Jump into a special made Time Machine.. and Transport yourself to The Summer of 1994.

On the Steps of her house Saying Tearful good byes to Friends from High school a Young girl ,aged 18, Hops into her car and Is Looking Headlong into her future.

Okay I am being a little Melodramatic but yall get the picture. I was 18 when I bid my friends and Family goodbye and traveled away to school, Well 2hours away.. but WORLDS away from where I had been.

MY STORY

Due to some Classes and my HS curriculum I was Officially a Junior in college. Yep you heard right. Just freshly out of High school with NO COLLEGE under my belt and I was faced with the Choosing a Major, FIGURING OUT MY LIFE FAST, and Deciding what I was going to do with real LIFE. I being your average 18 had NO CLUE, but Boy was I about to FIND out. and I was going to have to do it in the summer! (in Florida you have to take 2 summers of study.. and Since I was already 2 years behind.. Catchup had to begin in the BEGINNING...)

Because I felt that I would have no classes in common with most of the inhabitants of the dorms, so weeks Prior I had to venture to Gainesville and find an apartment close enough to schools that fulfilled my "I aint got a Car" situation. And I found it. It was DIRECTLY across from TIGERT off of 13th street. and it was called (drum roll please)... THE COURTYARDS .

The Courtyards was VERY dorm like in the way it was run.. for $350 a month you shared a Reasonably largish Townhouse with 3 of your Closest STRANGERS. You filled out a paper asking for preferences and Your likes.. (i wrote, no drugs, No neat freaks, No country musics and No overly religious zealots)... In the summer I had a Girl that Invited her Friends over for a nightly pot smoking Marathon.. and then on SUNDAY.. Blasted me for not finding a church... In the Fall I had a 3 new roommates, A pot smoker, A neat freak/religious zealot, and a Future Country music Star.. SO I JUST assume I must have filled out the FORM wrong or something.. or they were trying to do a "REAL WORLD" style living arrangements. I also shared this Townhouse with 4 boys.. (one who puked in my room.. email me if you want details on the "COURTYARDS" cause I COULD GO ON!!)

I should have gone to the dorms, My Dorm Friends were LIVING like KINGS in most cases.. so they shared BAsic Living quarters, They just changed if they didnt like the roommates (a luxury I didnt have) and They made friends with kids who had cars (NOT ONE OF MY ROOMMATES HAD A CAR not that I would call them friends either), and the usually had a private bathroom that they shared with another room.. Okay Yech.. but considering I was Sharing my bathroom with 3 girls and 4 guys and who else was showing up for the party.. YECH! And the Room Sizes in the Dorms WERE LARGER than what I HAD (6x8 room with a built in desk that took up 2 feet of precious space.. Slept UNDER my desk just to have room for my CHAIR).. and they didnt pay electric, cable or utilities.. oh they had the high life.

BUT the COURTYARDS had the Parties. but even those became Stupid when you could never escape them. I guarrentee that most of the inhabitants of my APT complex where alcoholics by the time they left (if they left)

Okay off that story!! Dont move into the COURTYARDS!

The School


Coming from a High school graduating class of 200 and Having my first class in college equalling 800... was QUITE a shock. If you plan on going to UF you will have to recognize that this could be good if you dont require PUSHING to get things done, or Bad if you are lazy.. (I am Lazy.. so once I realized that the Prof didnt know I was even alive.. I didnt show up longer than to turn in an assignment (on the rare occasion I had an assignment..) Generally you had 2 tests (mid-term and Final) and ONE Paper.

English: classes were smaller and more intimate 30-40 kids in them and they took roll and you actually had more exams in there depending on the prof. WONDERFUL selections of choices in what english you would take!

Math: classes were usually 300-900 people affairs for the lectures and then once a week you met with an Graduate assistant or what ever shmoe bother to show up (my 2 math classes.. My Prof never came to the lectures he was working on something.. and my GA taught the class... and In the Ga sessions.. We had a different guy weekly cause the GA was working on his lecture for the class..) Well This just depends on if you like Math but I found that That It was OKAY...

I didnt take a history..:) *WOO HOO*

Sciences : Great overall in choices, but you are required so many even if you are going for a degree in management. The classes for the lectures were largesh 150-200, but the Labs were considerably smaller groups 25-40.

the bad

Science: Okay I didnt take Low Frosh Level Sciences.. I was bounced directly into the 4000 level sciences (Thanks HIGH SCHOOL! *snide chuckle*)
picture this A class filled to the brim, in a small auditorium...Physics of LIGHT and Sound... the small Teacher comes out and Draws something on the board.. and with a Grunt starts to Talk.. slowly the Audience glances at each other we realize that we are in Deep Poop... this professor was ATTEMPTING to speak English and failing miserably.. and with noone to translate we were all DOOMED!.. the next day the auditorium was half full, the next quarter full, and it never got better... I still look at my notes on Physics of Light and Color and I noticed that I drew LOTS of graphs but Never actually said what they were.. The final was graded on a CURVE!!>. if you attempted the questions AT all you passed. because no one GOT any right!...

I am sure that is not typical and I know it isnt.. but be aware that that happens.. DROP that class..if i had had anyclue on how to do that I would have.

Told you the little story about Math...

OH WALKING Be in good shape and prepare to run if you mis-schedule yourself.. The Campus is BIG!! Make sure that you KNOW where you are going or you could be lost.

The Campus is beautiful, but there is alot of crime that occurs on it. So Being CAREFUL is definetly on the LIST of things TO BE! I had a class that met at 9:00ish and let out at 10ish and I walked by myself 20 min to get back home.. in the dark.. It was Really SCARY.

This is a big bad... You are known only by a number to anyone.. everything is by your social security number.. you literally write at the top of exams Sara Sawyer 555-55-5555 THat is a bit demeaning. but you get used to it.

Getting to anyone in the ADMIN department took a court order and tons of paperwork.. Oh the fun!

the good
I did take some AWESOME classes that were wonderfully taught by great Teachers (not all professors are Bad.. but some GA's are GREAT)

I took one Class that Changed my life a class called "Exceptional People" okay sounds like a history class doesnt it.. But it was a class about Disabled people. This professor Knew our names.. we had a seating chart groups of 20 were assigned to a GA. Not amazing?? WE were a Class of 700 people! He Knew just by looking out in the auditorium how many where missing and who they were. He Used a Microphone and a Video camera to display up on the screen. He walked around and Talked to us all about OUR personal experiences and stuff. We walked around campus with our hands Behind our heads (we were amputees that day..everything including Writing your name had to be done with feet and mouth..), we learned signlanguage and One 2 hour session was SILENT and we had to design dresses and display them infront of the class using NO words with our partners.. only gestures, Blindfolded walks around campus proved VERY hard.

That Class made me join the STUDENT COUNCIL for the DISABLED and I stayed with that until I left. in 1995.

The Activities and Clubs you can Join are endless, Fraternities, Honor societies, political parties, Foreign language clubs.. you name it they have it.

My English Classes were Beyond Compare, they were Diverse and just Wonderful! Bible as Literature was my Favorite followed by Early Books, but the worst I had was Chaucer in Middle ENGLISH.. (if I had wanted to take a foreign language I would have... avoid that one) But they were great you got what you needed and WHAT you wanted!

The Education Department is GREAT, 5 year program and you graduate with a Masters! who can beat that!

Philosophy courses are Wonderful also, there is so much to learn about different Ideals and Different Cultures who can turn down a philosophy course?? I didnt turn one down and I didnt regret it either!

My Other Sciences Classes were Beyond the Pale, they were just Great and Informative and I looked forward to what I would learn.. (physics of light and color was a different story)

My Math courses were dependent on the Professors and Ga's on whether or not I found them useful or Great. I am good at Math, calc, Diffy Q (deferential Equations) were decent but Statistics 2 my professor was the WORST!(of course that was my first semester at UF.. I wasnt Prepared)

TELEGATOR was the best thing INVENTED!! (when I started you stood in line.. Your sheet filled out if that class was full... YOU had to go back to the END of the line and START OVER.. it took me 4 hours to get 5 classes.. that were eventally changed by the time I got the schedule in the mail a few weeks later.. then I had to DROP add the same way..) Tele Gator was a godsend.. Just Call and GO!!

THE WALK okay I know I mentioned it in the "bad" area.. but It kept me in great shape.. *especially after I figured out how to schedule myself.. the walk wasnt that bad* At FSU the walk is HILLY at least at uf it is relatively Level :)

OVERALL

All in all the schools Academics were wonderful but the professors generally didnt care about you or what you were doing. And because I was SO young it took me a while to adjust to that.

The Dorms (FROM WHAT I SAW.. I didnt live there..) were GREAT! Close to campus (the majority) and Easy living.. roomates are always a pain but no electricity bill would be nice!

I enjoyed my Time at UF I just wish I had had more time there. But Then again I think I would have STARTED out in a Smaller school and work up. there is something to say about getting Priorities in order before moving on. UF is a party school, I was not ready for that so I lost a few sememsters, but I made up for them! And made Wonderful friends that are So diverse in nature and careers that I just marvel at them :)


The campus is beautiful and the people are great!


In Conclusion

If you choose to go to UF.. Understand this, you are a number, you are one of many and you are on your own.

If you do things correctly people will see past the number, You will make MANY friends and you will find ALOT of independence and You will Stand on your own and survive.

and MAKE SURE YOU SCHEDULE THINGS RIGHT!!! you dont want to be running from the quad to the education building in that 15 min between classes :):)

and avoid the early morning ones.. YECH.

And Of Course I forget the Sports... THE GATORS ROCK!!!!

GOOOO GATORS!!!

"WE are the boys of old florida.. F L O R I D A... Where the Girls are the Fairest and the boys are Squariest in all of the U S A...."






Recommended: Yes