Life is slowly starting to seem more normal. Campus has opened back up, familiar faces are back on campus and students have reunited with their friends yet again. But how does campus look from a freshman perspective? With Quest Week and classes being mostly online, how are the freshman making friends?
“There are not as many events so we have to come up with more creative ways to meet people,” says Madison Head, a freshman on the women’s golf team.
Head has some unconventional ideas for ways that freshmen could get more involved.
“I wish that we could have a version of quest week again, but have it be in person instead of online,” said Head. “I feel like a lot of people make friends that way, and we didn’t get to experience it.”
With out a doubt, Covid-19 has affected the social life the class of 2024. Sadly, that’s not the only way that the novel coronavirus has affected new students.
Karly Falanga, another freshman on the women’s golf team, has struggled more with the academic side of “Zoom University” than the social side.
“Classes are a lot harder when they are taught through zoom. I feel like I’m teaching myself,” says Falanga.
Upperclassmen are in more specific courses with smaller class sizes, so they get more in-person classes. The freshman are primarily all online or in cohorts, attending class every other week. Not having the in-person class experience may affect grades and GPA’s drastically.
Being a freshman in college during a pandemic is not easy. However, the obvious setbacks that come from a very strange and remote year, Head says there are positives as well.
“It’s better than not being on campus at all or doing fully online school,” said Head. “And everyone has made more of an effort to be friendly and outgoing.”
In the first few weeks of this semester, the freshman have already had a lot of obstacles, and yet have shown great persistence and flexibility. They move forward optimistically hoping to see a smoother semester in the spring.