Former AHS Grads on the Campus Experience in the Pandemic
By Erin Li
STAFF WRITER
We remember saying goodbyes to the seniors who graduated last year and the years before that, but do you ever wonder how they’re doing in college now? As this crazy school year is coming to an end for the high school class of 2021 and the college students, have you ever just wondered how the pandemic has affected them? What does college even look like now and what struggles do they need to face? ANDOVERVIEW interviewed past AHS graduates to check in on their college experience under the pandemic and to see if they had any tips for the upcoming freshman students going into college.
This year, most colleges went remote with a choice of hybrid classes and living on campus. Even though it was expected that the pandemic would change the whole on-campus life experience, Rebecca Song, a 2020 AHS grad and a freshman at UMass Art, told ANDOVERVIEW that she still chose hybrid over remote: “The experience is obviously not the same, but I feel like if I were in person I think I will be more focused and attentive.”
According to Song, in her school, most of the upperclassmen chose remote classes but a lot of freshmen chose hybrid to fill their first-year class requirements. Her only hybrid class this year is figure drawing, which is a freshman year required class for art students where they bring their art materials into a room and draw different models every two weeks. You can take this class online too; however, when it involves nude models, the teacher won’t be able to host a zoom meeting.
When asked about what she dislikes the most about college during the pandemic, for her it’s the absence of engagement in class, and lack of motivation. Song said, “Sometimes I felt like I didn’t have access to help, or like I couldn’t ask for help.” With online classes, students tend to find it awkward to stay after class to ask questions. Since the teachers can’t help the students physically face to face, it became an effort to reach out and email the professors or social workers for help.
This struggle to connect is also true with making friends especially for the class of 2020 going into a brand new environment. Usually, you would make friends through in-person classes, school clubs, and activities, etc. But this year everything shifted online, changing the main source of creating friendship to school Discord servers, Instagram direct messages, and other social media platforms. Even though you can’t hang out with a huge group of friends to grab food or study together in the library, people are trying to make it work. “In Discord channel, people will coordinate little things like going to the Blick store to get art materials, running errands together… a few people go and that sparks conversations,” Song added.
Along with all the struggles of finding motivations or making new friends, oddly enough, there are also perks to the pandemic college life, such as being able to attend online classes more easily or having bigger dorm rooms all to themselves. Sherry Wang, a 2018 AHS grad and a junior at Bentley University, said, “To be honest, I haven’t missed a single class this semester because they were online classes. Before when they were offline it was easier to not go to classes when all your friends didn’t want to go.”
Of course, another big part of the college experience is residential life. Because of the pandemic though, there are strict restrictions on college dorms and visitors. Students from outside the school are not allowed to enter dorms, they are required to take COVID tests every week and show an indication of the negative result when entering any buildings on campus. The public facilities on campus changed too: libraries are often not open now but only available for curbside pickup, the study rooms are limited to fewer than four people, and these restrictions differ for each school. For the students studying in Boston, some of their social activities during the week are running errands, grabbing food and drinks, or just hanging out with friends around Newbury Street or at the Boston Common Park.
According to Wang, “It feels more like living your own life and surprisingly grocery shopping became my favorite activity.” As an upperclassman living in a suite with her own individual kitchen, Wang started cooking more during the school year. Grocery shopping became the number one activity she looks forward to because it’s a reason for her to leave her room and breathe in some fresh air from the outside.
To provide a better experience for the students, colleges have also been trying their best to create student bonding activities to relieve stress, make opportunities for friendships, or just create some kind of normalcy during this abnormal year. Some of the common activities are online bingo, movie nights, or even arts and crafts nights. According to Wang, Bentley University continued its annual Spring Day event, which this year was April 16-18. Usually, they would have an in-person concert where all the students come together but this year they had a virtual concert featuring Tinashe, 24kGoldn, and Jeremy Zucker. During the three event days, there were different free food trucks every day on campus serving ice cream sandwiches, burgers, fries, tacos, fried chicken, whoopie pies, etc. These are some great activities to bring students together in a safer way during this special time as well as providing some late-night snacks to fuel up their motivation again.
Former AHS 2018 grad Sherry Wang holding a whole plate of food she received during Bentley’s Spring Day Event on April 17th, 2021.
An example of the variety of food Bentley provided during their 2021 Spring Day Event to help students to bond together and relieve stress.
The past AHS grads sure have had a very special college year under the pandemic, there are lots of struggles they had to face and resolve but there are also little surprises they found on the way to make isolation a bit better. What will the college class of 2025, this year’s high school seniors, experience next year? Who knows, but it may not be a bad idea to start reaching out to make new friends on the internet, go grocery shopping, or try to cook (without burning your kitchen down)!
Tips From AHS Grads
“Bring your spices, bring your salt, bring your pepper, bring your chili bean sauce, sriracha, because they don’t have that in college.”
Rebecca Song (2020 grad)
“If you’re struggling, others probably are too. Reach out to your peers even if it seems intimidating.”
Henry Chen (2020 Grad)
“Don’t miss any of your classes.”
Sherry Wang (2018 grad)
“Form study groups. Learning on your own is going to get harder from here on out.”
Henry Chen (2020 Grad)
“Find your roommate ASAP or rent a house ASAP.”
Christina Zhou (2020 grad)
“Random roommates are pretty, well, random. Learn to get along with people that frustrate you, at least to be able to amicably resolve conflicts.”
Henry Chen (2020 Grad)
“Be prepared to feel overwhelmed but also know that you are never alone.”
Alice Yu (2020 Grad)
