-Florida New college + Birth play
I went to a college that (supposedly) sounded like STAC, the New College of Florida, during the Columbus day weekend. My Dad and I flew down to Florida, but my Mom had to stay behind because she had work.
Before taking the college tour, my Dad found out that the college was hosting a play at their theatre, so we went to go see it (and also see college life before touring around). After watching the play I took a few notes:
Birth the play
-great acting (they...really threw themselves into giving birth...there was even a scene where an actress breast fed her child on stage)
-promoted vaginal natural birth vs. hospital birth
-Immediate reaction after seeing the play: I WANNA HOLD A BABYYYY(there was a baby behind me that was sooo cute)
-The music was a bit loud, it might have been because I was right next to the drummer, but I liked that it was mostly live (some scenes had tracks played from the speakers, but at other times a drummer played)
-At times the play got immature "Having a baby is like taking a poo", but there were serious times when things got very emotional such as the scene when one of the mothers had a traumatic time at the hospital (she didn't want a c-section, but the doctors forced it on her)
-check if the author is a girl or boy
-The show used minimal props (literally stacked colored crates, exercise balls, chalk, and some hospital gowns)
After the show my Dad and I went to the cafeteria area and ended up talking to a 4th year student. She was really friendly and happened to be in a bio major, or study of concentration as the college calls it. She also happened to be from New York (it was weird...all of the people we met on the first day coming into Florida were from New York!)
We talked about how the college was, and it seemed interesting. In New College, you can focus on one area, or else take classes that interest you. You choose whatever classes you want in the contract system. You also set your goals for the classes, and even set how many classes need to pass in order to get through the quarter. However at the end of four years, you have to write a thesis in order to graduate; the thesis can be on any topic you choose, but you have to get a teacher to mentor you (during the tour we saw the thesis room, which showed theses all the way from when the college began, and in the room student-written books lined all of the walls!) It sounded a lot like last year's STAC 4th quarter.
I was a little afraid of having too much freedom (during that time I was working on the extended project, and having no real guidelines on the subject scared me) but I also heard from other students that if you go into science at the school things are a little less free. (On the other hand, I didn't like the sound of having less flexibility because I wanted to choose the classes I want to do and not be restricted by required classes like in other colleges...)
Two days later I took a tour of the college. I liked how the campus was bright and airy, and near a great beach, but Florida was really hot that day, so walking around was a big turn-off. Another thing that I didn't like was that the architecture wasn't that colorful...stepping a little outside of the college was a neighborhood of houses, and those houses were more bright than even the student dorms!
However, I really liked the marine biology laboratories. They had fish tanks from every environment in the surrounding water! After the tour I got to sit in a science class. It was more of a lecture that day, so it was a little boring (even the teacher warned me before the class started), but the subject of the class seemed interesting (the class was a course on how events in history shaped the world of science ex. in times of the plague there were more advances in medicine than in other areas). I hadn't thought about science and history in that way before, and it was a different connection to look at!
Also, after the class some students went up and introduced themselves. They seemed really friendly and helpful, and I learned a lot about different clubs and activities the college had...and random stuff like how the cafeteria food sucks and the lake by the school has bioluminescence (another fact that was nice was that the students were all first years, but they already seemed like they were comfortable)!
Overall, I liked the college's freedom in classes and the openness of the students, but the weather was hard to deal with and it's far away from home...New York. I'll definitely keep this college in mind, but it didn't seem to completely...click. I'm not quite sure what I want, but I think I'd like to stay around NYC...also, I'm looking to major in Biology, minor in art, have an english elective and be in a band.
(I'm worried that I won't find the right college...I suppose I'll have to do more searching, then time will tell!)
New College the College
After the show my Dad and I went to the cafeteria area and ended up talking to a 4th year student. She was really friendly and happened to be in a bio major, or study of concentration as the college calls it. She also happened to be from New York (it was weird...all of the people we met on the first day coming into Florida were from New York!)
We talked about how the college was, and it seemed interesting. In New College, you can focus on one area, or else take classes that interest you. You choose whatever classes you want in the contract system. You also set your goals for the classes, and even set how many classes need to pass in order to get through the quarter. However at the end of four years, you have to write a thesis in order to graduate; the thesis can be on any topic you choose, but you have to get a teacher to mentor you (during the tour we saw the thesis room, which showed theses all the way from when the college began, and in the room student-written books lined all of the walls!) It sounded a lot like last year's STAC 4th quarter.
I was a little afraid of having too much freedom (during that time I was working on the extended project, and having no real guidelines on the subject scared me) but I also heard from other students that if you go into science at the school things are a little less free. (On the other hand, I didn't like the sound of having less flexibility because I wanted to choose the classes I want to do and not be restricted by required classes like in other colleges...)
Two days later I took a tour of the college. I liked how the campus was bright and airy, and near a great beach, but Florida was really hot that day, so walking around was a big turn-off. Another thing that I didn't like was that the architecture wasn't that colorful...stepping a little outside of the college was a neighborhood of houses, and those houses were more bright than even the student dorms!
However, I really liked the marine biology laboratories. They had fish tanks from every environment in the surrounding water! After the tour I got to sit in a science class. It was more of a lecture that day, so it was a little boring (even the teacher warned me before the class started), but the subject of the class seemed interesting (the class was a course on how events in history shaped the world of science ex. in times of the plague there were more advances in medicine than in other areas). I hadn't thought about science and history in that way before, and it was a different connection to look at!
Also, after the class some students went up and introduced themselves. They seemed really friendly and helpful, and I learned a lot about different clubs and activities the college had...and random stuff like how the cafeteria food sucks and the lake by the school has bioluminescence (another fact that was nice was that the students were all first years, but they already seemed like they were comfortable)!
Overall, I liked the college's freedom in classes and the openness of the students, but the weather was hard to deal with and it's far away from home...New York. I'll definitely keep this college in mind, but it didn't seem to completely...click. I'm not quite sure what I want, but I think I'd like to stay around NYC...also, I'm looking to major in Biology, minor in art, have an english elective and be in a band.
(I'm worried that I won't find the right college...I suppose I'll have to do more searching, then time will tell!)
