With about a semester left of college, I’ve been looking back on my experiences at DePauw and doing a lot of reflecting. I think it’s worth it to mention that my college experience didn’t turn out the way I had pictured it, but I still had a lot of wonderful experiences. For underclassmen that are still getting started on their college experience, here are some things I’m really glad I did during my four years.
- Started a Club
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My sophomore year, I started the Clay Club on campus, which is a ceramics club. One of the things I wanted to do in college was take a ceramics class or join a ceramics club, and my sophomore year I began to realize I wasn’t going to have time in my schedule to take a ceramics class and still graduate on time. I figured there was a ceramics club on campus, but there wasn’t, so I just started one myself. It’s something I’ve had fun doing, and it’s something that I’m really proud of!
- Studied Abroad
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I knew going into DePauw that being a student athlete would make it more difficult to study abroad. But luckily, DePauw offers May Term study abroad courses, where you get to go somewhere for about a month instead of a whole semester. I had the opportunity to visit Northern Ireland and Ireland with the PeacePlayers program and it was an absolutely amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone!
- Changed my major
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I came into DePauw thinking that I was going to be a Kinesiology major and go on to be a physical therapist. But I took an intro to Kinesiology class my freshman year and really did not enjoy it. At the same time though, I was taking a communication class that I really enjoyed. I sat down with my professor for that class and talked about the communication major and what kinds of job opportunities I could pursue after I graduated. I realized that being a communication major was something I would enjoy more than being a kinesiology major, and there were many fields I could go into post-grad: broadcasting, human resources, marketing, and many others, so I switched! Now, looking at jobs to apply for, I couldn’t be happier I made that switch.
- Rushed a sorority
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DePauw does the rush process in the winter, rather than in the fall when the new freshmen first come to campus. I was on the fence about rushing for a while during the first semester, but one of my friends convinced me to go through the process with her, and so that’s what I did. I found the rush process kind of stressful and not very much fun, and wound up choosing independent life rather than greek life. But I’m still really glad that I rushed and learned about the different houses on campus. I think if I hadn’t rushed, I would have always wondered what would have happened if I had. But I have all the information now, and I know that I’m happier with my experience as an independent on campus. Greek life definitely seems like it has its perks, but I know I’m in the right place.
- Didn’t date my freshman year
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Okay, I know that everyone’s situation is different. For me, dating my freshman year would have been a bad choice! Now, if you know me, you know that I love my boyfriend. We met and started dating my sophomore year. But if you know me, you also know that I wasn’t ready to be dating anyone my freshman year. As an out-of-state student, I didn’t know anyone coming into DePauw, and I needed to make friends. I was also learning how to balance school with academics, and for part of the year, I was up in the air about my major. I think if I had tried to date, I wouldn’t have been able to put in enough effort to make any relationship work, so I’m glad that I didn’t date my freshman year.