Lauren Graves

Honors 100 reflection

The biggest thing that surprised me was how easy my honors class has been compared to my
normal classes. I'm taking Honors LGBTI foreign affairs and the assignments are completely
discussion based, which, as long as I participate actively, I end up with high points! This is so
much different compared to my other classes that focus on insane testing. I'm surprised that I
perform better in discussion based environments than I do in lecture based classes.

I did not expect how much GPA still mattered at UW. I want to go to grad school and all the
advice given to me and all the resources that I have found have been really disheartening. People
act as if GPA is the only thing that matters here which was the opposite of what I heard the first
week of school. It feels as if UW along with other Grad Schools are creating a barrier for people
to succeed. Even the honors program has a GPA requirement in order to stay in. It kind of
confused me that Honors encourages people of all walks of life to apply yet it adds restrictions
for people staying that seem rather harsh especially for stem majors.

Honors 100 introduced me to the variety of Honors classes that are possible to take here.
Through our quiz section for example, I found a class all about climate change that ill be taking
next quarter. I'm really interested in finding interdisciplinary classes that I can use to expand my
world view and understanding of my major. It also made me think about study abroad more. I
never thought that I would be able to afford to travel abroad for school but now that I know of
some scholarships that are out there, it feels more possible for me.

By the end of my time at UW I hope to have a high enough GPA along with enough experience
to get me into a graduate school program. I hope that by the end of my first year in honors I'll
have done something that I can use for my portfolio that I give to grad schools. Perhaps, ill start
looking into experiential learning things I can do that would count as experience in my aspiring
field. Also, by the end of my time here, I hope to make connections with people in the field that
I would like to go into (clinical psychology).

This quarter I learned about the importance of office hours. Every single midterm for my
sociology class I've gone to office hours and it always resulted in a much better grade and me
feeling much more prepared than before. Next quarter I'll try to attend office hours for every
class I have. I also met a few upperclassmen that have pointed out to me better ways to study and
resources I can use online such as crash course videos. Each class I plan on meeting at least two
people that I keep in contact with throughout the quarter.
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