What surprised or challenged you most academically at BU?
Read how a variety of BU students responded to the same question.
What surprised or challenged you most academically at BU?
Jeffrey Lowe, Class of 2022
Jeffrey’s Answer: The tests and studying. In high school, we’d have tests every few weeks, and it was fairly easy to get an A. But here, it takes a lot more effort. It was really frustrating, and the first few tests were not fun. But eventually I learned to study. I signed up for tutoring at the Educational Resource Center for my calculus class, which was helpful. There was a lot of trial and error; increasing the amount of study time continually until I started getting better grades was another strategy.
Emma Jacobson, Class of 2022
Emma’s Answer: I knew from the start I wanted to do hospitality and thought that made me special because a lot of students don’t know what they want to do. But once I got here, I realized that my passion wasn’t necessarily so unique. People at BU are super passionate, smart, and experienced, and that was definitely surprising to me. I thought I would be a big fish in a small pond. But I had to deal with the reality that there were a lot of students who were even more passionate than me, who had better grades than me, who had better experience in terms of internships and work. That made me take a step back. It was scary, but it made me realize I had something to work toward. It was like a friendly competition that really made me push myself.
Stephanie Gonzalez, Class of 2021
Stephanie’s Answer: If I’m completely honest, when I first came in, I had terrible academic discipline. And that hit me like a rock. I was used to getting As in high school and I thought I was just going to do what I always did. And then I took chemistry and physics. So I was really challenged academically at the beginning, how to take information in and what it meant to learn something. I think I came in with the intention just to achieve. So I started pinpointing what I actually wanted to learn and how I wanted to apply it to my field of interest and to my career.
Jeff Sagurton, Class of 2022
Jeff’s Answer: Getting down to the nitty-gritty of being a dual degree student was definitely challenging, and I expected that coming in. There are tons of great resources available at BU, and at Questrom my academic advisor was amazing. We had to plan out pretty much every semester of my college career. So it definitely taught me to budget my time, manage a rigorous schedule, and be efficient.
Brandy Moser, Class of 2021
Brandy’s Answer: That I was able to take a graduate-level public health course freshman year for my minor. I had to get instructor approval, but I was beyond surprised. It was a way to challenge myself being with students who were more advanced and had a lot more experience in public health. I was able to take a number of graduate-level courses throughout my time at BU. So, I’m going into grad school with so much more knowledge than I ever imagined.