Monday was the first day of classes, and for many, it was the first day of college classes. The Chronicle’s Rishi Narula spoke with several freshmen about their first day of classes and what they though about their new college experience at Duke.
“Compsci lab was a new experience for me, it was the first time I was in a lecture and I really liked it.”—freshman Udit Agarwal from New Delhi, India
“It was overwhelming but exciting.”—freshman Samit Patel from Henderson, North Carolina
“We have more freedom.... We were allowed to decide that our final exam is worth 5 percent of our grade.”—freshman David Zhang from Hong Kong
“It was alright.... We didn’t really do anything, we just talked about the syllabus”—freshman Vikram Ponnusamy from St. Louis.
“I like my classes because I’m learning what I’m interested in”—freshman Brian Dorsey from Austin, Tx.
“My econ teacher said the average test grade in his class was a 30 percent—that really scared me.”—freshman Nakul Karnik from Los Gatos, Ca.
“I really like how my chem professor who had a class of over 100 people made the class feel very personal.”—freshman Alyssa Greenhouse from Columbia, S.C.
“ I like how our professor put us in groups so that we can work on homework and take quizzes together.”—freshman Moeko Nagatsuka from Closter, N.J.
“It seems like it’s very stressful in terms of teachers, they try to frighten us, but I’m ready to fight through it.”—freshman Joshua Miller from Coral Springs, Fla.
“It was pretty intimidating because everyone seemed up to date with the content.”—freshman Julian Kimura from Rancho Palos Verdes, Ca.
“I didn’t expect as much work as I got, but Professor [Connel] Fullenkamp was hilarious!”—freshman Calvin Xiao from Chapel Hill, N.C.
“I took French today, and at first I thought it would be awkward, but it was interesting because we blended very well.” freshman Cori Hayes from Yorktown, Va.
“I had much more free time than I’m accustomed to, so that was nice.” - James Logein from Newport, R.I.
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