Syracuse University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Biochemistry
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: Caucasian Heterosexual Female
Summary
I’m in a chemistry fraternity and work as an undergraduate researcher.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Public high school in Florida with 250 students in the graduating class.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Biochemistry
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I’m in a chemistry fraternity and work as an undergraduate researcher.
Academic Experience
Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
I’m in the College of Arts and Sciences so I’m required to take four humanities, social sciences, and critical reflection classes. I was able to get credit for some of those classes from high school, but last semester and this coming semester I’m finishing up my Liberal Arts Core and beginning the requirements for a Biochemistry major. Last semester I took labs for general Biology and Chemistry, a math class, and the requirements. This semester is similar, however at a more advanced level. Outside of class, I work about six hours in a research lab and work on the weekends at a dining hall.
How easy was it to get involved in research as an undergrad?
It’s difficult to get into a lab. Typically, a student meets with a researcher and applies, but it’s quite competitive. I luckily got a scholarship to go to Syracuse. The purpose of the scholarship is to increase the retention rate of STEM majors after freshman year and directly through scholarship was able to get into undergrad research through my scholarship. You just have to do your research and talk to them a lot. I had to do a lot of reading before I went into the lab.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
Overall, I believe Syracuse is a competitive school. We have [highly ranked] Communications and Business schools, but there are also students who party all the time and don’t care about academics, but you’ll find that type of student at any college you go to. Some of my credits didn’t transfer over, so I had to redo a couple of [lower-level] classes and didn’t particularly feel those were that competitive. Upper-level classes are especially competitive. But, for my classes at least, students were collaborative through projects, labs, etc.
Is there anything that you felt Syracuse did especially well or especially poorly academically in your freshman year?
I think collaboratively all the schools do especially well organizing during Welcome Week for the freshmen. We had a table fair in our quad where you could see all the organizations. That’s how I found out about my chemistry fraternity. I think the only thing they don’t do well, which is most universities, is choosing roommates. I picked mine, which is a little different, but I felt like a lot of my friends’ roommates didn’t exactly match up well. They should do a survey type of thing rather than just put two random people in a room.
What was your favorite class last year?
My favorite class was General Chemistry 1. I had a bad experience with chemistry in high school because of a teacher so instead, I took biology for three years in high school. I thought I’d get a Master’s in Biology, but honestly, I enjoyed my chemistry class in college better because I knew nothing.
What was your least favorite class last year?
I really don’t think I had one. I think my philosophy class was challenging just because I’ve never worked in that mindset.
Why did you choose your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I’ve always been in love with science from an early age. I liked biology and chemistry so I chose a mixture of them. When I looked into applying to colleges and all the different majors, Biochemistry just felt right with me and so far, I haven’t regretted that decision.
Reasons to Attend
1) There’s a bunch of opportunities no matter what, especially with research.
2) Greek life is big but if you’re not into that it’s OK. You will survive even if you don’t do Greek life, and even though it’s a big school you will find your place no matter what.
3) There is a group for just about anything and if there’s not a group that fits you can make your own. My friend is actually the head of one of the committees, as long as you submit paperwork, you can pretty much get any group approved that you want to. I think there’s a lot for everybody.
4) Upstate New York is beautiful
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If Greek life isn’t a thing for you and you don’t want it to be a huge influence I guess it’s a reason to not go.
2) If you can’t handle the cold, I would not recommend coming to ‘Cuse.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: I lived in Shaw Hall in an open double with one roommate.
Sophomore: I’m going to be living on South campus apartments and I will have two roommates but I will have my own room.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
There have been some crazy events going on near campus, especially Euclid Avenue where the houses are. It’s not owned by the university but you can see our Department of Public Safety helping people and stuff every time there are parties, which is good because they don’t technically have to. It’s not a part of the university. There was a stabbing down the street from me, and there were a bunch of robberies, but I felt like they made a huge effort because they notified all the students that something had happened and then they kept updating you. They sent out a bunch of information, like don’t walk alone at this time. They do a really good job because, even if you’re drunk, you can call DPS and they will give you a ride to your dorm room.
How was transitioning from Florida to Syracuse? I can’t think of two more opposite places.
Honestly, the transition to college is different for every student. I didn’t have that hard of a time transitioning. Going far away allowed me to feel free in a sense and allow me to truly free myself. I just found it a little hard with the economic differences. I’m going to Syracuse with full financial aid so it was a shock to be around wealthy students. Academically, I didn’t find it too hard. I know some people have a hard time transitioning into college but I was in the IB program in high school and I took a bunch of AP classes, so doing the basic classes wasn’t terrible. [Socioeconomically, 26% of students are from the top 5%.]
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you participate in at Syracuse?
This is just me, but I only go out on the weekends. However, at the beginning of the year, because it was opening week, they didn’t do much on the weekends at night and there were a bunch of tailgates and stuff like that. That was more my first semester where I went out a bunch. My high school didn’t party a lot and I wanted to go out, but after it got into the second semester I kind of got out of the phase. I still went out but I didn’t go as much. Some weekends I would stay in and be with my friends and watch a movie. It really just depends on you. There’s definitely a lot available if you want to go out. We have a bar called DJ’s right next to campus that a lot of people go to, but I haven’t been yet.
What have been some of your favorite times at Syracuse?
Freshman year was hands down an exciting year, I was on my own and able to do things I liked. I just liked going out, exploring and trying new things. We beat Clemson this year in football and that was a crazy night. Castle Court, which is this famous party area, was just crowded and stuff like that. Win or lose, Syracuse has quite the nightlife.
There’s also this place called Green Lakes. It’s closed during the winter because it’s a natural spring, but when I went at the beginning of the year it was fun.
How happy are you with the nightlife options at Syracuse? Anything that you would change if you could?
It really depended on the week. Some weeks were hard to find things to do, especially since Greek life is huge here and I’m not a part of it. When all the girls and guys rushed in the spring semester, it felt like there was not a lot going on. Houses can’t throw a party every week, it’s a lot to clean up. During that time there wasn’t a lot going on, especially when there were initiation parties and those were highly exclusive and only for initiated members. Still, I felt like you could always find at least one party even if it was fun or not. I don’t own a fake ID and I didn’t really feel the need to purchase one, so I don’t go to the bars. But, most people went there if there wasn’t anything going on.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
I applied early decision. Everybody posted to the Facebook page and people created GroupMe’s and similar things, so I met a couple of my friends through GroupMe’s, people I still talk to today.
I met my closest friends because of my scholarship program. There’s thirty of us in it, and they set us up about a week before school started so I got to know all of them. Obviously, I’m not best friends with all of them, but three of my closest friends were in the scholarship program with me. I wasn’t really hanging out with them the first week, I was hanging out with this girl I met in the GroupMe who became my best friend, but I slowly started hanging out with them and they became my family. I was on the first floor and they lived on the fifth, and I could take an elevator ride up whenever I wanted to hang out with them. Another one of my best friends I met through my roommate. I met other friends because they lived near me or in classes. It’s really not that hard to make friends in college. I know people are introverted like I was, but I feel like college brings out another side of you. There’s no way you would have caught me doing some of the things I’ve done in college in high school.
How would you describe the social scene?
I mentioned that Greek life is huge here, so you have that social environment. We’re really big on sports so you see all of the social events from sports coming up and we always know how to party. The social scene is really big here, so I think you have to be a little more open and you’ll be able to find anything you really want to. [About 30% of students are in Greek life.]
How would you describe the student body?
The student body honestly feels huge, and I think there is a lot of diversity but we can work on it more. [There are about 15,500 undergraduates.]
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Greek Life is mostly white and the because one of our fraternities got kicked off campus because of racist views [see New York Times article], so I don’t think people of different races and sexualities mix well enough. I don’t believe the school is as diverse as it should be. The school did some things to try to fix it, but most of the implemented plans begin this year. I definitely feel like we could do a lot better.