College Life: BCIS Alumni |BCIS校友走世界之大学校园故事 – Mimi Guan

　　College always seemed like such a far distance away. It always seemed like such a daunting thought that I would one day go off to university and leave everything I knew behind. As summer ended, and it was time for me to move into my new dorm, I knew a part of my life was over. As I sit down and write this, it still scares me that I am a university student. I still feel as though I should return to the loud hallways of BCIS, finishing off assignments and studying for final exams. I chose to do the full DP diploma, which meant I had to take TOK, write an EE, and take all my final exams. I chose to take this route because I felt it would help prepare me for the workload in university. I can gladly say that after experiencing the DP, I am fully prepared for the workload Parsons gives me. For my foundation year, I have four different final projects, one of which is to write a 10-page research paper. Something I know how to do and am not afraid to do because of the extended essay. Unfortunately, I don’t have as much time to work on it as I did with my extended essay, but writing such a huge paper isn’t foreign to me anymore.

　　For my foundation year at Parsons, a lot of my assignments are art bases, which is something I really enjoy. I constantly have deadlines that I have to meet each week, but I am able to handle the rush because I feel as though I had the same amount of work constantly due in the final years of DP. I actually prefer the work I do here since nearly all my assignments are art based, as opposed to the different subjects I had to tackle in high school that I wasn’t so interested in, like English or math. My classes are also quite small, with only around 20 people in each. It is not like a typical university where there are 250 students in one lecture. The classes are much like the classes back in high school where I get to know my professor and my professor is able to help me create my best work.

　　Taking the full DP program also helped me a lot with my course choices in university. With the grades I received for my final exams, I was able to earn transfer credits for different courses. I was able to earn a total of 18 credits from my final exams, which made my life easier in university. Because of that, I am able to take less courses in the future and concentrate more on my course work. It also gives me an advantage with registering for classes earlier than everyone else because I have a certain amount of credits already. However, this is just my personal experience at university.

　　Moving to New York has been a big change. Before arriving, many people told me how much fun I would have here and that I would have the time of my life in such a famous city. Although I love it, no one has really talked about how much of a toll this change would have on my life. Everyone deals with change differently, but I found adjusting to my new life much more difficult than I expected. One thing I wish someone prepared me better for was how significant this change would be. Overall however, I am really enjoying university life and I feel as though BCIS has thoroughly prepared me for university.

　　大学似乎看起来总是离我们很遥远。但我知道总有一天我会去上大学，把我所熟知的一切都抛在脑后，这听起来有些让人害怕，因为要面对新的事物。随着夏天的结束，是时候我要搬进新的宿舍了，同时和过去的一部分生活说再见。当我坐下来开始写这篇文章的时候，我清醒地意识到我已经是一名大学生了，这样的新身份让我觉得有些小畏惧。我依稀感觉又“穿越“回了BCIS忙碌，热闹的校园，去完成我的作业和期末考试。我选择了进修DP全科课程，这意味着我将必须参加TOK课程，写EE(论文)，以及通过所有的期末考试。我选择走这样的路是因为我觉得它可以在申请大学上帮助我，做好准备。在经历了DP之后，对于帕森设计学院的学习任务，我已经做好了充分的准备，这一点让我十分开心。在大学预科阶段，我有四个不同的项目要在期末完成，其中一个是写一篇10页的研究论文。我知道该如何去完成，也不惧怕它的长度要求。但是，像之前的一篇长篇论文一样，我没有那么的时间可以用来写这篇10页长的研究论文，虽然长度对于我来说已经不是什么难事。

　　在帕森设计学院读预科的时候，我的很多作业都是和艺术课程相关，这让我非常开心。每周我都会有“最后期限”来完成不同的任务，但是我都能够处理好这些事情，这多亏了在乐成DP课程两年的学习经历，因为这两段时期的工作量是一样的。其实，我更愿意完成帕森设计学院的学习任务，因为都是和艺术，也就是我钟爱的领域相关的，而高中时期需要完成的是不同科目，那时的我对英语和数学不太感兴趣。在帕森，我的课程班型都是小班，每班大约只有20人，这和大家印象中典型大学里250人学生大班课程是大相径庭的。我的这些课程和高中的课程相似，我可以及时地和教授沟通，他/她也可以帮助我创造出更好的作品。

　　DP课程的学习在我选择大学专业时起了很大的作用。根据期末考试成绩，我可以累计学分, 用来“兑换”大学不同课程的学分。实际上，在期末考试中我一共获得18学分，这让我在大学的学术生活轻松了很多。也正是如此，在之后我可以少修几门课程，把更多的时间和精力放在我的专业课程中。同时，这些学分也让我先于其他同学进行选课，但这也仅仅是我个人的经验，不知道是否适用于所有人。

　　搬去纽约对于我来说是个非常大的挑战。在到达之前，许多人告诉我这座“世界之城”将会带给我很多乐趣，我将会十分享受在其中。我很喜欢这里，但是没有人真正告诉过我这座城市将会给我的生活带来多大的影响。面对这样的变化每个人都有不同的应对方式，但是对于我来说适应新生活比我想象的要困难得多。当然，要是能有人提前告诉我，这个“变化的面积”有多大那就再好不过了 。整体来说，我很享受现在的大学时光，我觉得BCIS学习生涯已为我的大学生活早早地铺平了道路。