Post Departure reflection

Reflection of the College Prep Course

Now two weeks after the college prep course and looking back, I can safely say that my stay in Boston attending the Abbey Road College prep course was the highlight of my summer. Before the I went to Boston I mentioned that, because I live in Germany I hope to gain some knowledge about the city of Boston and culture. Our trip coordinator was great at this he managed by the end of the two weeks to send us home with a secure grasp of the SATs and college essay writing, but also with a lot of information about Boston past and present. We learned about Boston through the tours that we took around Boston. We participated in Boston's freedom tour, which was given by a man in 18th century clothes and later we partook in one of Bostons Duck tours which gave us a tour of Boston's streets and the Charles river. Also regular excursions into the city of Boston with friends and on stipend dinners gave us an excellent idea about Bostons metro system and the way the city is organized.


In addition to the cultural experience, as mentioned before, I found that the trip gave me excellent tutoring, In SATs and college essay writing. The SAT course was exceptionally helpful with a good teacher who taught us new ways to tackle the SAT test. The course also allowed us to take four full length SAT tests giving us excellent experience and security for future tests. All of the teachers were amazing with the teachers for our college essay writing consisting of an english professor who has published her first novel, and an admissions officer at Purdue university who using his experiences working with admissions was able to give us excellent advice on what a college is looking for in a student. One of the most helpful things that I found was the four college tours that we did, which I thought was a great opportunity, because it allowed me to gain a feel for what college will actually be like. This college touring experience was further enhanced by the fact that our college essay writing teachers helped us create a list for what we want in a college. This helped me look at the colleges that we were touring in a new light.

When I arrived in Boston I was surprised by how diverse the rest of the students attending the summer program were, with people coming to boston from Turkey and even Singapore. This helped make our learning experience even more interesting and educational as we were able to learn about other peoples culture. Abbey Road did a great job accumulating a great group of students, with everybody getting along with each other right from the start. This made all of the activities that our counsellors had planned a lot more fun.


Overall, I think that it was a very good program offering a great basis for applying to college and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a college prep course.

July 5, 2012

Today we had another SAT test. We had to wake up early, but at least it was the last of all four! After the test, we toured Boston University one of Boston's most prominent universities, it has an excellent combination of majors coupled with hands on experience. We finished the day with a leadership activity called breaking the silence, it was really good and we got to share our experiences.

Boston University

 July 3, 2012

Today was an exciting day, we had our third SAT test in the morning today, followed by a visit to Northeastern University. The University was really cool, everybody was really impressed by the colleges co-op program, which helped ensure jobs for people graduating from college. We then had a night time elective, which was interrupted by a buch of fireman who pulled up outside our building, I think we had about 9 firetrucks outside our building. After that escapade we went to watch the new Spider Man which was a really good movie, but 20 minutes before the end the whole cinema was evacuated for unknown reasons. This concluded the end to an exciting day. 

July 4, 2012 


Today after SAT prep we had the rest of the day of to relax. Our day of relaxation, started with a buffet of submarine sandwiches and I then went to see a movie. We had a special dinner at a restaurant, named Fire and Ice, and it consisted of a restaurant where u can pick all of your ingredients. We did not get a lot of fireworks, manly because just when they started it began to rain and we all had to run inside.

    Saturday and Sunday in Boston

Saturday

Saturday was our most exciting day of the week, after a morning of essay writing prep we embarked on journey around Boston and ended up in Plymouth.  At 1:30 we embarked on a Duck tour that took us around the city. The bus driver even let some of us drive the duck bus on the water. After this we traveled to Plymouth and embarked on an epic journey into the realm of the surreal, i.e Ghost Hunt. Even though we did not see any ghosts a few people did get pretty spooked and we learned a lot about the city of Plymouth.

Plymouth

Ghost Hunter BOB

Sunday 

Today we had two essay prep lessons, with a lunch in between at an Irish restaurant. Their nacho portions were enormous! We have finished our second essay in the essay prep class. We then had the rest of the evening free, with a team building activity in the afternoon. We had the option to go to Chinatown for dinner, and some people went, but I explored the city of Boston with some friends.

Boston next couple of days

          June 25,2012
          The next days in Boston I think were even better than the first one. Everybody has recovered from their jetlag and are having a blast.  After having a few SAT classes everybody that I have talked to has agreed that the course really nails the important points involving the SAT. I think that our second electives is very good and I have heard no complaints from the people in my class. I think that the afternoon elective course is also really good for putting the application to college into perspective, and alleviating anxiety. 

           June 26,2012

Our group also managed to tour Boston's famous Quincy market, and had dinner at a good seafood restaurant. Followed by us going to see a movie at the theatre just down the road from were our residence halls are. Despite high expectations the movie we decided to see turned out to be boring, but everybody seemed to have a great time. We played an interactive bonding game back at our dorms, which was really great.

June 27, 2012
On this day our group went to Boston college instead of having afternoon electives. Out of the nine colleges that I have toured I can safe fully say that it has been my favorite college so far, touching on all of the things that I look for in a college. These things includes having small classes with only 2% of their classes involving actual lectures, as well as having a solid program for ensuring employment after college. Unfortunately we had to skip our shopping spree on Newbury street due to time constraints, but we have been promised that the opportunity shall arise arise. (Spain beat Portugal in penalty shoot outs, YES!!!)

Boston college!!!

Boston College

Inside Part of Boston College

Boston College Library

Business center of college

June 28, 2012
We had our second SAT test today, and everybody agreed that they felt that they did a lot better. Guess the SAT prep is really kicking in! Today was really cool because we got to have 5 hours of free time, I spent the time exploring Boston and hanging out.

June 29,2012
Today, we followed the usual schedule of classes in the morning and the afternoon. During free time I went into Boston.

First Day In Boston

                                                             First Day In Boston

My first day in Boston was awesome. I am amazed at how good Emerson college is in terms of its facilities, its the dorm rooms, and the food provided by the college are amazing, with breakfast including a wide selection of eggs, sausages and bacon. That night I managed to get my first glimpse into the city that I am staying in by going on an awesome tour about Boston. Our college prep group is really great and everybody gets along with each other really well. In class we also took what for many of us was our first SAT test ( Im anxious to find out how I did) . Our second elective course involved a presentation giving an overview of the many of apsects of college.

Here are some pictures of our first Day in Boston 

Our Beds

As you can see our dorm rooms are truly exceptional and they have quite a lot of space.
The cool things about the Dorms are that while there are only three people to a room all the rooms are connected by a hall, making it a lot simpler to ask other people about homework and stuff.

Here is our cafeteria, it has a buffet with some amazing food and at the back you can make out the Grill which serves eggs, bacon and sausages for breakfest and steak and other meats for dinner. There are also plenty of vegetables and fruit available.

In our SAT Prep course room

We have an amazing group and eveybody has instantly become friends.

Looking forward to watching the midnight release of spider man!!!