The Program for the Exceptionally Gifted and Early College Academy attract middle school and high school students to matriculate to Mary Baldwin College early. To an outsider, that might seem like a great thing, but being a minor on a campus chock full of legal adults can be an interesting experience.
1. During orientation, you may or may not feel like you’re spouting out encyclopedia excerpts to the rest of the incoming freshman class.
Cheering “Pericles, Sophocles, Peloponnesian war; X-squared, Y-squared, H2SO4; Cosine, Tangent, Secant, Line; Three point one four one five nine” isn’t the best way to make friends with the TRADS (traditional students).
2. You’re held captive in your room from 7-10PM every weeknight of the first semester.
Yes, you’re a slave to study hours. Unless you’re an ECA, in which case you get off scot-free. Lucky dogs.
3. You’re safely tucked in bed by about 12 AM every night.
The 11 o’clock curfew for PEGs and 12 o’clock curfew for ECAs is an object of Early College hatred by the first week of classes.
4. The Sign In/Sign Out Computer is your worst enemy.
Imagine this: you wake up late for class, have five minutes to throw on clothes, grab your backpack, and pick up breakfast. Once you finally make it to the door, you remember that in order to leave the PEG Building, you have to turn your butt around and sign out with the time you’ll be back and a detailed description of where you’ll be when you’re gone. Safety first, children!
5. You did something wrong, and by the time you returned to your dorm, PEG staff already knew the play-by-play.
Think you can party with TRADS? Think again (They’ll rat your ass out in a second).
6. The trek from the dorm to the dining hall feels like a hike to the top of Mount Everest.
The PEG dorm is at the very bottom of the large, never-ending hill that is the Mary Baldwin campus. Each step is a journey in and of itself.
7. The universal look you get from TRADS when they find out you’re an Early College student
You would think that VWILs (Virginia Women’s Institution of Leadership) would understand the isolation of being in a special program, but they look at you with equal disdain.
Still, no matter what, Early College students stick together. There may be times when TRADs get them down, but experiencing everything together makes time at Mary Baldwin an amazing experience.