Although she is only a sophomore, and her one official year of college was virtual, Archana shares her college experience so far at the University of Pittsburgh.

Part 1 is here.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey college kids. Welcome back to my podcast. Who cares about college this is part two of my interview with Archana. So if you have not checked out part one make sure to do so subscribe and enjoy

Okay, so let’s go on to just the college experience you’ve had, you are only a sophomore, your freshman year was a COVID year, you know that it’s not probably not a good indication for like future, you know, college kids on what college is going to be like, but we can do a little bit like a little segment on your college experience so far. So coming in. It was like entirely virtual for you. How was like the adjustment? Were you able to like, I guess adjust to college? Do you think it was like easier than compared to now what you’re doing? So give us like coming in? How was it for you?

Archana
Yeah, so coming in. I was I was home for my fall semester. I I feel like I almost sucked. Yeah, it, you know, actually didn’t I don’t know, I’m kind of, I’m kind of happy that I stayed home. Because I don’t maybe I just wasn’t ready to go yet. For some reason. I think COVID Just kind of made me like not want to go. I just like, felt really like there was no disconnect between high school and college. So I was like, you know, I’m just here, I’m here at home for another semester. You know, I’m like, I’m starting school. But like, it didn’t feel like anything different. Because I never really ended High School, like the way that I wanted to either. So I was just like, I’m just here, I’m floating, and I’m just doing this. But I did fall at home. And the adjustment was not terrible. But I I think it was just like, since I was so like, I was just by myself. I didn’t know like, what I was supposed to what I was supposed to be doing or what I wasn’t supposed to be doing. I’m like, should I be doing all this extra work to study? Or like, do I not need it? Like I don’t I had no idea. Like, I just didn’t know like what to do. I’m like, these, these professors are assigning me all this reading, like, isn’t necessary? Like, how would I know? I have no idea. So it was kind of like, really weird because I was just kind of like doing whatever I thought was right. I mean, ended up working out. But like, he was just like a lot. Like we use a different like, I know, in high school people use Google Classroom. Or I don’t I don’t know, some I mean, my high school did these Google Classroom to like, post things or whatever. And we use like a whole different system in college called Canvas. And it was just really, it was hard to navigate and figure it and figure it out. Like where’s the homework, I don’t know where it is. So it wasn’t that bad courses. I only took like, 1415 credit 14 credits. And then we had to do like some one credit mandatory class. So like, in terms of time and stuff, it wasn’t bad. But it was just like matter of like, I don’t know what college is, like, I don’t know what I’m doing. So I just kind of like, went through it just just kind of did that. And then spring is when I came to Pitt for the first time literally saw my school for the first time when I came here. Um, and it was, it was really tough. Like coming in second semester.

Kamila
Did you have like friends you made through virtual world.

Archana
Um, I knew like a couple people. But like, the thing about college is like, sometimes you’ll know people but like, nothing ever happens. And that is so common. Like, you’ll know people like you’ve texted them, but like, everyone has their own like little world of like things going on. Like, it’s, it’s, it’s hard to like, be like, Okay, we’re doing this today, we’re gonna go meet like, it’s a plan. Like, it’s like, it’s like a whole big plan to go out and meet if they’re not like in your circle, I would say because you kind of tend to stick towards like, your circle of people. And like, just like where you are. And it’s like a whole effort, I would say to just go out and like meet somebody. And the people in college would just, like go and pass like they just go and pass. It’s so common. So if it feels like it’s not sticking for you, like that’s totally fine. Like, I feel like that happened. It’s happened to me so much. Like I just know people but nothing will really happen. And like that’s like fine, you know, you just know people and that’s about it. But the first month and a half year was really hard because I think coming in second semester, like everyone had already made friends like I didn’t. Um, it was really hard to I can’t just step in into a friend group and be like, Hey guys, I’m here. Like it was. It was pretty tough. I came with two girls from my high school. So we had each other, um, but like in terms of making new friends it took like a month and a half until like we all like we found these two girls that actually wanted to hang out with us and actually wanted to spend time with us. And then I realized like, oh, us as Pete like We could do as much as we want to make initiative and meet new people. But it has to be both ways. If the other person isn’t really trying, then there’s really nothing you can do. And I realized not to take it personally. Because it just everyone is just like, you know, everyone’s busy, like, I’m not going to take it personally, because I know there’s so many other things to worry about. And if they really, really did care about like, meaning, like being your friend, and like, like knowing you more like they make the effort to. So like, I learned, like, it’s just super common for people to just pass and go, and people that will stick will stick. Like, it is true, what they say like, you’ll you’ll feel comfortable with the people that like you’d really like spending time with. But

Kamila
and in terms of workload, like from virtual world to actual university of Pittsburgh, was there a change in the workload that you had? Was it easier virtual than it was like, actual? Or was it just pretty, you know, effortless.

Archana
Um, it’s been hard to kind of come back to school, honestly, because, um, workload, I mean, organic chemistry is like, absolutely killing me. But I think that’s standard for like everybody who’s taking it. But other like, I think it’s just the fact that we have to walk to class. And that’s a whole like, F, that’s a whole effort that’s like a part of your day, where you have to plan like 30 minutes before I have to get ready to leave my room. Then after class, like, you got to eat like, You got to eat at some point, right? So you got to go and you got to go to the dining hall, you got to go to like, wherever and then you got to eat. And that’s another 3040 minutes. So I feel like you don’t realize like, sitting at home doing virtual like how much like all these like little amounts of time, like they add up and then that’s already a part portion of your day, and you have to find time to do your homework around it. So it’s been pretty tough. Like, like, like, just like doing pot like doing college, normally, workload has been tougher, I would say just because I’m doing like the next, like, next level courses in science, and starting my major courses, but honestly, I think it’s just organic chemistry. That’s been very tough for me, everything else has been okay. So far. I mean, it’s midterm season right now, these two weeks. So it’s been pretty, I mean, yeah, so now we have in person test. So, I mean, we got to, we got to study, like five times more than we did, just because we don’t have the option to open our notes here. So it’s been, it’s been okay. I mean, it’s, it’s studying, it’s studying Monday to Friday and studying. And, I mean, that’s just how it is, I’m realizing like, everyone’s busy doing their own thing, it’s hard to like, like, officially hang out with somebody, like during the week. I mean, I feel like studying with someone is a good way to kind of just, like, hang out with somebody, but still be productive. And like people are in clubs. I’m a TA, for in for the semester. So like I have to do like, I have to do student hours and stuff. So that’s like another commitment, time commitment. So it’s hard to find time. But you know, you make it work.

Kamila
And I want to ask a couple more questions here. So you know, high school, for those who are not familiar or have a different system, you wake up bright and early, you go to class for like seven ish hours, and then afterward, like seven straight hours afterwards, you have your extracurriculars, homework, whatever you sleep you repeat, right? With College. How does the scheduling differ? Like can you please give us your average day in college? Because obviously, it’s not seven hours of classes. It’s very different from that. Yeah.

Archana
So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I don’t have class until 1pm. Which is, which is crazy, because I mean, I don’t know compared High School, like, obviously, I’m at school at 730. But here Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I literally sleep in she’s really bad, but I just sleep in until I have to go to class. And I have like, two three classes, two classes a day. And they’re each about like 15 minutes. And then like on Tuesdays and Thursday, I have three classes a day, but I have they both like one of them both start at nine. So I had like 9am Tuesday and 9am Thursday so sick of really weird schedule so you get to sleep in and then don’t but it’s not all class and you can obviously skip class if you wanted but you know you’d get behind. But just the effort of kind of walking class to class and in between class I don’t come back to my dorm room I just kind of stay at the library and do work in between. So it’s kind of weird like you do like you learn and then you just have a little break and then you just have to go to class and then you have a break so it’s kind of weird but like I think I like it more than high school because High School is just like like sitting through like teachers talking all day. Now that I’m now that I’m thinking about it like it is really just sitting through teachers talking to you all day.

Kamila
And on average, how much do you think you study per day? cuz if it’s not classes filling your time, it’s probably going to be studying.

Archana
On average, I want to say like, it’s hard to tell like, I mean, I feel like I study like at least like four or five hours. I don’t know if that I can’t really say because it depends on the day. And if there’s like exams coming nearby, and like the workload, maybe like four hours, and that’s like broken up, I definitely study for at least like two hours, like every night, like straight. And then like, maybe during the day, it’ll be like, an hour in between classes or something like that. And since I don’t wake up in the morning, I don’t study.

Kamila
What is the homework look like in college? Because I’m pretty sure professors don’t collect homework. So what exactly is it that you’re doing in this like, studying time?

Archana
Yeah, so most, most classes are just exam based. In college. Since I’m taking like, computer science, I’m taking a class I’m, that’s like you hand in like, coding like projects. So that’s like, I guess it depends on like, the type of class or for this, like, we have the ability to hand in like coding projects. Whereas an organic chemistry, we don’t have any homework, we just have like three exams. And a final. Yeah, I know, it sounds as brutal as it sounds, honestly. And then I’m trying to think like my other classes, we have like little homework, it kind of depends on the professor. But I would say for like, it’s not like hard, the homeworks not really hard, I would say it’s just to really just check like your that you’re learning and just to review stuff. And I think like, for me, like I don’t really have any homework that takes me forever, other than like the coding stuff. And those are obviously a little longer, so it’s expected.

Kamila
Alright, so I want to talk about a couple more things before we wrap up here. So you said your major was a mixture of computer science and biology. So how did you first come upon, like interested in computer science when you were very, like, pre med focused? And then how does that work? The computer science plus the biology?

Archana
Yeah, so in like, 11th grade, I took like, this comp Psych class in my high school. It was like a very, like, basic class, and it’s in a certain language called Python. Um, but that kind of like, sparked a little bit of interest. In me, I was like, I, the weird thing is, I always said I would never want to do computer science ever. ninth grade, I said, I never want to do it. But then in 11th grade, I kind of liked it, because it was like, I felt it was a very logical thing. And I realized I was like, good at it. And I like kind of enjoyed it. And then the next year in 12th, grade, I took like, an actual introduction to Java in my high school. And it’s, it’s pretty much a course for like, I mean, most kids in my class were freshmen, no sophomores and juniors, there was only like a couple seniors in my class. Because most people that did it did it way earlier. But I was like, you know, I want to just try it before I go to college, like, what is it like, and I still really liked it. But obviously, it was just one core. So I couldn’t really put like, I couldn’t decide, like, Is this something I like or not? So I majored I came into Pitt majoring in microbiology. I always like that, too. And I was like, Okay, I don’t want to do just just bio. So let me just do micro bio. And then I took another class last year, and I was like, I feel like I want a minor in comm. Sigh. But then I was like, Wait, there’s a major that has bio and calm sigh? Like, why don’t I just do that instead of doing like, Wait, like, more classes. So I just switched my major this year. And I’m just like continuing in this path. And it just kind of reduces my bio classes in half, and just increases my computer science classes. And so I don’t have to take like as many like, upper level science classes, it’s pretty much like, I just have like two more, and I’m actually done with the bio stuff.

Kamila
And how does the computer science and biology work together?

Archana
Yeah, so we kind of what we do is we kind of use like code and we apply like, biological methods and like ideas to it. So I’m currently taking a class. It’s called, like, computational biology. It’s like the very, very intro class. And we kind of use code and we actually build like, I don’t I don’t know if anyone knows, like phylogenetic trees, like we literally code that, which is kind of cool. We use like evolution, and we kind of like, pair it with code and we kind of like just use it to like model things. We allow it like allow it gives us a way to kind of model things and kind of like, just have a bunch of gathered data and use that and use that data to kind of like make some conclusions, like just using code haven’t really much into it, but it’s pretty cool actually. And I it’s a really it’s an emerging field. So I’m pretty excited about it Pitt actually like, it’s a very it’s a new major here actually, they redesigned the major two years ago. And they completely made a new coursework for this major. So it’s kind of different. And it’s since it’s a new field, I’m kind of excited about it.

Kamila
There’s some really cool so like, you guys take data to make like, like, not assumptions, but try to understand biological stuff. Yeah. All right. And one more thing. So with pre med, yeah. When you say you’re on the pre med track, are you just saying like, Oh, okay, I intend to apply to medical school as of this moment? Or are there actual classes that are associated with pre med? Because like computational biology, most people think like, urology as a major is definitely like pre med. But when you say pre med, do you mean like a set of courses you have to take? Are you just saying you have intentions of applying to medical school.

Archana
So when I say pre med, at least for me, I’m just saying that I’m doing all the courses necessary for med school, but I might not really go anywhere with that after that. So I’m just the three main basic things are just like I mean, 434 So it’s can you take to like two semesters of Chem, two semesters of bio to a year of ortho one and two and physics. And then you have the respective like lab work for that. So those are basically the pre med requirements. So I’m probably just going to finish out undergrad doing those, those classes just so I have the option later on if I want to apply. But I might not really go through with it. I’m not sure yet.

Kamila
Okay, okay. So actually, I lied. There’s one more thing we talked about, like your academics, can we quickly get to know University of Pittsburgh as a school like where’s it located? Is it more of a city suburb rural location? You know, what’s there to do around Pittsburgh? And yeah, what is that big tall building that you see when you search up University of Pittsburgh? What is that? It’s like the only photo they have for university ensberg.

Archana
So that really tall building is one of the I think it’s the tallest Education building in the country. I’m not too sure it’s called a cathedral of learning. And inside it kind of looks like Hogwarts a little bit. It’s a I’m not even kidding. Like it’s it’s kind of eerie in there. It’s very like dim but like a lot of people don’t study there. It’s very very nice. And the food in the basement and it’s just very like like it’s very pleasing to come and come and sit inside there. And I think it’s like 30 Something floors tall.

Kamila
It looks taller everything around it looks so tiny away right?

Archana
Yeah, even for me I’m like walking by sometimes it just looks like a painting like when you stare at the sky it is just so like it’s so unbelievable you know it’s like crazy but yeah that’s like the kind of like the trademark of Pitt I obviously but in general the campus is kind of like it’s kind of or it’s pretty much urban I would say like you have like it’s not New York City but it’s not like a campus that’s like a gated campus either it you have people like like Pittsburgh people walking in and out through campus. They’re like obviously allowed to walk around like the food places and around campus. And so I feel like I really like it because it’s not like the full on city but it’s also like, like not super quiet either. It gives me it’s like a nice medium and we pretty much have like there’s like different areas here but the main where we are it’s like the Oakland campus that’s like the main Pittsburgh campus we have like the street right behind like the main road and it’s like full of food, food places just a strip of food, restaurants and all that and then we have like caddy in the middle and we have like all of our buildings are like really spread out and so you do have to like walk from place to place it’s not really in one area and they’re pretty like dispersed like throughout like campus so it’s nice cuz you just like kind of walk around and oh yeah, you’d be hitting 10k steps a day at that rate. And I live on it’s very hilly in Pittsburgh though. It’s I live on like a hill basically. So I do have to walk up like stairs and Hill and a hill. But I do try to take the shuttle every now and then so you don’t have to walk up there.

Kamila
But if you want to like have fun with your friends, you know, as much fun as you can have in college. I hear college people are very, very busy. If you want to have fun like the city’s like right there you don’t have to like go like travel for like an hour or something to get you can literally like take a car for like $10 like an Uber for $10 or something really quickly.

Archana
You can take the The bus system is really really good here. Like you could do the bus for literally everything like into the airport, you can take a bus so you can definitely take a bus downtown and there’s like also like it that is the more of the city side I would say like, you will see like the taller buildings, they’re all like the banks and like, like working workplaces and all of that. So there are like a lot of fun things to do here. I personally have just need to find more time to explore. But there’s a lot of stuff that you can do with your friends here and go out there’s like this amusement park Kennywood it’s only like 30 minutes away. You have like a movie theater. I’ve gone it’s it’s really awesome. I really love that it doesn’t have like that like gate aspect. Like I know colleges are like, sometimes it’s like there’s a college campus and there’s nothing around it. Pittsburgh is not like that at all. Like it is just like it’s like very free. It’s very lively everywhere. And I didn’t realize how much I would like it because obviously I never saw it but I really enjoy that aspect. I really enjoy that about Pitt. It’s really nice.

Kamila
Okay, so that’s pretty much all I have for today Archana will one more thing, like the actual like, questions and such. One last thing is advice. I do this with everyone. What piece of advice, one piece of advice would you give for high schoolers? Literally anything that you can do something specific to the college app, or just general life advice that you think a high schooler should hear right now. And then you haven’t gone through much of college. But if you’d like you can share a piece of advice for incoming college students as well.

Archana
Yeah, so for for high schoolers. Like, as cheesy as it sounds, it really, I miss so many things about high school like this, our school is so big that like, it’s hard to like participate in all the attend all the games and whatever, whatever. Like literally just go to all this stuff, like go with your friends go through friends go to all the things because, like, there’s just some things you just can’t do everything. You know, like, obviously, school just takes a load over you hear that, like, it’s hard to do all like the fun stuff, like the little fun things that were really like fun and interesting. So I just go and have fun in high school. Like, don’t don’t hesitate about that. Like, it’ll really be worth it when you look back. That’s my advice for high schoolers for college. Um, I actually did like an internship this summer in person research thing. And my advice is like, and I had no idea I’d be doing it but my advice is like, just like it’s never too early to start like looking at opportunities because sometimes you’ll realize it like after the deadline has passed. So it doesn’t hurt to just like do a search of like different opportunities or like internship things it’s never early for that I highly suggest like just take a look at see what you might be interested in interested in. Because you kind of really You never know what you can really get. So just like have fun but like also like think about kind of what you want to do because you might you might get some really cool opportunities in there in job in like in like school and jobs and stuff too.

Kamila
Thank you so much and have a good your ESD right so have a good evening.

Archana
You as well. Thank you for having me. It was really fun. Yep, bye bye. Bye.

Kamila
That’s it for part two of my interview with Archana. Subscribe and check out my blog college reality check.com For more college related content, and I hope to see you in the next one.