VIEW E R
R
2016-2017 schedule revealed
P3
Students react to new seven-day cycle of 60- to 80-minute classes.
Bouncing Back
P13
Girls’ soccer finishes 6-1, earns second seed on the road to SPC.
What’s Inside News Features Sports Centerspread
2 4 9 10-11
Culture Opinions Odds & Ends......... Photostory
14 16 19 20
ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | SJSREVIEW.COM | 2401 CLAREMONT LANE · HOUSTON, TX 77019 | VOLUME 67 · ISSUE 4 · FEBRUARY 10, 2016
Universified ADJUSTING to
T
he rumor goes that college is easier than St. John’s. But like most rumors, the reality is more complex. “The hardest challenge was coming from St. John’s and hearing a lot of folks say that college would be much, much easier than St. John’s, and finding that it was super hard,” Harvard sophomore Xavier Gonzalez said. Engineering students like Carnegie Mellon freshman Elizabeth Elrod face significant challenges, including higher-level STEM classes and programming. “At the time I thought St. John’s was difficult,” Elrod said. “I thought I was doing a decent amount of homework, but at Carnegie Mellon, I basically never stop doing homework, and it’s challenging academically.” For others, the rumor rings true. “I’ve actually found that college has been easier than St. John’s, mostly because I take classes covering information I learned in high school,” said George Davies, a sophomore at St. Andrew’s in Scotland. “St. John’s prepared me well for Latin and history, so I found that easier.”
college LIFE
article by editors photo by Jared Margolis For some, the challenge comes not from the coursework but from a new schedule. “The biggest difference was time management because you get really used to having assignments due all the time [at St. John’s],” Barnard sophomore Sloane Gustafson said. “In college you have a few more days to complete them and it feels like you have all the time in the world, so I feel like it’s hard.” Having fewer classes requires students to adjust to a different pace. With newfound free time and social distractions, college students can find themselves struggling with time management. “In high school, you go to class for the whole day, you see all your friends when you’re there and you go home at 3 p.m., and you’re alone and do your work. But in college it’s a very different sort of thing,” Notre Dame sophomore Daniel Bland said. “You’re constantly surrounded by people, so you have to adjust your work schedule. It’s a different feeling having your classes be two times or three times a week as opposed to five.” Many students agree that they felt prepared for college-level writing.
“I put way less effort into my college papers than I did for my synthesis essays and stuff like that,” Rice freshman Priyanka Jain said. Elrod noticed that while many struggled in her firstyear writing course, she was especially prepared. “There were some people who had just never really written essays before,” Elrod said. “It’s a competitive school, but you’d still have people who just didn’t know how to write well. If you can make it through the synthesis paper at St. John’s, you can make it through anything.” Even for engineering students, writing can be a helpful skill. “Writing is very important, and St. John’s prepared me well for that,” Rensselear Polytechnic Institute junior Paul Steiner said. “For software you have to do a lot of documentation, and writing is so much easier than anything else. The programming classes are also very helpful, and I feel ahead of the rest of my class.”
Continued on Page 10