I first applied to the University of Tennessee back in October of my senior year in high school. I come from Virginia, where the competition to get into a state school is so high that too many students are forced to go out of state. I received my acceptance to the university less than a week after applying. The rolling decision process is extremely quick so long as you get your application in early. At the time, I had no intention of attending the university because I wanted to stay in state, but that was not going to happen. After being denied by four in state schools, I made the final decision to go to Tennessee where my brother was attending.

The orientation process was fairly simple and offered many helpful insights into the programs offered. But in my opinion, it was a process that could have been taken care of on one day instead of two. Many activities were boring and too summer camp-like. We played this game where our orientation leader would call out a body part and we had to find our partner and press those body parts together. You can guess the rest. Also, I was in a knee brace from a sports injury that had been fixed about two weeks before orientation. So I was unable to run around and my partner and I got kicked out of the game first. Great fun. Most of the orientation programs that are mandatory are good to attend. Any other program you can skip.

August 15, 2000 I got into my dorm, although no actual classes began until the 23rd. My mom signed me up for a learning community. The only advantage to being in a learning community is the fact that we got to move into the dorms two days before any other students. I will give it credit though because they do plan some nice trips to take such as white water rafting and I think there will be paintball in the spring, at least there was when my brother was in the community.

My main focus coming into college was to just get along with people and don't screw up. After about a month of being at Tennessee, that focus changed to making sure I had perfect grades so that I can try and transfer. It wasn't the people who made me decide this, but the actual academic challenge or lack of. I average one night of homework a week. But don't take me the wrong way, teachers do assign work, it's just not mandatory, at least that's how all my classes have gone. My english teacher knows that only one or two people read for class, but it doesn't matter. We don't even read real books, just little articles to help students learn to argue. It's easier than my eighth grade english class was. Every now and then, we have to write a paper, but we have two or so weeks to write a rough draft versus the one day I had to write a five page paper in high school. The labs I write for my biology class also don't compare to high school where we had twenty page labs due every two to three weeks. But I give my biology 130 class credit because the exams are challenging and I can't make perfect grades on them. I swear I can't get away from my first year of Spanish. The second year I took in high school was from a teacher who couldn't speak english and was only hired because he was a colombian drug refugee. My third year, the teacher didn't care. So now, at UT, I scored into the spanish 211 course and I don't have to go to class. I can just show up on test days and take it and I'd pass without any problems. I don't do that, but from showing up, I know that I could skip a whole lot more often. German is nice. This is the first year I've taken this course, and from what I've learned so far, I would say the class is solid.

I took 13 hours this semester just to make sure that I could handle the work. Now, I've signed up for the maximum hours of 18 for next semester so I can get as many classes done as possible before I transfer somewhere with more difficulty. Tennessee in comparison to many of my friends' schools is a joke. All my friends are in a panic about work and constantly working on some project or another, while I sit here and have the time to write this. My friends don't sleep. But, if you're looking for a school that will let you screw around, this is the place!

I really can't compare the tuition costs to other schools, but the tuition here seems fair. I think I pay 7800 to be out of state. My books were ridiculously expensive. For only taking four courses, my books cost over $500. Spanish is supposed to last me two semesters and German for three. I don't know about biology, and english is just another story. I actually wish we'd spent money to read at least one book.

To round out my story, I was a slacker in high school because high school doesn't matter. I figured where I ended up my first year would be a good beginning and I could build myself up from there, which I still believe. But I've also come to wish that I had studied just a little more or just a little at all so that I could have been accepted into a more challenging school. I never believed that for as tough as my high school was, I would ever appreciate the work load they gave us then. I also had people to compete with there. Here, I have no one to compete with and, therefore, I have to force myself to do just a little work at times because,otherwise, I would have no reason to do anything at all. And by no means are the people here the reason I want to leave. I get along with my roommate great, and most of the people I've met are in no way stuck up. I've heard bad things from the sorority scenes though. Apparently, the stereotypical sorority girls are alive and well. Also, if you're looking for diversity, look somewhere else. This is a predominantly white school, which is another reason I want to leave. It is maybe 10% black and probably less than 1% any other race.



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