College Life: BCIS Alumni |BCIS校友走世界之大學校園故事 – 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.

　　大學似乎看起來總是離我們很遙遠。但我知道總有一天我會去上大學，把我所熟知的一切都拋在腦后，這聽起來有些讓人害怕，因為要面對新的事物。隨著夏天的結束，是時候我要搬進新的宿舍了，同時和過去的一部分生活說再見。當我坐下來開始寫這篇文章的時候，我清醒地意識到我已經是一名大學生了，這樣的新身份讓我覺得有些小畏懼。我依稀感覺又“穿越“回了BCIS忙碌，熱鬧的校園，去完成我的作業和期末考試。我選擇了進修DP全科課程，這意味著我將必須參加TOK課程，寫EE(論文)，以及通過所有的期末考試。我選擇走這樣的路是因為我覺得它可以在申請大學上幫助我，做好準備。在經歷了DP之后，對于帕森設計學院的學習任務，我已經做好了充分的準備，這一點讓我十分開心。在大學預科階段，我有四個不同的項目要在期末完成，其中一個是寫一篇10頁的研究論文。我知道該如何去完成，也不懼怕它的長度要求。但是，像之前的一篇長篇論文一樣，我沒有那么的時間可以用來寫這篇10頁長的研究論文，雖然長度對于我來說已經不是什么難事。

　　在帕森設計學院讀預科的時候，我的很多作業都是和藝術課程相關，這讓我非常開心。每周我都會有“最后期限”來完成不同的任務，但是我都能夠處理好這些事情，這多虧了在樂成DP課程兩年的學習經歷，因為這兩段時期的工作量是一樣的。其實，我更愿意完成帕森設計學院的學習任務，因為都是和藝術，也就是我鐘愛的領域相關的，而高中時期需要完成的是不同科目，那時的我對英語和數學不太感興趣。在帕森，我的課程班型都是小班，每班大約只有20人，這和大家印象中典型大學里250人學生大班課程是大相徑庭的。我的這些課程和高中的課程相似，我可以及時地和教授溝通，他/她也可以幫助我創造出更好的作品。

　　DP課程的學習在我選擇大學專業時起了很大的作用。根據期末考試成績，我可以累計學分, 用來“兌換”大學不同課程的學分。實際上，在期末考試中我一共獲得18學分，這讓我在大學的學術生活輕松了很多。也正是如此，在之后我可以少修幾門課程，把更多的時間和精力放在我的專業課程中。同時，這些學分也讓我先于其他同學進行選課，但這也僅僅是我個人的經驗，不知道是否適用于所有人。

　　搬去紐約對于我來說是個非常大的挑戰。在到達之前，許多人告訴我這座“世界之城”將會帶給我很多樂趣，我將會十分享受在其中。我很喜歡這里，但是沒有人真正告訴過我這座城市將會給我的生活帶來多大的影響。面對這樣的變化每個人都有不同的應對方式，但是對于我來說適應新生活比我想象的要困難得多。當然，要是能有人提前告訴我，這個“變化的面積”有多大那就再好不過了 。整體來說，我很享受現在的大學時光，我覺得BCIS學習生涯已為我的大學生活早早地鋪平了道路。