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My Summer Experience: 5 Week College Program

Hey everyone!
I hope you all are doing well. I took a little break from blogging because I just wanted to relax because I'm officially done with school! So now that I am done with school, I really wanted to start doing a college series because I have learned a whole bunch of tips and tricks while being at school for 5 weeks. Now, I will tell you about my experience and things that I learned and all that stuff.

 Why I decided to do this summer bridge program:

Well as you know, I was severely sick during high school and because of that, I missed a lot of school and my grades went downhill. Now, I tried really hard with the SAT's, I even took it three times. But unfortunately, because of how bad my SAT scores were and my high school grades, I knew that I might not have been able to get into a 4 year college. So my guidance counselor told me about the summer bridge programs at different colleges. I applied to my top school's summer bridge program. I just had to check off the box on my application to say that I was interested. Then I got asked to come to the school and get interviewed. It was a one on one interview and he looked at my file and asked a couple of questions. It was a little intimidating but my interviewer made me feel really comfortable and then I began to relax. It took about two to three weeks for me to find out if I got accepted into the program.....and I did. I just want to put it out there that you learn a whole semester course in 5 weeks. It is extremely challenging, but totally worth it.

Preparing for the program:

I had to fill out a bunch of forms and I also had to go to orientation to be able to get my student id! :) My picture for my student id is awful because it was pouring that day and my hair looked all poufy and ugly. Let's just say that I looked like a big mess. So they sent a list of stuff that I should bring. I will do a whole list of items that you need in another blog post. Because there are a lot of necessities. Now we had to be at school Sunday night and then we leave Thursday afternoon.

Week 1: 

Week one was probably the hardest week for me. The reason why was because I was extremely home sick. Almost everyone in the program already knew each other and it was already pretty cliquey. I basically hung out with one person, Emily, and she is now one of my best friends. It was basically me and her throughout the whole program. Now classes started at 8 and we had to be at breakfast at 7:30. Classes would end at 5 and then we would go straight to dinner. As you can tell, we had an extremely hard and long week. I had four classes: Writing Workshop, Cultural Geography (my favorite class), Elementary Statistics, and First Year Success. Now because of this program, I got to earn 6 credits because of Cultural Geography and Elementary Statistics. Now, I absolutely loved my classes, I felt like I excelled in them, which was weird because I was always the dumb one in high school. But my biggest problem was socially. I had a lot of problems with my roommate. I will not go into details but we basically did not get along at all. I stayed in my room a lot the first week because I did not want to socialize. That is one of my biggest regrets was not socializing the first week because that would have seriously helped me make more friends.

Week 2: 

Week 2 was a lot better than week 1. Even though I balled my eyes out on the way to school, that was the only time I cried. Yay me! I began to branch out more and make more friends. I began spending more time with my neighbors and other people.

Week 3: 

Now this week was probably the most interesting week. The first thing that happened was I got nominated to be Ms. -. I can't say what the name is called because it says the program I went to. But basically there is a Mr and Ms. -. They are nominated by teachers and Mr and Ms. means that they show leadership skills and are hardworking. I was actually really surprised that I was nominated. That was the happy part of the week. Then at the end of the week, I found out someone stole my money and a bunch of my friend's money from our wallets. That was a wonderful experience. If you are going to college, bring a safe. Lock your door. Just be careful who you let in.

Week 4: 

By this week, everyone was so done. All people wanted to do was leave and just sleep. Because this program really knocked you out. You were constantly doing things and being active. I also wanted to mention a big thing if anyone is interested in a summer bridge program; you get noticed by your teachers and they see how hard working you are. Because of this program, I got recommended into the honors program! What?! So I definitely recommend doing a program like this because you get noticed. Plus you have professors and administrators helping you along the way and in the long run, they can write you great recommendation letters.

Week 5: 

THE LAST AND FINAL WEEK! This week was so hard to stay focused because everyone wanted to leave and go home. Also, we had a couple of finals. Everyone was in the lobby or in different areas studying and that is how more people got comfortable with each other. Definitely start study groups when you are in college. Big help!  And then we had awards night and.....I won Ms. -! Yay! I was really surprised and did not expect to win but I won and the rest of the week, everyone called me Ms.-.

So that was my experience! It was intense, it was a lot of work but it was totally worth it. Without this program, I would not have been recommended into the honors program, I would not have 6 credits, and I would not have a bunch of people who can help me succeed. I highly highly suggest doing a summer bridge program. It opened my eyes to what college will be like.

So here are some pictures:


Emily and I at the awards ceremony. Honestly, I do not know how I would have survived this program without her. 


This was so funny. So we were in First Year Success and it started to pour and it was lightening. So everyone was running to the cafe and we all got soaked. Then when we had to go back to the dorm, everyone started to wear trash bags as raincoats. Luckily, I had my raincoat in my bag! :)




This is me with my Ms.- trophy! :D So happy! 

My dress is from H&M. My shoes are from DSW, Kelly & Katie Brand. I have on my Pandora and Tiffany bracelet's. For my eyes, I used my Naked palette. On my lips I have Rimmel lip liner in Exposed and NYX Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee.

Carpe Diem,
Sophia






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