Megan Golding, Senior
Throughout my four years at WHSAD, I had the opportunity to take numerous college courses. Each of those courses was at different institutions, to get the experience of each school’s community and diversity. My first time taking College Now courses was at the New York City College of Technology. I started in the fall of sophomore year, it was my first year eligible to take part in this program. I took English Composition which was honestly the best idea. Taking English Composition as my first college class was a very humbling experience. Until that time, I had never written a paper of more than three pages. English Composition actually forced me to grow up a little, mentally and academically. It showed me that life outside of that high school bubble is not just fun and play, it’s a very challenging world outside of WHSAD. Taking English Composition as my first class was a challenge, nevertheless, I’m still happy I took it. The one I would recommend if this will be your first college experience is you need the discipline to write or else your professor will have zero issues with failing you.
In my spring semester of sophomore year and both semesters of my junior year, I took classes at Hunter College. After I passed my class at the New York City College of Technology, I had more confidence in myself mentally and academically. I took pre-calc in the spring semester of my sophomore year. That is the most challenging class I have ever taken in my academic career so far. My professor was very stern with his work. He made me realize that you have to study to succeed, especially in such an intense school environment. Hunter is very intense in its math and science departments, so it was kind of a difficult transition from City Tech to Hunter. While my professor was strict, he genuinely cared about all of us. He offered extra help during the weekdays which was very kind of him considering he had two other jobs to focus on. Taking pre-calc was a humbling experience. You would need to have two hours of free time to relax and study the topics in the class.
In my junior year, I took more classes that would fulfill my major requirements. My major is Computer Science/Design, although I’m still contemplating. The name of these classes was Introduction to Computer Science and Programming for Everyone. These classes were honestly the easiest classes I have taken in College Now. Since I have prior knowledge of computer programming, it was a breeze. If you would like to be a STEM major, I would recommend taking it. The expectation of you in that class is you must have a background in computer science, programming, and even design. If you do not have prior knowledge of these courses, you may have a difficult time. Since I already knew most of the material, I usually spent maybe 30 minutes to an hour studying. Personally, for people who are new to the programming world, I would say you would need maybe 90 minutes of studying time because coding languages is not easy at all.
I took my final College Now class in the fall term of my senior year. I took the classes at The City College of New York. I’m eternally grateful that this was my final class in College Now because it made me think about what school I would love to go to for the next four years. During this time I was thinking about which college I should apply for. I took a freshman seminar. I decided to take a freshman seminar because I felt like I needed to get to know more people.
In conclusion, I think everyone should take College Now especially if they have the correct discipline.
Raymundo Gomez, Senior
I am a WHSAD student who was allowed to apply to College Now. It’s where I take multiple college courses. Each course has different obstacles and subjects that I need to go through to prosper. The courses that I was taking classes from were from the New York City College Of Technology. I first started to take College Now classes when I was in my sophomore year. The first course that I took was “College Algebra and Trigonometry,” which was a great choice for me since I always liked mathematics. It was an intriguing experience since I was being taught a lot of stuff that I didn’t know about. Even though it was a bit tedious, I was able to overcome the struggle and able to understand more about math. It helped me to be more open-minded and be able to solve difficult problems when needed. It has helped me see math problems more easily which made math easier for me to do. So throughout all the struggle, it has made me better. I had to undergo multiple failures for me to fully understand any problem. This has helped me to do better in the SAT for the math section for all the work that I have done. So everything that I have done would, later on, help me in the future.
During my 11th grade junior year, I decided to take another College Now course. It was my second course and it was called “Introduction To Entertainment Technology.” This was an interesting course since I was taught something that would be used in entertainment for people, such as theater or concerts. I was taught how everything works, and what were the roles of each person or technology. Each thing has its role in entertainment technology. I find it intriguing because everything works together and forms a type of harmony which provides people entertainment and a show for people to enjoy.
Taking College Now courses was a wonderful experience for me since I was able to meet new people and be able to work in teams on group projects. Even though the courses can be tedious, you aren’t alone since other people would need to do the same work as you do, so you have your teammates to help you out when you are struggling. A great benefit of taking College Now courses is that you will obtain college credit for passing your classes which will help you to advance more in college. You won’t need to repeat the same class in college since you already did it during College Now which saves you time, and it also allows you to try out other different courses. I do recommend other people to do College Now because it comes with great benefits for the future.
Kevin Hernandez, Senior
Choosing the next path in life after graduating high school is difficult. A handful of people aren’t sure if college suits their best interests. To help individuals who are in this type of situation I recommend enrolling in College Now courses. This is a program that gives students the opportunity to enroll in college courses and receive college credit. Not only will this program contribute to the decision of college, it also will help craft a responsible individual.
Taking college classes before college is very beneficial as it can reduce college expenses and time spent in college. If you have a major in mind, conduct research on the courses that you will take in college and take them in College Now. This will benefit you if you pass the course as you will receive college credit and will be able to transfer it, in most cases, to the college of your preference. Doing this stops the need of taking the course when you go to the college of your preference which means you get to save money and time. If you don’t have a major in mind, I recommend applying to a course that’s compelling. Reasons for you will learn about something that sparks your interest and develop a vision of college and the expectations of it helping you decide if college is the next path in life once you graduate high school.
My experience with College Now has been pleasant. I’ve enrolled in economics, trigonometry and pre-calc. Economics taught me about the economy and business. The decisions that businesses make and how those decisions affect their revenue and profits as well as the regulations that the government implements and how they affect society and businesses. Pre-Calc taught me about integers and equations. I enrolled in this class because it’s a required class that my major, architecture, requires me to take. I passed the class and therefore I won’t need to take it in college. Trigonometry is the first class I took in College Now. The reason I enrolled in this class is because I wanted to experience a college class and receive college credit. However, I regret taking this class because it wasn’t compelling, and it’s not a required class by my major, so the college credit will not necessarily benefit me.
Taking college courses before college is optimal. You are given the opportunity to receive college credit which will be very beneficial because you wont need to take the course when you go to college. College now is free and gives you a glimpse of college academics, and the program also advances your knowledge. Whoever is reading this and is in 9th-12th grade, I recommend enrolling in College Now. It will benefit you.
Marlei Allain, Senior
During my junior year at WHASD I had the opportunity to take two College Now classes: Microeconomics and Sociology. I can actually say that I enjoyed my time in both of those classes despite the long class duration and the heavy load of work we received at times. Both of the teachers I had worked hard with the students and cared thoroughly about our learning process which reflected in my grades since I was able to receive a A in Microeconomics and a B in Sociology. The teachers switched up the type of material often to keep the students interested during remote learning. Some weeks we would watch videos, other weeks we would do lessons from slide shows, sometimes work out of the text books, and other times in group discussions on Zoom. My sociology class specifically was asynchronous, which means some days we didn’t join Zoom but had a specific assignment to complete by a certain date, which helped us learn at our own pace. I would encourage senior and junior students to take part in College Now so they can get the experience of a college level class or test out a major they are interested in before actually committing to it in college.
