Years before I came to college I heard of the heavy workloads and stressful times associated with obtaining your degree. No matter how graphic someone was, you didn’t know what you were getting into until it was too late.
You find yourself here at school and all the nice professors who read the syllabus on the first day seemed so understanding. But now, they have turned into ogres. They work you like a mule and seem to take pleasure in giving you more work than it is humanly possible to complete. To top it all off, you see all these people around you who seem to have it all in hand: The girl down the hall who goes to bed at 11:00 pm every night, the UC President who keeps telling you to join things, and all those people who are attending rush events…
I am here to tell you that you are not alone. All of those people are under stress as well. The difference is that they have managed to not only get their work done, but all those activities they are involved in serve as stress relievers.
The key to survival at RPI, and more importantly life, is time management and stress outlets. I understand that you seem to do nothing but go to class, eat, sleep, study, and catch the occasional hour of TV. However, sometimes it takes a small time-out away from everything to allow you to clear your mind, and come back with a fresh outlook and sometimes tackle the tasks even better.
My suggestion to you is take a break. Join a Union organization. A list of them can be found at http://clubs.union.rpi.edu/. Being the Undergraduate Council president, I suggest the class councils—they have the most fun. Trust me, this is my completely unbiased opinion.
