Name: Seerut M.
From: Meriden, CT
As a Connecticut resident, everyone has always said good things about UConn. I have never heard anyone say anything negative about it. When I heard that I had the option to go to UConn, I couldn’t miss it! I personally, had many other options to choose from for a pre-college experience, but once I started looking into the courses offered, there was such a diverse group of options to choose from. But to hear that my possible minor in college is offered during a summer program, it was hard to miss!
I chose the Pre- Psychology and Neuroscience course over any other health affiliated course. Why? Well ever since I was a little girl, I knew that becoming a doctor was my dream job, but I also wanted to explore something that I really never had the chance to. I looked into the details and actually looked at all the resources provided for me, and I was hooked!
The first day I walked onto the UConn campus was the first time I ever had seen a university. I was taken aback by how big UConn was. At first I was worried that I might get lost, but in the end, I never did! On the first day, we met our resident manager, Juwan. We did icebreakers and soon I started to realize that we all have an interest in common, Psychology and Neuroscience. Once we all got to know each other, we all clicked instantly. We all exchanged numbers and to this day we still keep in touch.
A typical day at UConn would be to walk to breakfast together and then head to the Psychology department and get settled into class. Our Professor, Dr. Markus, kept our class very captivating and engaging throughout the whole class period. After class we would all head to lunch and then had a 2-hour break. In that 2 hour break, my friends and I would walk around campus, stop by the student union or hang out at the Bookstore. After our break, we had workshops to do which were my favorite part because we could do anything, like learn how to write our names in Chinese, or create our own rash cream! This was honestly so amazing to do, who knew that rash cream was so easy to make! After our workshops, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We had so many things to do that when bedtime came, we all wanted to stay up!
My most memorable moment at UConn has to be when we went and visited the different psychology departments. We visited over 7 different areas with our professor. I learned that psychology isn’t just watching what people do, its digging deeper and experimenting and learning how we function as human beings and why we do what we do. My favorite part had to be the lab rats, we had the option to run our own experiment with lab rats with Professor Markus' student assistant, Tommy, a UConn student. I honestly couldn’t thank them enough for answering all of my questions about everything. This experience is really going to remind me that medicine is all based on experiments.
My advice would be to do the program! When I came back home from my experience, all of my friends wanted to know how everything was! They were shocked that I had access to so many places and that I actually felt like a college student for one week, and that we didn’t get homework! But the dorms are really nice and I would recommend bringing a blanket. But otherwise, I would really look into the diverse classes available and look into which one catches your eye!