For the sake of a grade and practice in rhetoric, I will pretend that I like Freshman Academy...

Freshmen entering the college scene can sometimes feel lost, misplaced, confused, and without purpose. Though the university can set up any number of student orientation programs and print any number of helpful pamphlets, something else may be required to help students feel at home and be excited about the amazing opportunity they have to attend college. At BYU, incoming freshmen are offered this opportunity through Freshman Academy--a specialized learning community that links the new kids on campus together by providing them with housing together and by scheduling them in the same classes. BYU is a big place... there are lots of students, lots of buildings, losts of things to do, but through Freshman Academy students are awarded the opportunity to live and work together. Also, the people in your dorm and in your classes are also in your ward! Thanks to Freshman Academy, students are able to become acclimated more quickly to college life. Also, Freshman Academy requires its students to take a University 101 class which is geared at helping the student understand what it means to be a disciple-scholar and why service to community, church, and Christ is so important in conjunction with great scholarship. Freshman Academy also helps students by providing them with free student planners (wish I'd known that before I bought my own) and admission to campus events related to classes in their envelope. Overall, Freshman Academy is an amazing program that helps freshmen adjust to their new environment during their first semester on campus by providing them with housing and classes together, as well as helping instruct them in the ways of a disciple-scholar.

W&R 150-014

I am so grateful to be an BYU... a place where I know the Lord wants me to be. I have met lots of great people, and I have lots of great experiences even though it is only the first week. One of the great frustrations to me right now is the Freshman Academy. The only reason that I signed up for it was because my cousin and I were told that we would have a better chance of getting a room together if we did. Unfortunately, due partly to my bad planning, I didn't sign up in time for an envelope so I ended up in a humanities envelope when I'm really a science major. I was planning on double minoring in French and English, but because of my envelope classes, I didn't enough space left to take French 101. And I couldn't drop any of my envelope classes or I would lose my housing. The rules of Freshman Academy are uninviting and entirely too strict... if I could do it over again, I would not have chosen to participate in Freshman Academy. Also, I got a 5 on the AP English Literature and Composition test, so in theory, I shouldn't have to take an introductory college level writing course. But freshman writing was part of my envelope so there was nothing I could do about it! I know that I will have good experiences in my academy classes, but I still wish that I didn't have to take them because they're repeating things I've already learned and they have prevented me from minoring in French.

Okay... so I have a blog... how exciting!