A Day In The Life Of A Freshman At UW Madison
Freshman year is so exciting, but it can also be challenging. Every college comes with its own unique challenges and has its own quirks. UW Madison is no exception. Keep reading to find out what a day in the life of a freshman at UW Madison is like!
It’s 9:45, class starts at 9:55, and you just woke up.
This is the third time your alarm hasn’t gone off– or maybe you’re “accidentally” snoozing it in your sleep… No time to fuss with technology now because you’re SO late. Again. Mental note: you’re on your last pair of underwear, so looks like tonight is laundry night.
Luckily, at this point, you have a general idea of where you’re going.
Week one consisted of wandering around with your face in your phone screen, trying to hide the fact that you’re on the My UW app looking at your course map like all of the other freshman at UW Madison. That being said, MAJOR props to you for finally figuring out the Humanities Building. I bet your tour guides at SOAR forgot to mention that you’d have classes in what can essentially be considered a maze. Classes, per usual, go by at an agonizingly slow pace. Suddenly you realize it was just a few months ago you were sitting at school from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m and your three fifty-minute lectures don’t seem so bad anymore.
Lunchtime eventually comes around and here, the possibilities are endless.
If you’re feeling like you could consume your the equivalent of your body weight in food and still not be satisfied, you are not alone. Why does college make you feel so hungry, like, ALL THE TIME? It’s a good thing you can find almost anything you’re craving on campus. Freshman: in the spirit of “trying new things,” don’t be afraid to ditch Gordon’s and venture out once in a while! The same five food stations in the cafeteria can get really old, really fast. The walk from your dorm to State Street is definitely worth it, especially if it means getting to eat a spring roll the size of your face.
Among the many things you left behind in high school – ex’s, P.E. class, questionable clothes you bought and wore one time – homework is unfortunately not one of them.
The only difference is that you no longer have teachers or parents nagging you to do it. College is fun, but it’s also expensive, so make sure you’re putting the thousands of dollars you’re spending on tuition to good use. “Finding a balance between school and fun” seems to be the ultimate challenge in college. That being said, develop some good ratios to keep you motivated- two hours of homework:one hour of Netflix, twenty pages of reading:one insomnia cookie, etc.. If that can’t keep you focused, try locking yourself in a cell in the basement of Memorial Library- that will probably scare you into getting some work done.
Lucky for you, it’s Thursday, and at Madison, Thursday is the new Friday.
If you made the rookie mistake of scheduling an 8:50 a.m. on Friday morning, you’ve learned your lesson. Going out during your first year at college involves a lot of trial and error, though, so brace yourself.
You know you’re a freshman when scrambling to try to figure out whether you’re going to State Street, Langdon, or College Court takes up half of your night.
Without freshman year, there would be nothing to laugh about looking back on your four years of college. As a freshman at UW Madison, you can literally learn something new everyday. You probably won’t get the hang of things right away, and you’ll definitely make plenty of mistakes, but it’s all part of the experience. You win some, you lose some, but you get to spend the next four years at UW Madison, and that’s already huge W.
