Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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1 ' htrf art two types of frcshfncn at Y.l). ' I ' licre are those tliat choose to attend after graduating from liigli school, and another contingent t)iat opts for a year in Yeshiva in Israel. Wlien a freshman enters Yeshiva lie steps into a new world replete with its own language. Suddenly words ' such as elective, requirement, easy A, and grubbing become an integral part of his speech. The freshman faces a .serious dilemma. There are various facets of college life that he must necessarily balance. Due to the rigors of the double program, he must budget time for as many as ten t ourses. Yet the television, telephone, and radio loo ' k in- creasingly more inviting than his intro Bio or Eco text. If lie is to succeed in college he will have to learn to occa- .sionally lock his door and take the telephone off the hook. The freshman year is not totally depressing. By the time finals roll around he will probably be amongst a group of friends planning to spend their first grub shabbos together (after the weekend, he does twice the amount of work to make tip for the wasted time spent talking about Florida or skiing during intersession). As the year progresses, he takes part in sonde extracur- ricular activities. Perhaps, a governing board member of Ommentator or Hamevaser has promised him a governing board position for nothing more than ten hours of typing during midterms. The freshman year is a time of enormous growth, and in most cases satisfaction. The Yeshiva freshman has more demanded of him than ever before; high school seems like a far away memory. By spring he has developed a good in- dex of his abilities and he knows what to expect from himself and Yeshiva. The Sophomore class grows to include the Israel returnees. The newcomers must learn the freshman vocabulary and terms such as: Israel credits evaluation, and Biblical Exegesis. The Sophomore year becomes the time to look back on the experience of the freshman year, .assess performances, and reevaluate goals (not for the last time). One feels obligated to commit one ' s self to a par- ticular major and career goal but is still hesitant to do so. However, by the end of the year, due to the constraints ;ind pressures of the system, one must compact the next two years of life so as to appropriately schedule Hebrew requirements, summer sciences, Accounting sequences and that ominous and still mysterious concept: Kaplan ' s.