Mathematics for Business Majors I
College So Far Essay
First Draft Due: Monday, October 21
Final Draft Due: Monday, October 28
This assignment is a personal essay, two to three pages, in which you
will address the following:
You are now more than half done with your first semester of college
work. Congratulations! The goal of this essay is to explore how this
experience has compared to your expectations before entering
college.
Discuss what your expectations of college and college life were before
you entered. Where did these expectations come from? Compare how
this expectation matches reality. Has anything about college
pleasantly surprised you? What has disappointed you? Is the work
harder or easier than you expected? How is it different than what you
expected? Describe what you think it takes to be successful in
college. Your comments don't only have to refer to academics. You
could also discuss, sports, work, culture, Philly, or social aspects
of life at Saint Joe's. One thing I really enjoyed about college was
the opportunity to sit out in the hallway until 2am getting to know
classmates from different places and with different viewpoints.
As always, give specific examples and vivid details. It is not enought to
say, ``The homework is harder.'' Tell your reader why it is
harder.
Please don't regale me with stories about parties. The social aspect
is a significant part of college life, but I don't really want to hear
any details from last Friday night. If there are more tame social
aspects you would like to discuss you can (and should) mention
those.
See the handout from the last assignment for guidelines on how the
papers should be structured, and see the new rubric to see how your
paper will be graded.
Before turning in your first draft, I would recommend asking someone
to read your paper and grade it given the rubric I will be using.
This may give you an idea of where your paper needs to improve. I
will give you a preliminary grade on your first draft, and you will
then have two days to revise the paper for a final draft.
The papers will be graded on a 40-point scale with 35% of your score
determined by mechanical issues like grammar, sentence structure,
spelling, and formatting. The rest will be determined by how well you
relate the points you are trying to get across. You should attempt to
provide vivid and complete examples. The readers should clearly
understand your viewpoint or opinion after reading your paper.