Check In With Class of 2024

With the school year already over a quarter done, the News decided to check in with the seniors to see how they feel about college now that they have acclimated for a few months. We asked them three questions: “What’s your initial reaction to college?” “What’s a freedom you have at college that you didn’t have at Gilman?” and “What do you miss most about Gilman so far?” Look below to see how your favorite 2024 graduates responded. 

Zach Minkin (University of Virginia): “College is a lot of fun and there are so many opportunities:  all types of clubs and social events, some of which Gilman didn’t offer. The challenge is how you choose to use your time and what you want to prioritize. I miss the people at Gilman, whether that be my classmates, teachers or administrators. I also miss some of the clubs I was a part of like The News and Mock Trial.”

Noah Peters (University of Chicago): “Initially, I was surprised by how small a fraction of my time was actually spent in class. I enjoy the freedom of not having to wear a button down shirt and tie every day. I definitely miss Gilman’s incredible sense of community the most.”

Nick Haughey (Vanderbilt University): “College forces you to rethink how you manage your schedule because there’s far less class and more individual work, which gives some more freedom but also requires you to be a lot more organized. I miss the 20-minute conversations between classes, there was always something new there.” 

Ali Akpek (Bucknell University): “My initial reaction is that it’s almost like a more grown up Gilman. That’s probably because Bucknell is small and kind of looks like Gilman, but I feel like most schools aren’t that drastic of a change since Gilman’s a college preparatory school. There’s definitely more freedom as you’re pretty much on your own, and depending on the person, it can either be a huge change, or honestly pretty similar to senior year. Most kids won’t go crazy because there’s a good amount of work you have to keep up with, and Gilman teaches you that even if you’re struggling as an upper or lower classman. One thing I miss most is how close the relationships were between not only the different friend groups, but the grades in general and the close teacher relationships. If you’re expecting to find a Gouline at college you are out of luck, but Gilman definitely prepares you to be independent.”

Nick Lutzky (Dartmouth College): “It's awesome of course. I will say, I have a lot more work but class a lot less often. Still, it’s all super manageable, and I love waking up at 9:00 every day. I really miss walking between my classes with the same group every day. Especially going across campuses I had some of the best and funniest conversations of my life. I was thinking about that the other day.”

Nedum Ebo (Emory University): “I’m really loving college, it’s super nice to be in complete charge of my day to day life and be at a school that has so many resources and cool opportunities. One freedom I have is to really make my entire schedule, from when I wake up to when I go to class, the gym, and relax. There are certainly a lot of things I miss about Gilman having left now, however I’d say what I miss the most is being a part of the soccer team and having games to look forward to every week during the fall.”

Bennett Espenshade (Rutgers University): “College is a much bigger scale of everything, classes are bigger and there’s more to manage. The biggest freedom is being able to choose your class schedule.The thing I miss most about Gilman is the sense of community we had as a group, free periods were always a blast.”

John Collison (University of South Carolina): “College has given me the opportunity to be curious, pursue my interests, and to be independent for the first time in my life. With that being said, I can confidently say Gilman prepared me for the next journey of my life, and I know how to be successful in college thanks to it.”

Alex Beynon (University of Miami): “My initial reaction was that Gilman prepared me very well for college but the time management is more difficult when you are on your own and have so much time on your hands. Some days I will have a lot of free time so I try to waste a little bit of it and then end up wasting too much. A freedom I have now is the ability to make a schedule that is different from the normal high school schedule. At Gilman everyone has the three periods a day and afternoon blocks but in college I am not bound to certain periods and can make it so that I have no morning classes or no classes on a certain day. The thing I miss most about Gilman is the community. While I have made a bunch of new friends at college, Gilman has such a tight knit community that is built with close relationships between students of all grades and the teachers as well. In college, you need to try way harder to have relationships with your teachers and since there are so many more students, the only time I have really had conversations with upperclassmen is in a classroom setting whereas at Gilman I always felt like I had the ability to say hey to the upperclassmen and ask them for advice in a more friendly way.”

Austin Lansey (University of Rochester): “College has been great so far! I have a lot more free time which means more time for naps. From time to time I miss my hectic, busy days. I also miss being in the music department pretty much every day.”

Pitman Smyth (Davidson College): “I am loving college and I feel like Gilman prepared me very well for the workload. You have the freedom to take any class you want whenever you want and can schedule your day however you want. I miss having an advisory that meets regularly and as a whole.”