Hearts collectively skip a beat as a bell ring shatters the silence, and a startled girl’s pen flies onto the floor. Every night at 11:45 p.m. in Burke Library, students reluctantly pack up their things to go — but not to their dorms. Instead, a mass migration occurs to the 24-hour room before the cage-like metal bars descend, reducing their world to a room of fluorescent lights and vending machines. Four weeks into the semester, and some first-years are already pulling all-nighters.
“I do my best work at 4:00 a.m., I’ll be fine,” David Batbayar ’25 told everyone casually. Initially, he was very productive, without rowdy group conversations or passing friends to distract him. With the outside world shrouded in darkness, “the world narrows to you and your laptop,” Batbayar described. He cheerfully powered through classes the next day, but the sleep deprivation took its toll in the evening, draining his motivation. After lying down on his rug for a quick rest, he woke up to find it was noon the next day, luckily one without morning classes. It is harder to capture that sense of flow when working during the day, but Batbayar is trying to cultivate better time management skills. He is going to start his next assignments the moment he gets them, so he has ample time to revise essays and master the MLA citation format. “That’s the idea,” he laughs, “I’ve got to put it into practice first.”
For Shraddha Datta ’25, the goal is balance. In high school, she forced herself to robotically power through assignments, the constant stress and lack of breaks making her sick. Slowly, increased confidence in her own judgment and constant self-assessment of energy levels have helped her make better decisions. However, even with this foundation of self-care, college has been a huge shock to the system. Looming deadlines and overwhelming piles of reading keep her “acutely aware that [she’s] not studying,” even when she has blocked out time to relax.
“I keep forgetting that I can take an hour or two, or even three, or even four, to have fun in breaks and pace myself, and get work done in between, and be alright,” Datta says. Between studying and socializing, there is no time to be alone and recharge, and the opportunity cost of adding each activity or club that she is interested in would be overwhelming. Talking through each option with a good friend helps Datta calm down and reprioritize, as well as banish the mental voice that warns, “Maybe I shouldn’t attend the GSU meeting, maybe I shouldn’t have fun.”
Various club meetings happen nearly every night, so seeing a friend leap up abruptly at ten to the hour to rush across campus is a common sight. Despite the unpredictability of their new lives, first-years are slowly settling into routines, discovering new clubs and choosing favorite study spaces around campus. Some enjoy the chaotic synergy of large groups, laughing and shouting across the table in between discrete bursts of work. Others might find peace alone in corner study rooms of the Taylor Science Center, scrawling equations on a chalkboard to the movements of Tchaikovsky.
For students with work-study as part of their financial aid, applying for jobs is another significant hurdle. Kien Tran ’25 has been working on applications in the fleeting free time he has between computer science and calculus work. It was intimidating to get started, but he took advantage of Hamilton’s resources. These included multiple Career Center workshops and a session with a peer advisor, who helped him figure out how best to emphasize his skills and accomplishments on his resume.
Tran’s original plan was to cast a wide net, but he narrowed his options after combing through dozens of job descriptions and required qualifications. Connecting his interests in software and hardware to various jobs in the LITS department has sharpened his determination and made writing cover letters easier.
To relax, Tran plays basketball. “You’ve gotta have a hobby, a passion,” he tells me emphatically. He usually hoops for an hour or two after PE class, either alone or with his roommate, David Levine ’25. They converse with an easy banter, and late-night chats also help both of them destress. According to Levine, saying, “Hey roomie, you look really cute today,” is the best way to start a great friendship. It seems to have worked. “I’ve got his back, and he’s got mine,” Tran says, nodding.
Long practice times for student-athletes add significant stress, even if they love their sport. At an academically demanding college like Hamilton, “expectations are high on both sides,” says Jaash Parekh ’25. He is on the golf team, which practices for two hours on weekdays and five on weekends. Although the golf course is only 15 minutes away, as a first-year with no car, he has to constantly coordinate with the team for transportation. Compounding the pressure, each player has to requalify for matches every week. Last week Parekh had to “keep up with qualifiers, personal practice and workouts, then finish two papers and a quiz,” he describes. Parekh expressed his surprise (which is echoed by the majority of his peers) at the significant workload so early into the first semester. He arrived a month and a half ago, and still has not had time to visit Clinton.
Bruce Leight ’25 has a completely different problem related to athletics. On the second day of class, he was playing Ultimate Frisbee when someone accidentally rammed into him and dislocated his knee, tearing his ACL, PCL, MCL and causing bone contusions, which he has to have surgery for on Oct. 6. “You don’t really realize how inaccessible campus is until you get injured,” he said. Faced with a 45 minute walk on crutches from the gym (where he does prehab, preparing for his surgery and attempting to restore range of motion) to his residence hall, the help of Campus Safety drivers has been essential to Leight, and he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to them.
Although this was not the start to college that he had expected, Leight is finding silver linings. His firm belief that everything happens for a reason has given him an incredible degree of optimism. Instead of packing his schedule with various club sports, he has been staying on top of schoolwork and studying. Spending time outdoors with friends has proven to be an unexpectedly enjoyable form of socialization, and the Hamilton community has been very supportive and enthusiastically helpful. People advised him to take a year off so he could have a “normal freshman year”, but he said “there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
