College Counseling at St. Margaret's

A number of SMES alums are in the area this summer and have agreed to write guest posts. Class of 2008 valedictorian, Jonathan Wang, is at Princeton University.

Hi! My name is Jonathan Wang, St. Margaret’s Class of ‘08, and I’m delighted to share some of my thoughts with the readers of this blog. Though I’ve only finished one year at Princeton, I feel that I’ve learned quite a bit about the university and campus culture; more importantly, I’ve already had a plethora of experiences that are very meaningful to me.

Though you may not know it’s in New Jersey, many of you are probably already familiar with Princeton’s campus, especially if you had the chance to see some of it in the new Transformers movie. The campus is undoubtedly beautiful, and it is certainly a nice distraction from hard work or long hours in class. But what I like best about Princeton is something that permeates throughout every aspect of student life – community. Not unlike the “school of the tartan and the cross,” the tight-knit community stands out singularly in my mind when I reflect upon my first-year college experience.

There are countless examples and anecdotes I could provide, but I’ll stick with one that took up a lot of my time as a freshman. As an engineering student, I am required to take a core curriculum that includes, among other things, physics and calculus. But, in lieu of the standard classes, I elected to take a equivalent series of classes called “An Integrated Introduction to Math, Engineering, and Physics” – lovingly known as “EMP” – that started with about 40 students, split into two classes of 20 (pretty small class sizes for a university, even a small one). It was an intellectually stimulating class, intensely stretching and challenging my mind. One particularly memorable experience was the semester-long lab: working together to construct, launch, and analyze the flight of a water-propelled rocket, I truly got a taste of what it might be like to be a professional engineer.

Though you might think taking classes and building rockets with brilliant professors and doctoral students would be the highlight of my studies, the real experience surprisingly occurred outside of class. Weekly problem sessions that lasted deep into the night created a dynamic, collaborative learning environment that helped me learn more effectively than any lecture. These were supplemented with further unorganized study sessions, often taking place in dorms or common spaces. Such collaboration brought the small group of students close together, forming a tight-knit bond between all of us that lasted throughout the year, and will likely remain for the rest of our time at school. When I (and most of my classmates) look back, I know that it would have been far easier to take the normal classes. But, I definitely wouldn’t trade this experience – the struggles, the teamwork, the close relationships with peers and instructors – for a better grade or an easier path.

Of course, community extends far beyond this small academic program, or even academics in general – though I’ve been fortunate enough to have large lectures and intimate seminar-type classes, both of which form a great learning environment. Princeton is notorious for their alumni pride, and there are tens of thousands of Tigers across the world who care deeply for their alma mater, bonded by a common academic and social experience. As you may know, one of the hallmarks of Princeton University is its focus on undergraduate education, and correspondingly, its small student body. Such close relationships are further strengthened by the residential college system, where we live and eat together in “houses”. But despite having a small number of undergraduates (4,000), it abounds with diversity and interesting personalities – certainly enough for me, but not too many to get lost in. Though I’ve only been there for a year now, I can sense the strength of the Princeton community, an inclusiveness that really makes me feel at home. The focus on a small school, intimate classes, and fostering collaboration with students and faculty alike forges lasting relationships, and it has already made a strong imprint on me.

This is the first guest blogger to post. Jeff is a star from the Class of 2008 who attends Colby College in Waterville, Maine. I asked Jeff to write about how he’s spending his summer.

Hi, I’m Jeff Carpenter. I graduated SMES last year (’08) and I’m a rising sophomore at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. This summer I chose to study at Stanford University. In this post I’m going to tell you about Stanford in general, what I’m doing at Stanford, and plans for my major.

Let me start off by telling you something that you already know: Stanford’s campus is gorgeous. I was especially taken aback because I’m used to the uniform Georgian architecture of Colby. Stanford’s buildings fit in perfectly with the sunny California atmosphere. The classrooms have big windows, the courtyards have beautiful flowers, and the washing machines are free! However, with such a large campus, having a bike is almost a necessity. At Stanford I feel a little bit more anonymous, which could be expected of a large research institution. In this respect, I’m glad I went to a small liberal arts school where the focus is on advancing the student, not the field.

My classes are Cognitive Psychology and The Psychology of Making Better Decisions. The latter, MBD as we call it, is taught by two funny and insightful grad students. I eat lunch with them every Wednesday afternoon during their “office hours,” which are held at the campus café. Silicon Valley, in addition to being a tech mecca, is also a cycling mecca. I recently got into cycling, and I spend weekday mornings riding around the rolling hills behind Stanford. One of my friends in MBD, Dave, is working on a custom master’s degree at NYU called Cognitive Engineering, which is sort of like ergonomics for your brain; a study of how people interact with products and how to better design them. This is very similar to what I want to do, so we hang out a lot and compare notes. I’ve also gotten a chance to explore the area, visiting places like the Googleplex, Facebook, and Apple.

My custom major, tentatively named Social Informatics, combines Psychology and Computer Science into the study of human-computer interaction. I usually explain it like this: the negligible little bits of code that make up a Facebook or Twitter page can have very real world social manifestations. The position of a button can mean the difference between a correspondence or not, affecting relationships between people and changing the course of lives. My focus is to see if we can make these tools more transparent; to take the emphasis off the software and put it back on the people. After college, I’m hoping to work for companies like Vimeo, Twitter, or 37 Signals.