Author: Gueve Ataie

I now have finished my first semester at Trinity College and I am going on break knowing a lot more about life in college than I did a few months ago. I have learned the best study and organization habits for myself and I now know exactly what I need to do next semester in order to do even better academically. In Andrew Roberts’ The Thinking Student’s Guide to college: 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education he gives incoming college students helpful advice on how to succeed in college. One of his pieces of advice that I think is very important after going through one semester of college is tip 45: ‘Manage your time’. He says that rather than trying “to sneak in five minutes of studying here and ten minutes there” that students should “set aside several hours each day that you devote fully to your classes” [1. Andrew Lawrence Roberts, The Thinking Student’s Guide to College: 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education (University of Chicago Press, 2010)] if you want to succeed academically in college.
Although managing your time as explained in tip 45 is a big part of succeeding I have learned that it is not enough if you wish to excel in your classes. Studying the material that you learned in class right after you leave the class helps it become engraved in your brain while the topic is still fresh on your mind. Studying in between classes is a great compliment to managing your time. Other than the fact that it helps you understand the material better it also allows you to do it much faster because everything you were just taught in class is still in your mind so you do not have to spend any time re-teaching yourself anything when you go to study. From my experience as a freshman at Trinity when I study material from class right after I leave the class I always know that information much better than when I wait and go to the library at night or the next day. Then when I go to the library to study further at night I feel as if the subject matter clicks much quicker than if I hadn’t studied in between my classes.
In my most difficult class of my first semester, comparative urban politics, I had a lot of trouble getting good grades during the first few weeks. I thought that I was studying really hard for all of my tests and in reality I was but the problem was that I just wasn’t studying the right way for me to able to retain as much information as possible. What I would do is go to class and then either study later at night or the next day and I realized that although I spent a lot of time in the library trying to study everything that happened in class I couldn’t remember certain specifics that had happened in the prior class. Once I started studying directly after class and before my next class for only about a half hour I noticed that when I went to study at night that much more of the information that was taught in class was still in my head. As a result of following up the initial class with a short study period I was able to remember a lot more of what happened in that class when I went to study again at night and it showed on my next tests. My grade started to drastically improve and I accredit it all to my new study method. If only I had figured it out sooner.
By studying in between classes more you will find that you will have much more free time because though you will not be studying for as much time the quality of your studying is significantly better. You will be able to have your nights free to do things like workout, hangout with friends, or participate in school clubs is an added benefit on top of increasing your grade point average.
After reading Andrew Roberts’ book I have really come to appreciate the advice that he gives and the majority of what he says is actually very useful in order to be a successful college student. I agree with many of the things he said and have adapted to make them a part of my academic life so that I can better myself academically. However, one thing that I disagree with about the book is that it should be read before school. Personally I am big believer of learning from experience and that’s what I did my first semester at Trinity and although I may have done slightly better academically if I had read the book earlier I would not change what I did. My advice to any students would be to learn from your mistakes in your first semester in college and if you still have not found a good way to achieve academic success then to read Andrew Roberts book. But be warned, once you read this book you will have all the knowledge you will need in order to succeed in college so you have no more excuses for doing poorly in school.

On Trinity College’s campus there are many problems regarding minority students fitting into the social scene and social groups. At Trinity there is a group called PRIDE and its goal is to make minority students transition from high school to college be smoother. The PRIDE group brings many minority students together at the beginning of the school year in order to make them feel more comfortable as well as give them the feeling that they fit into a group. Although PRIDE is a very good program at Trinity there are many things that it, as well as other parties can do in order to make everyone feel more comfortable. In order to do this Trinity must take ideas that have worked from other schools and implement them as their own.

The problem with race at Trinity College as well as many other places in the world is that many people do not recognize that there is a problem and will not speak up when they see an act of racism occur [1. Trinity College, “Protesting Hate at Trinity College, April 2011,” College Archives – Documents (April 1, 2011): 4]. On top of that people need to understand the factual advantages and disadvantages of their race in today’s society. White’s inherently have more privilege and opportunity than minorities and minority groups often struggle to fit in to American culture . This is a problem in today’s society and this transfers down many college communities including Trinity’s. The frat life and many social scenes on campus don’t seem to include the minority population of Trinity very much and this is a problem. There needs to be a racially equal social scene on campus so that everyone feels comfortable integrating and joining different friend groups. The frats as well as other events and organizations have to take conscious steps to make people of all races and backgrounds feel equally comfortable to join and take part in.

The solution to the problems regarding race at Trinity lies within different organizations on campus. PRIDE is a huge part of making minority students feel more welcome on campus but PRIDE needs some adjustments in order to be even more helpful. PRIDE needs to be a support system for minority students but at the same time not restrict them to staying attached to PRIDE because that will in turn cause the reverse effect than what is desired. Although PRIDE does welcome white students they should make it more known so that white students don’t feel uncomfortable joining. On top of all this there should be more classes on the subject of race in school so that whites do understand what the minority students are going through and realize that for the white students it is easier to fit in than for students of color [1. Helen Fox, When race breaks out: conversations about race and racism in college classrooms (Peter Lang, 2009)]. There needs to be more effort on the schools part to get white students involved with racial diversity on campus because no matter how much PRIDE tries to make minority students feel comfortable they will never be completely at ease until they feel like they fit in with the majority of the students on campus.

A well-recognized idea to make more students feel more comfortable on Trinity’s campus was proposed by President Jones. His idea is to discontinue all of the frat houses on campus and turn them into what he called ‘theme houses’ [1. Jones, James F. Jr., “To Reweave the Helices: Trinity’s DNA by Our Two-Hundredth Birthday” (2011). College Archives – Documents. Paper 5. p.33 http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/trinarchives/5]. He says this because he believes that the alcohol-fuelled parties are not always inviting to all students on campus and that theme houses have the potential to be. President Jones makes some very good points as well as ones that are not necessarily the best for the Trinity community. Fraternities are big venues on campus and to take those away would greatly anger many people. However, Mr. Jones is correct in saying that they are not always welcoming to the majority of students and that must be fixed. Something similar to what was done at Union college should be done to a less extreme extent in order to make more students feel comfortable on campus. What Union College did in 2004 was take exclusive rights of the frat houses away from the fraternities and make it so that “A fraternity chapter will still be able to occupy a wing of a dormitory, but its members might have to live alongside those of the outdoors club, a sorority, a foreign-language society, or a mix of students.” [1. Andrew Brownstein, “New York’s Union College Abolishes Its Greek Residential System,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 5, 2001, sec. Archives, http://chronicle.com/article/New-Yorks-Union-College/107306/.]. Trinity should take pieces of what Union College did and reformat it to fit Trinity.

What physically needs to be done at Trinity is the Fraternities need to be more involved with all the different types of students on campus. What also needs to be done is for more classes or lectures that are marketed towards white students as well as minority students so that everyone on campus can have an idea of what other types of students are going through here at Trinity. The classes and/or lectures do not have to be required because this may cause resentment towards them but must be greatly encouraged and heavily marketed so that many people attend them. The fraternities, on the other hand, should be required to do many events with different cultural houses so that it will make many more people feel like they are welcome at a vast variety of social scenes on campus. On top of that it may not be a bad idea for fraternities to have to do an amount of community service so that they can interact with the community and better themselves and the people around them.

There are many problems with the social scene on campus regarding minorities. If actions are taken and people get involved with trying to fix this problem and make all students feel more comfortable on campus Trinity has the potential of becoming an even better place. The first step is that people need to be more educated on how the many different types of students feel about their social life at Trinity and the second step is to have larger social institutions and organizations team up to try to better the lives of all students and make everyone feel more comfortable. Once this is done Trinity could become a precedent on how to create a truly welcoming community for colleges all over the country.

Gueve Ataie
Revised Proposal
The problem with race at Trinity College as well as many other places in the world is that many people do not recognize that there is a problem and will not speak up when they see an act of racism occur.1 On top of that people need to understand the factual advantages and disadvantages of their race in today’s society. White’s inherently have more power and privilege than African American’s because of their race while Latinos and African American’s and Latinos are still, to a certain extent, racially oppressed.2 This is a problem in today’s society and this transfers down many college communities including Trinity’s. The frat life and many social scenes on campus don’t seem to include the minority population of Trinity very much and this is a problem. There needs to be a racially equal social scene on campus which means that everyone feels comfortable integrating and joining different friend groups. In relation to that the frats, parties, and other events should make people of all races and backgrounds feel equally comfortable to take part in.
The solution to the problems regarding race at Trinity lies within different organizations on campus. PRIDE is a huge part of making minority students feel more welcome on campus but PRIDE needs some adjustments in order to be even more helpful. PRIDE needs to be a support system for minority students but at the same time not restrict them to staying attached to PRIDE because that will in turn cause the reverse effect than what is desired. Although PRIDE does welcome white students they should make it more known so that white students don’t feel uncomfortable joining. On top of all this there should be more classes on the subject of race in school so that whites do understand what the minority students are going through and realize that for the white students it is easier to fit in than for students of color2. There needs to be more effort on the schools part to get white students involved with racial diversity on campus because no matter how much PRIDE tries to make minority students feel comfortable they will never be completely at ease until they feel like they fit in with the majority of the students on campus.

1Trinity College, “Protesting Hate at Trinity College, April 2011,” College Archives – Documents (April 1, 2011): 4.
Discusses the occurrence at Trinity College last spring where there was a hate crime on a student of color and how the college campus was affected.

2Helen Fox, When race breaks out: conversations about race and racism in college classrooms (Peter Lang, 2009).
This article talks about specific races in college and how they are treated and certain possible solutions to some of the problems.

Gueve Ataie
On Trinity College’s campus there are many problems regarding minority students fitting into the social scene and social groups on campus. At Trinity there is a group called PRIDE and its goal is to make minority students transition from high school to college be smoother. The PRIDE group brings many minority students together at the beginning of the school year in order to make them feel more comfortable on campus and feel like they have a group that they fit into. The group almost sets the minority students on a different start than most of the other students on campus by automatically putting them in a group of friends rather than having them make friends on their own like most of the other freshmen. This is the problem with PRIDE, it starts off by separating minority freshman students from the other freshmen on campus and doesn’t give them opportunity to join friends groups with many different people like most other students on campus. This in turn causes the students not in PRIDE to unconsciously exclude PRIDE students because they feel as if they already have their friend group and social scene and do not want to intermingle with the other students.
As a solution to this problem PRIDE must change the way that it tries to make minority students feel more comfortable. PRIDE must do what it is doing now and make minority students feel comfortable and welcome when they first arrive to Trinity but also allow them the space and opportunity to incorporate with the whole student body. Right now PRIDE schedules too much of the students’ first experiences here which takes away from the students’ opportunities to mingle with people in their dorm, floor, and grade to figure out who their friends group will become. PRIDE should be something that minority students know is there if they need it but it should encourage them to first try to make friends the way they regularly would rather than just putting the students in a group with other minorities and secluding them from the rest of the student body. If PRIDE wants the Trinity campus to be a diverse campus then it should allow for white students and minority students to have more opportunities to interact when they first arrive to campus like social gatherings amongst all freshman students rather than just the minorities. If PRIDE continues to put minorities in their own bubble when they arrive to campus they will always feel left out from the rest of the students because in reality they are left out, not because they are minorities but because they were never given good chances to make friends with students outside of the pride group.
The events that occurred in the spring of the last school year caused many divisions among race on Trinity’s campus and this was not good for making minorities feeling included. That feeling may have been brought over to this year as well and the Trinity student body will never benefit from these feelings. Trinity’s PRIDE should research and explore what similar groups to it at other schools are doing that are proven to be very effective in integrating and making minorities feel included on campus. On top of that, Pride can see if there are any information groups that can be created to let the white students understand how the minority students feel on campus so that events like the ones from last spring can be prevented from now on.

my spreadsheet

[Gueve: next time, please select the text above and click the “link” button and paste it there. I redid this one for you. – Jack D.]

Jean Lattimore grew up in a very rural area in New Hampshire where he was one of only 45 people in his graduating class. He was in the top 5% of his class meaning he was one of the best students at his school with a very good GPA of 3.8 and cumulative SAT score of 1920. Even though a few other of the applicants had slightly better GPA’s and SAT scores Jean had something that made him stand out from those people. Jean was heavily involved in his community, his student government, as well as his high school’s basketball team. Jean was the president of student council for all four years of his high school career as well as being on the JV and Varsity basketball team throughout his whole high school career. He got the silver award for community service as well as the American Legion Post Award for Academic Achievement proving that he was not only a good student but cared about his community as well. He also interned at Senator John Sununu’s office for one summer and has now become very involved with politics. On top of all this his Guidance counselor and his history teacher’s recommendations had nothing but good things to say about him and they stated many times that he was one of the most influential and intelligent student that they had seen in their careers. The one minor downfall in his application is that his essay was about politics and was very opinion based which I did not like. Other than that his application was phenomenal and I believe that he should be offered a spot at our institution.