Top Five Things I Wish I Knew About Before Attending Brooklyn College

1.) I wish I knew that my major had the least credits.

I was a Journalism major at Brooklyn College, but that major had the least credit hours of any major in the entire school. I don’t think that would have changed my major, but having to scramble to find electives was something that made the college experience more work than it had to be. In other words, while I liked having room for electives, there were only so many classes that I was interested in that had nothing to do with my major or the required core classes (more on that later).

Another aspect of the journalism program having the fewest credits towards graduation was that it forced me (and others in the journalism program) to take 12 credits in another concentration. As much as I loved Brooklyn College, I would have liked to have at least known how many more non-major classes that I had to take because of my chosen major so that I could have made an informed decision.

2.) I wish I knew how painful it was to get information about my financial aid.

The financial aid process was painfully tedious. It is not just the long lines; it is how long it took to figure out what was going on with my aid once I was able to sit down with someone who works in the office. It is understandable because many students have questions about their financial aid, especially early in the semester.

Moreover, I am pretty sure that students in other schools can say the same thing about their financial aid offices. My counterargument would be that the process cannot be worse than Brooklyn College’s, and more to the point, I missed classes because I was waiting in line or because the person trying to help me took 10 minutes to answer simple questions.

3.) I wish I knew how many fast food restaurants were near Brooklyn College.

Getting financial aid checks and having fast food restaurants that are easily accessible were a bad combination for me. I remember working at the Brooklyn College Kingsman and having Blimpie’s for lunch and then Burger King for dinner (and vice versa).

I was amazed by having so many options and it ended up negatively affecting my health. It was my fault but I wish I had been more prepared for all of the options that I had. I would argue there are too many options.

If you’re interested in Brooklyn College, check out our story on campus safety.

4.) I wish I knew that Brooklyn College doesn’t clean up all of the snow.

I can’t say that I have had that many accidents on the Brooklyn College campus, but I remember the slips and falls that I did have. There was one time in my senior year where I fell down the steps on my way to the Brooklyn College Library Café because no one cleaned up the snow or ice.

The fall wasn’t that bad in terms of the result: I only scraped my knee, but I was very upset because I didn’t get to the school until 12PM the day after a snow shower and I thought that it should have been dealt with in the morning. People are going up and down the stairs to the Library Café all of the time and it should be safe for them.

5.) I wish I knew how many clubs there were on campus.

Before attending Brooklyn College, I had always heard that it was not a social school. More than that, I am not a social person, but at the same time I was willing to be in groups that could have helped me integrate myself into the school both socially and academically.

By the time I was a junior, my social life was limited to my fellow staff writers and editors at the Brooklyn College Kingsman. Moreover, between classes and the Kingsman I figured that I did not have time for anything else.

Mustafa Samiullah. Brooklyn College Class of 2005-BA in Journalism. I am still at the school nearly everyday as I use the Brooklyn College Library Cafe as a place for my freelance writing, so I still know what is going on in terms of campus life.