ePermit Anyone?

This semester, I took my Macaulay Honors seminar on ePermit at Baruch College instead of my home campus, Brooklyn College.  Overall it was a great experience; I met lots of new kids from Macaulay/Baruch and I experience college in Manhattan. It wasn’t easy at first, though.

I was joining a group of people who already knew each other from their last Macaulay seminar and had bonded then. Most of them didn’t even know all the Macaulay students in their new class and as such didn’t realize that I was a newbie at Baruch.  Getting to college was different as well; while Baruch is an almost a 100% commuter school, Brooklyn is built in the middle of a residential neighborhood where most people drive or even walk to school.  What used to be a 15-minute commute for me suddenly became 45 minutes longer. For those of you that haven’t been to either campus, or have been to one and not the other, let me describe them to you.

Brooklyn College has a beautiful campus.  There are two major green sitting areas, a reflection pond, and many strategically placed benches, that provide comfortable and convenient resting and study spots.  The campus is spread over a square of ten street blocks and the width on one avenue with a street running through the middle.  The campus is made up of many different types of people — men or women with their children are not an uncommon sight.  There is also a sizeable contingency of older people taking classes in Brooklyn. By older, I mean above 45. Expectant mothers are not that uncommon on campus either. There is even a local playgroup that operates out of one of the buildings on campus.

Baruch is almost the polar opposite.  Baruch is a school filled with students, the majority of whom want to make it big in the corporate world.  There is no campus, because the city is the campus.  Seeing students “dressed to impress” is the norm, and I found it hilarious that people in my class would come to class dressed in a suit and for the guys, with a tie. However, one of the most amazing things about Baruch is its location.  Although there is no actual campus, going to Manhattan and being in college there felt like something out of the movies.  I know that most of us grew up in New York City, but I always went to school in Brooklyn, and getting off the subway and walking into a building in Manhattan where I would be learning was a thrill.

Meeting Macaulay kids in Baruch was definitely great.  It makes it so much more fun to go to events when I know so many people and it is exciting to see them again. Even though adjusting was tough for the first week or two I really grew to enjoy my IDC or, as they call it in Brooklyn, my Macaulay class.  I really liked the other Macaulay students I met. Even though next semester I’ll only be on Brooklyn’s campus, I know that I’ll miss my bi-weekly trips to Manhattan and the great time I had in Baruch.