Ah covered grades. The part of Hopkins that everyone from graduate students to second semester freshmen will miss the most. There’s always some sort of rumor going around that the administration plans on getting rid of it, but luckily for the new freshmen, it hasn’t happened yet.
You will love covered grades. Covered grades is the best thing that has ever happened to you. Kiss the ground of your dorm floor that you are graced with the perfection that is covered grades. You will be in the library on the night before your first exam second semester crying with your friends that covered grades was only a four month deal.
I am not exaggerating.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t quite get the hang of what they should do with covered grades until the first semester is almost over. They might not realize that their classes are not like the ones they had in high school where you probably could get a B on an exam without even opening a book. Or they might not realize that you can still take pride in your grades first semester by making it on Dean’s List. It’s understandable – a million things are happening when you first arrive to Hopkins campus. Covered grades will get you through. But you should know the dangers of it.
Covered grades is your safety net. That’s what it’s designed for, to get you through the first semester of Hopkins so you can figure out how to study and how to write papers and how to approach life in general at this incredible school. But, you should use it in moderation. You should study. You should write that paper a few days before it’s due so you can edit it. Go to class every day. Pay attention, take notes, try to understand it. Don’t pretend like school isn’t happening just because you’re not required to get anything higher than a C-.
You’ll figure out pretty quickly that it’s not as easy as you think to get that grade. This isn’t high school. But that’s the real danger of it. The real danger is spring semester of freshman year, when you realize you have NO CLUE how to manage your time to get an actual decent grade for a class that actually matters now. The real danger is realizing you never learned anything first semester in Chemistry, and now you have to take Chem2 and you have no clue what’s going on. The real danger is having no idea what kind of paper this professor is asking of you because you just bullshitted your way through last semester to a passing grade. You don’t want that. Hopkins is stressful enough, you don’t want to start second semester of your freshman year feeling like you’re drowning.
That being said, take advantage of your safety net. Go to that formal on a Wednesday night. Hang out with your friends until three in the morning for no reason at all. Sleep on a Saturday until one in the afternoon. Try out different clubs and get a random job and play basketball at the rec center. Don’t stay in the library until it closes. Don’t cry over an exam you wanted to do better on. Don’t miss out on the fun parts of Hopkins. The rest of your college career you’ll be too busy to try out all the different things that you can do now. This is the time to do stupid things, to find your friends, and to figure yourself out (like your parents said before you left, have fun but not too much fun).
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