One down, Seven to go

As of about a week ago, it's official: I have passed my first semester of college.

As a freshman engineering student as yet unaffiliated with any particular engineering major, I was enrolled in a fairly standard 16 credits over the past semester, as follows:

Multivariable Calculus for Engineers: Typical multivariable course, as far as I could tell, but apparently designed to ruin any engineer’s GPA within months of starting college with its median grade of a B.  Minus.

Honors General Chemistry: Another introductory class.  The highlights would have to be lab (minus the part where we were expected to get our results within 0.7% of the actual value or lose points) and the fact that our professor had a demo for almost every lecture.  To be fair, the lecture he missed was about quantum mechanics, and I guess he didn't have anything completely unrelated prepared.

Intro to Chemical Engineering: Not your average intro to engineering class.  Leave your textbook in your dorm room, but be sure to bring your colored pencils and ruler.  Besides working on process design, mass and energy balances, and dimensional analysis, drawing straight lines and color coding were strongly emphasized.

Memoir and Memory: Even as engineers, we are required to take (and pass) two first year writing seminars.  The best way to sum up my feelings about engineers and English class: It could have been worse.

Beginning swimming: Part of Cornell’s graduation requirements is passing the swim test: jump into the deep end of the pool, swim 25 yards on your front, 25 on your back, and 25 any way you want.  As of four months ago, I could swim on my front, but any movement on my back was more likely to attract the lifeguard’s attention than get me to pass the swim test.  So I signed up for beginning swimming, suffered the freezing pool twice a week, and picked up enough to pass the swim test.

Engineering 1050: I’m pretty sure this has an actual name, but what it comes down to was that once a week, we met with our engineering advisor to listen to presentations about stress and grades, get our questions about engineering activities and clubs answered, and occasionally do something more fun.  In the best meeting we had, we took a tour of the clock tower, and at the end, I got to actually play one of the notes in the hour bells.  Definitely ranks in the top five in the hypothetical list of “Cool things that have happened to me since I came to Cornell.”

And so, I have completed what potentially amounts to 12.5% of my undergraduate career, in terms of time spent at Cornell.  In terms of credits, it’s more like 12.2%.  In terms of – never mind; I’ll stop now.