If you’re thinking about coming to CU Boulder or transferring into Leeds from another college at CU and are trying to see what your life might look like, here is what my day-to-day is as a supply chain management and marketing major with a creative technology and design minor. Do you think I could have any wordier degrees?
8 a.m.
I woke up and hit snooze until about 8:30. I have to drop my car off at the shop today, so I wake up my roommate and get dressed to do that. I check my email while waiting at the car shop and delete everything I don’t need for the day. I read a few emails from my professors and one about a prospective internship. It says that my resume and example images will be sent over to someone for a final review and I should hear back soon. It’s a good day already.
9 a.m.
I dropped my car off at the shop and am heading back to my house with my kind roommate who picked me up for my 9:30 online class, Web (you’ll never guess what that class is about). When I get back I make some toast and start to set myself up for class with my water, planner and laptop all ready to go.
I’m in class until 10:45, say “thank you” and have a few minutes to relax before the work starts again.
11 a.m.
Today is my first day back at my internship at Her Campus Media (yes, this website that you’re on right now!), and I start at 11. I greet everyone and catch up about how our breaks were. I’m only on for an hour today so I get to work making Instagram graphics and tracking each Her Campus chapter’s performance. I log off at noon and have some coffee and a bite to eat before my next class starts. Tuesday is my busiest day of the week, but the day goes so fast since I’m hardly ever waiting around for anything to begin.
Next, I make some hard-boiled eggs for myself and my roommate. I figured out the perfect amount of time to boil them if you like them the slightest bit jammy with a fully cooked white. You start with a cold egg, an inch of boiling water and you boil them for 10.5 minutes with an ice bath immediately after the timer goes off — delish!
Disclaimer: this will be way more cooked than you want it to be if you are not at altitude, which I learned the hard way when I went home to sea-level Pennsylvania and attempted soft-boiled eggs.
I got a call from my landlord checking in about some maintenance I requested and we figured out all the logistics to get what I need done. It’s sort of an awkward phone call, so I hang up quickly after we are done and curse myself for letting the silence go on for too long before saying goodbye.
12:30 p.m.
It’s time for my Operations Management course and I know that this class would be boring for most people, but it flies by and before I know it, it is the end of class at 1:45. We learned about competition, strategy, performance, and trade-offs, complete with a breakout room activity and class worksheet to turn in. My professor stays for a few minutes after class to make sure everyone understands what the worksheet is about, and I’m so glad I stayed because, without the extra explanation he gave, I would have done the whole thing wrong.
Before my next class I answered some Slack messages and crossed off the classes I’ve completed so far in my Muji planner. I also heated up some Hawaiian pizza (I don’t want to hear it – pineapple is delicious on pizza) from the other night to keep me going.
2 p.m.
It’s my last class of the day and it’s a recitation for a class called Image. We chat for a minute about how everyone felt about last week’s assignment and the TA asks if anyone had trouble. After that, she explains what this week’s assignment is and gives us until 3 p.m. to start working on it. It’s a bit weird doing an assignment with Zoom on in the background for the whole time, but I ended up just leaving my laptop in the other room while working on it. We had to take photos of 10 different items from an assigned list, one photo of each item that looked good, and one that looked bad.
It’s funny switching between business and art classes; as the vibe, assignments and grading are so vastly different between them. I walked around my neighborhood seeking inspiration for many of the photos (and taking a few, too!) and returned right before we were allowed to log off for the day. I ended up uploading all my images and turning in the project well before the due date of Friday and I was glad she had us stay on Zoom for that time, as I would’ve otherwise done other work or just hung out and here I was with a whole assignment completed three days early! It felt good.
3 p.m.
I started work on some administrative things I had to do for Her Campus CU Boulder before our meeting tonight. I searched for fun GIFS to add to the slide deck, messaged some members about their articles and began work on my article – this one here! I also began organizing summer internships that I am interested in because it is somehow that time of year already.
4:30 p.m.
I get up from my chair that I’ve been doing class all day in and make my bed because I forgot to when rushing out the door this morning, and it’s getting to the time of day where if my bed is not made I will crawl in there until dinnertime around 8. I’m trying to get much of my stuff for tomorrow done because I will intern from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow and don’t want to feel stressed about school when I have other things to do.
5 p.m.
I end up crawling into bed anyway and taking a little cat nap until 5:45 p.m. when I am awoken by my boyfriend knocking at the door to come borrow an onion.
6 p.m.
I log onto the HCCU Zoom a bit early to work out some kinks with a new activity we’re trying out and make my dinner at the same time. A classic grilled cheese and tomato soup are on the menu tonight, paired with the uber-fancy PBR.
7 p.m.
It’s time for the HCCU meeting with all the new members! I’ve been super excited about this meeting all week and seeing everyone’s beautiful faces, even if it is on Zoom for now. The meeting ended around 7:30 p.m. and I stayed after to help acclimate new members and talk about plans for the upcoming week.
8:30 p.m.
I headed over to the previously-mentioned boyfriend’s house for the night, and we did some work together for a few hours. He has two pet rats, Louis and Neil (believe me it’s not gross and they’re so cute and not smelly) so I played with them for a bit while I worked on some stuff for the week. Naughty Neil even stole a few Cheerios from the bedside table when I wasn’t looking. I logged attendance from the Her Campus meeting, wrote another article, fixed some spreadsheets, and updated my planner.
11:30 p.m.
At this point, it is time to wind down for the day. I completed all my tasks for the day and feel good about how everything went. I make a little snack to top off the day and unwind to an episode of “Ted Lasso.” After the episode (or two!), I brush my teeth and get ready for bed and the day ahead. Goodnight!
I have to say this because of course I do, but not every day is the same by any means, even if I have the same exact classes. It is also the beginning of the semester, so many of my classes are still easing into things. I hope my days are always this free, but I have a feeling that I am a bit too hopeful about that as a junior who has an internship and a possible second one coming soon.
Everyone’s schedule is so different, and it really comes down to what you want and what works best for you. I know friends that have both Mondays and Fridays off, but their Tuesday-Thursdays are jam-packed. I also know friends with classes Monday-Friday, but who only have those classes from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and just hang out the rest of the day. I personally prefer the former, but that doesn’t quite work for everyone.
My classes as a whole are pretty challenging, but since I am interested in the content at this point in college, I would say it works out pretty nicely. Getting to this point at Leeds hasn’t been quite as easy, though. The infamous mods really got me since I took them entirely online as an intra-university transfer and didn’t know anything about the business school. It is early to say, but I think I will have an easier time with my current classes than I did with the last two taking the mods and BASE.