren’t really into that. The weather here is always nice it has been in the 70s and 80s since I have been here. It hardly ever rains and if it does it only rains for about ten minutes.
I have five classes which translate to fifteen credit hours. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have three classes which are all fifty minutes. On Thursday I have four classes that are also fifty minutes and on Friday I just have one fifty minute class. The rest of the day most people usually work out, sleep, eat, and do homework. Most people complain about the homework. A lot of times it seems like all the midterms and papers come in the same week so some weeks the workload is a lot heavier than others. I have been playing on an intramural football team. We play once a week and have seven guys on a team. There are different leagues for different skill levels. My league is the most competitive one but nobody practices before the games. Some professors here are liked more than others and we never see them outside of class unless we go to their office hours for help. It is not that we avoid them but we have 35,000 people here so you hardly see anyone. However I must say that if we did see them we would probably just walk by wave.
On the weekends there are a lot of parties to go to. Many of the parties are thrown by frats and sororities. The parties start on Thursday and go until Saturday but some people party every night. Not a lot of people have cars here because they are freshman so people like to get off campus when they can. At least a few people will go home every weekend. Unless they live in Arizona most people only fly home once or twice besides Thanksgiving and winter break. On Sundays most of the guys watch football which consumes a good portion of the day. Our rec center is open until midnight so a lot of people play basketball, racket ball or just work out. It is not unusual to see a ton of people there between nine and twelve at night. That might even be the busiest time. People here are on their cell phones constantly because that’s the best way to communicate with people. Also we have wireless internet over the entire campus. Most people have laptops and if they don’t there are computer labs all over campus. The campus is huge and depending on where you live it could take up to twenty minutes to walk to class. We have class with people of all ages and we get to pick which classes we want to take. However a lot of classes fill up so the selection is limited. There are certain courses we have to take to graduate and we have to end up with 120credit hours for a business major. This school has a good business program so a lot of people here are majoring in that.

Sorority Life

Hello. My name is Brittany and I am 18 years old. I am a freshman here at the University of Arizona. I was born here in Tucson, Arizona and have wanted to go to the university here ever since I heard about it. Now that I am fulfilling one of my many dreams, I continue to make more. I am in a sorority at the U of A (as we call it). Sororities are groups of girls that do things together to help make the community better. Lots and lots of girls go to the different sororities and talk to some of the girls that are already in the sorority. Everyday the girls pick the sororities they want and then go back to determine if that is the house they want. At the end of the process, they are given their sorority. My sororities name is Alpha Chi Omega. All of the girls are great and I love everyone of them. It is like we are one big family. We have fundraisers and do community service. We also just hang out with each other when we are not doing sorority events. When Homecoming comes around (it is a very big event for our school) we pair up with a fraternity, which is just like a sorority except with guys, and we build a float. All of the sororities do this and it is a big competition. There is also something called serenading. Serenading is when a fraternity sings and dances for a sorority and when a sorority sings and dances for a fraternity. As embarrassing as it sounds it is actually a lot of fun. Several of the sororities did a serenading competition as a fundraiser. My sorority, unfortunately did not win. A lot of the things we do in Greek life (the name for all of the sororities and fraternities) are for charity and benefit other people. We also have date dashes which are a lot of fun. date dashes are when we invite dates and get on a bus and go to a "secret location." We went on a date dash a few weeks ago and we just ended up going to a mexican restaurant, but there was food, music, and for those who are allowed to drink alcohol, a bar. The date dashes also have themes. My sorority's date dash next week is "Go Hollywood." So they said we could dress up like an actor or actress or like we are going to a "red-carpet event" with famous people. As a new member in the sorority, I get a big. Bigs are big sisters since all of the girls are your sisters. I am known as a little, short for little sister. It is a week long process of our "bigs" giving us presents and clues to figure out who they are. At the end of the week they give us one last puzzle to figure out who they are. Fraternities also like to hang out with the sororities. They have parties and most of the sorority girls will go. Some have themes and some don't. But they are just a lot of fun in general. Once a week, we have meetings called chapter meetings to discuss about future events and issues going on presently. We have to dress up and look nice since they are formal meetings sometimes. Because we are new members, in order to become actives we have to go through initiation. I am not quite sure what iniationis because it is a secret to us. The only thing they told us about it is what day it is on and what to wear. But I love it so far. I would definitely have to say it is the best decision I have made since I have been in college/ I will fill you in when I find out more. What is your school like?