What do College Students do on a Typical Weeknight?

To give this article context, eight years ago, when my older sister, Paxton, was touring colleges with my parents, a parent asked a question to the Vassar University tour guide: “What does a student do on a typical Tuesday night?”

If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, yes, this question is random.  Millions of college students in the country and world would have a different answer to this.  I decided to put in the perspectives of five college students and allow us to write about a night spent at school.

Grace Mittleman

Thursday, September 17th, 2020

I am a music education and vocal performance junior at the Hartt School.  Usually, my days can be pretty hectic considering my schedule and tackling two majors.  However, I was able to make yesterday into a day geared towards my needs and wants.

I had a pretty nice day!  I’m really starting to feel the burn of this semester, and I decided to take the afternoon to do things for myself.
I thank the heavens that I don’t have any afternoon classes Thursdays and Fridays. This has never been the case for me, especially with my double major, and I’m so happy I have the time to relax and be in my own element.

After my day of classes ended at noon, I picked up a package and hopped on a meeting at 1:30.  I am part of the new Branding Committee for the Hartt Choirs, and we are just starting out with creating a brand for our wonderful choral department.

After this meeting, which ran for about half an hour, I got a haircut and stopped at Walgreens.  I think it’s SO important to do at least one thing a week for yourself that’s not related to your studies or career.  Self-care is necessary when you are a college student juggling many tasks per week.  Remember to take time for yourself to breathe and enjoy life!

I returned from those errands.  I practiced piano, read part of my history homework, made dinner, which consisted of chicken, broccoli, and rice. I hopped on to my first Hartt National Association for Music Education (NafME) meeting of the year. Later I tackled some German homework and practiced diction for some of the pieces I’m working on this semester.  This semester I’m singing in English, Italian, German, Norwegian!  I have never sung in Norwegian before, so this is an exciting learning experience as a singer.

I like to go to bed early earlier than most college students. On this night, I went to bed at 10 pm.  Before bed, I wrote in my gratitude journal and read a bit.

Hallie Scammel

Monday, September 21st, 2020

It’s Monday night, I’m a senior Performing Arts Management major with a busy academic and extra circular workload, so my nights are always busy. On Mondays, my “night” usually starts around 7 pm when I’m done with my last academic-related activity. As with most of my days, Mondays are very busy, so I don’t have time to get much homework or other tasks until the evening. I also just returned from visiting my family for a few days, so things have started to pile up.

  I start my evening by grabbing some food at commons and heading back to the room so I can begin chipping away at my workload. I’m currently taking five classes and have at least one, if not two assignments, due this week for each class. I try to stay on top of my work to avoid staying up too late throughout the week.

  I also try to stay on top of my work to find time to enjoy my week. Whether that means hanging out with friends or taking some time for myself, I begin my week with the goal to make time for things that make me happy. Now that plan doesn’t always follow through to the end of the week, but I never fail to attempt it on Monday night.

  I’m very fortunate that I love what I’m studying, and I love the classes I’m in, so I enjoy most of the assignments I have. Not all of it is fun, but some of it is incredibly interesting. As a senior, I’ve found that a lot of my classes this year are focused on big picture concepts to prepare me for the real world. It’s a shift from previous years, but one that I welcome as I begin to think about my life after college.

By 10:30 pm I’ve completed a large chunk of my academic work for the week and shift my focus to other tasks that need to be finished. I serve on two e-boards, and I’m an RA on campus, so there is always extra work that needs to be done. By 11:30 pm, I’ve completed everything for the next day, so I treat myself with an episode of New Girl as I get ready for bed and get ready for another day at UHart.

Adam Culver

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020

I am a junior double majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. Fortunately, my classes keep very consistent schedules, and in most cases, the professors do not ask for much work from the students. This has allowed me more time to spend how I want to spend it.

Today was a pretty stress-free day. I started with my class in acting for non-Hartt majors. Before class, we were paired with partners, where we were expected to share a personal story with them (about the first time you did something, the last time, the best, or the worst). I told my partner about my last game playing high school basketball and then shared a fun story of my partner at summer camp with the class. I was a little nervous going in since I would need to improve parts of the summer camp experience, but once I got the ball rolling, it flowed smoothly.

After class, I ran into my friend Jack in commons and sat down and ate with him. It was relaxing to just eat and chill with someone I have barely seen since last March. It’s a good thing I ran into him too because he reminded me that I still haven’t sent in an audition for any A cappella groups. After he went to class, I returned to my dorm to do laundry and to play Among Us with my roommates. Other than forgetting my laundry for half an hour, nothing new happened until after my Java class.

A few weeks ago, my friends and I registered ourselves into a collegiate tournament with over 500 other college teams, featuring a single-elimination bracket. Having so many in-person clubs and events canceled has really allowed us to practice, schedule scrimmages against other colleges, and improve greatly.

Once the night started, that’s when things really started to pick up. At 8:00 pm, five friends and I booted up our computers to start playing a game called Overwatch. We had a scrimmage against SMU Dallas set for 9:00, so just like any other competitive team, we spent an hour before the match warmed up and going over strategy to prepare for the match.

The match itself went well, but there was a lot we could improve upon. Since the point of the scrimmage is just for improvement, our goal was to test new strategies. Out of 7 maps we played, we managed to win 3 of them. As the team leader, I felt like I should have organized everyone better, but we stilled showed a lot of life during the match.

After the scrim ended, we talked briefly about how the match went, but most of us needed to get sleep before tomorrow’s classes. It was past midnight, and I was running on 4 hours of sleep, so I called it a night.

Grace Wood

Monday, September 21st, 2020

As a junior acoustical engineering student, I decided to make Mondays my busy days this semester in order to have Fridays off, adding another day to work on homework and relax.

Today, I got out of my third class of the day and began working on homework a little after 5. Because it is an in-person class, and since I have a lab later in the evening, I decided to stay on campus to work.

My free time is almost always spent with homework, studying, or practicing, usually because I find that I feel better when I always have something to do. Today, I spent the time before my lab studying- which for me, I rewrote my notes from my morning classes- and then I spent some time doing practice problems.

Because my Mondays tend to be a little more hectic, I typically grab a coffee from Starbucks to drink while I work, always the same hazelnut hot latte. I feel like it’s a sort of treat for myself, and it’s a nice way to start off my week- it’s very peaceful sitting around, working on homework and drinking a warm coffee, and it gives me a jump start on the things I have to work on.

After my lab, I called my mom as I drove back to my apartment. My mom is honestly my best friend, and I call home almost every day, even if it’s only to just talk about nothing with her and my dad. I feel like there aren’t a lot of kids who are super close with their parents but being able to talk to mine about anything is really great.

Once back in my apartment, I made a cup of tea and began working on some more homework until about 11:30 pm, when I went to bed. I usually stay up a little later on Mondays because I don’t have any classes until the afternoons on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Liv Radianu

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020

I’m a freshman actor training major at the Hartt School! It’s definitely not a light schedule, but I love my classes as well as the people in my program! Today is my busy day with classes.  My first class is Voice for Actors at 8:30, it ends at 9:45, and then I have a bit of a break, and I usually do other work until my immigration group class at 11:20.  This class ends at 12:35, and then I have my movement class right after at 12:45, and it goes until 2!

After movement, I take the shuttle back to campus and grab some lunch with my friends and we’ll hang out for about an hour or so.  After this I will go back to my dorm to do some more homework.  Then I’ll try to get a nap in before I have to leave for rehearsal at 5:30.

When I leave campus again, I go to rehearsals which I am usually in until 10.  We have to clean the rehearsal spaces before and after rehearsals; however, this usually adds about 15 minutes before and after the overall process.

After rehearsal ends, I head back to campus and take a shower, and I’ll hang out with my friends for a while; and we normally watch movies in the common area at night, and then we’re all off to bed!