I went into my first year of college like any other freshman: a mixture of nerves, excitement, and uncertainty about what the whole college thing was really about. But what made this different for me was that I had gone to boarding school during high school. So in a sense, college felt like just another year in the dorms but in a different school
I started my journey at Syracuse University as an environmental engineering major. I was thousands of miles from home, by my own choice, of course. For the longest time, I had always pictured myself going to college on the East Coast. Maybe it was due to visiting my sister in Boston when she was attending college there, or the college tours I had done, but I loved the idea. Looking back now, if my freshman self knew where I would be today, her mind would be blown.
At Syracuse, I made the most out of my time. I joined the SHPE chapter and the student orchestra. I even changed my major to civil engineering when I became interested in structures and design and declared a minor in Chinese since I had been taking classes since high school. I was ready to add a minor in architecture because I wanted to combine my interests in architecture and structural engineering. After realizing this wasn’t possible, I knew I had to make a decision. I would either have to change my major a second time to architecture or try to find another option. Knowing that I would regret not pursuing structural engineering alongside architecture, I began researching other institutions where this could be possible.
I found several programs that sounded like they would be a good fit for me, especially USC’s Civil Engineering Building Science. I worked on my transfer applications while I continued my engineering courses. At times balancing working on my applications with coursework was overwhelming, especially with the pressure of needing to achieve the best grades possible to make transferring a reality.
I continued making more friends and getting involved on campus. As my freshman year drew to a close I felt more confident and felt like I had learned a lot. The year ended on an interesting note: My roommate and I both got COVID during our finals week. Taking finals while experiencing the brain fog side effect of COVID was exhausting but we made the most of it and had some fun by using the DoorDash pass the university had given us to order food from places we hadn’t tried.
After finals, I packed up my things for the summer and headed back home to Austin, Texas for my internship. Thankfully, my dad was living in New York City for work at the time so we took a mini 5-hour road trip to the city before I flew back to Texas. I still remember walking on the High Line with my dad and sitting down by the Hudson Yards when I got a hopeful email from USC. By that time, I had almost forgotten about my transfer applications. I was focusing so much on my finals and midterms at the end of that year that this came as a surprise to me. I felt excited and a sense that something good was going to happen this summer. About 2 weeks later, I received my admission decision. I was ecstatic and couldn’t believe it!
Even though I knew I would miss my friends at Syracuse, they were all so happy for me. Even today, I still keep in touch with my freshman-year roommate and we laugh about how we finished our finals with COVID. I will always be grateful for my time at Syracuse because it helped me realize what I needed and led me to USC.
First winter at Syracuse. I had never seen this much snow!
