Love it/Hate it: Senior Spring

The day I turned in my thesis, I ran out of Sever’s basement screaming into the sunny April day. For me, senior spring had begun. Since then, I haven’t looked back. My to-do list no longer reads as an intimidating inventory of assignments. Instead, it’s filled with amusing social activities: Senior Bar; late nights at the Kong; First, Last and No Chance dances; roller-skating; visits to the MFA (and all other important Boston landmarks); a “spontaneous” trip to New York; and choreographing a duet to the Jessica Simpson rendition of “Take My Breath Away.”

After finishing all of my core and concentration requirements, I am taking strictly electives—classes that I have always wanted to take. I actually spend time with my friends instead of sidelining them for a slew of extracurricular activities. More often than not, it’s sunny and warm outside. Never has Harvard been more pleasing. Ironically, it’s time for me to go. I finally feel ready to tackle the real world.

- May L. Lugemwa ’04

HATE IT

The highlight of my senior spring came during shopping period: nine months after the application process began. I had finally been admitted to my top-choice medical school. Since then, things have, quite frankly, fallen apart. Taking an ambitious course load (five required courses, including three science classes, two of which were graduate-level chemistry courses), I was compelled to drop one of my concentration courses on the last possible day, March 8, after taking the midterm for that course that very afternoon. And yet it was somehow unsurprising, as I had not yet taken the course’s strict prerequisite and found myself overcommitted to extracurricular pursuits (namely, four Ghungroo performances from March 4-6). But here’s the bottom line: although my final transcript will contain nearly 40 courses, I will be unable to graduate this June. That’s right. My degree will be sent to me in November. Not only did such misfortune jeopardize my previously formulated summer plans (though admittedly Cambridge weather is quite pleasant during the summer), it also failed to mitigate my academic distress. So, while my fellow classmates routinely indulge in the hedonistic pleasures of senior bar, I have been compelled to languish in Lamont, toiling over courses that have very little relevance to my professional aspirations. You can be sure that the countdown has started! I can even tell you how many seconds are left.

- Shashank S. Sinha ’04