By Kate Taylor ‘11 and Kathryn Black ‘11, The Lens Section Editors
This month, most of the seniors must make their final college decision. They will be reading the “Fiske Guide to Colleges” and numerous view books and advertisements, trying to figure out what makes life at one college preferable to life at another. Amidst all this decision making, The Lens asked two recent CCDS graduates to tell us what their college life is like.
Megan Bonini ’10 is majoring in Neurobiology at the University of Michigan. Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a public university and home to around 24,500 undergraduates. Such a number may seem overwhelming compared to CCDS’s 250 students in the Upper School, but for Bonini, it is all part of the college experience.
Brooke Heinichen ’08 was Editor-in-Chief of The Scroll and chose to tackle and excelled in both the French and Spanish AP courses at CCDS. Now a junior at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the most prestigious school for international relations in the nation, Heinichen is the Chief Operating Officer of the largest student run business in the world. The Corp. is owned and run solely by Georgetown students and consists of a series of coffee shops, a snack shop, and a grocery store. The Corp rakes in over four million dollars in revenue a year and has over two hundred students on staff. Heinichen is majoring in Science, Technology and International Affairs in the SFS, the most rigorous of all the majors of Georgetown.
1. Describe your experience at college so far.
Bonini: College is very fast paced. I go to a very large public university, so there are always new faces and new experiences. I love that I can experiment with different classes as well. I am currently taking some large lecture classes (300 people) like Greek Mythology, as well as smaller seminars (15 people).
Heinichen: I’ve LOVED Georgetown. When I graduated from CCDS, I thought I’d never get over leaving the place that was the center of my life for my first 18 years, and (as my sister will corroborate) I’ve more or less not come home since I left for Washington D.C. I remember college giving me a then-shocking amount of independence, so much so that there were times when I didn’t know what to do with myself. I could stay up all night watching House without my mother yelling at me, and I craftily designed each of my schedules thus far to never have class before 11:40 am. My experience so far has been definitely defined by the people I’ve met, who have become my college family, and the people I’ll maintain close relationships with for the rest of my life, including the people next to me in my classes and the group of friends on the hall who watch TV and bake when we don’t want to do homework. I like to tell people I’ve never had a bad day here. Just make sure you keep up with the work—it’s also a lesson in self-motivation.
2. What are some similarities and differences between CCDS and college?
Bonini: Michigan is very different from CCDS. First off, I walk everywhere. After the first week of school, my feet were killing me. However, that also means that many fun stores and restaurants are also walking distance from the dorms (Noodles, Inc. anyone?). Don’t even get me started on the constantly fluctuating weather. I do miss the awesome teachers at CCDS. It is a little more difficult to get to know your professors at a large college, unless you make the effort.
Heinichen: There is a lot more long-term work and fewer nightly assignments (though they can easily sneak back up on you if you’re not diligent). Also, as much as colleges like to brag about having low student-to-teacher ratios, for your first year it’s likely that you’ll have a few classes with a couple hundred of your closest friends, which was a weird adjustment from CCDS. And no one gets your jokes about Mr. and Mrs. Dunn.
3. What is your favorite moment from college so far?
Bonini: My favorite moments have always been going to Michigan football games (Hail to the Victors). On game weekends, I literally saw hundreds of thousands of fans decked out in Blue and Maize walking to the game. Although I wasn’t much of a football buff in high school, I live for Big Ten football now.
Heinichen: I work in a coffee shop which is open until 2 a.m. during weekdays (perfect for my caffeine addiction and love of staying up all night) and the night before Thanksgiving break when a bunch of us stayed in the store and watched Love Actually and hung out. That or 4th of July at Georgetown, which is epic in ways I can’t describe. Or those two times President Obama came to speak at Georgetown…
4. What extra-curricular activities do you do?
Bonini: I am a member of KGrams. We are pen pals and role models for underprivileged elementary school students in Detroit. I work in a Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Lab on campus. I am also in a Choir Ensemble, Habitat for Humanity, dabbled in breakdancing for a few weeks, and occasionally participate in a running club.
Heinichen: I’ve worked since my freshman year at the largest independent student-run company, which is worth about $4 million (weird, because I never thought I’d do anything with business) and recently got promoted to a one year term as Chief Operating Officer, in charge of our leases, business licenses, employees, health inspections, etc. It’s been an amazing opportunity—one I got involved in early on by being hired as a barista at one of our coffee shops. You can look up more info about it at www.thecorp.org. I also do New Student Orientation.
5. How does the work-load compare to CCDS’s?
Bonini: The work-load is about the same, but more reading and less “busy work.” CCDS did an amazing job getting me ready for college level tasks.
Heinichen: It’s about the same, actually, but in a different way. I’m grateful to CCDS for holding high academic standards, because a lot of kids had trouble adjusting to the amount of reading and the quality of writing that was expected of college students, but they were similar to CCDS’s expectations. The only thing that’s different is that the work is extended over long periods of time, like you’ll get 100 or 200 pages of reading for a week—and most of the time you won’t be quizzed on it, so if you get behind, finals time can easily be terrible. And papers are longer. A la Mr. Fossett’s junior paper (maybe not that long…).
7. How do you feel CCDS has prepared you for college?
Bonini: Because of the small class sizes, CCDS allowed me to feel comfortable sharing my ideas in class. This comfort carried on to college where I am constantly getting into debates and carrying on discussions. Although I don’t know most of my fellow students in my college, I still feel very confident in the classroom. CCDS also did an amazing job making a community. I do miss weekly announcements, recognizing every face in the hallway, and waving to Dr. Macrae. Although, the freedom that college provides is not bad either.
Heinichen: See above about the work amount —that’s what I’d say is the most significant preparation: Mrs. Dunn’s English class is very much on the mark of my college humanities classes. I wish CCDS had some sort of stats or econ class, because a lot of kids here had preparation for that in high school that we didn’t get the opportunity for. My experience with my classmates and their exposure to languages makes CCDS’s foreign languages department look very strong in terms of the comprehension and quality of teachers. And if you can find those professors that are really invested in their students, it’s a lot like the student-teacher relationship at CCDS. Because most CCDS students have a wide range of interests, the school is really good at teaching time-management skills and showing students how to design balanced schedules. And computer skills. I took my familiarity with the various Microsoft Office programs and knowledge of a lot of computer aspects for granted when I came here and some of my friends needed help with PowerPoint, or had never used anything other than Internet Explorer.