Freshmen Sarah Krizman and Jada Bissett knew that Hillsdale would be challenging. However, this “hell week” has pushed them farther than they imagined.
“Everything happened this week. I had an exam in every class this week,” Bissett said.
All Hillsdale students experience a certain amount of stress during the last weeks of the semester, as papers pile up and final exams draw near. Some students experience the “final push” to a more extreme degree than others.
Junior John Taylor, a history major with concentrations in economics and philosophy, took five academic classes this semester. Four of them were history and philosophy classes, heavy on reading and writing.
“Taking four classes doesn’t seem worth it to me when you could take more and learn more,” Taylor said. “No matter what happens to your grade.”
Earlier this week, Taylor had about 20 pages written of the total 55 he will write by the semester’s end. Taylor admitted that he always intends on starting writing the papers sooner in the semester, but neglects his work and consequentially will amass a few sleepless nights and MelCat book fines by next week.
“As much as there is to complain and whine those two nights you pull all nighters in a row, when the sun rises and you’re still awake studying for an exam at 8 a.m., that’s when you really feel alive,” Taylor remarked. “Living off French press coffee and vitamin supplements – that’s literally my life.”
A junior transfer and economics major, Carolina McNicoll is enrolled in six academic classes and a CCA this semester, totaling a whopping 19 credits. McNicoll doesn’t describe herself as someone who gets stressed easily, but this semester has had its moments.
“As an economics major, I am fortunate to have few papers assigned considering the workload,” she said. “I had between 13-14 tests this semester, not including finals or quizzes.”
As tolling on students as the semester may seem, the amount of work that Hillsdale professors must accomplish is even more mind-boggling.
Associate Professor of History David Raney is teaching one upper-level class and two Western Heritage courses this semsester, which is typical of history professors, he said. Raney assigned three three-page papers to his Heritage class, and a 14-page term paper to his 30 Jacksonian America students. All in all, he will grade 798 pages of written papers. He also writes and proctors two midterm tests and a final for his 42 Heritage students, along with one midterm and one final for his upper level class. All in all, he will read and grade 1,194 blue book pages.
“My least favorite grading is grading freshman term papers because they’re all writing in response to one prompt, and after a while the responses can become redundant,” Raney said. “Whereas reading research papers is quite enjoyable, because the topics are quite diverse and often interesting.”
Raney and his wife Dawn had their first child on Sept. 26 of this year, which has slowed down his usual speed of grading. However, Raney makes the most of the situation with his famous positive attitude.
“I have never been more behind in my life, but would I trade it for anything else? Absolutely not,” he said.
Assistant English Professor Dutton Kearney has a large family with many kids, and due to changes in the core, has taught a lighter load this semester. Unlike Raney, he enjoys grading exams better on the whole, although he “loves reading an excellent essay.”
As Krizman realized that seven more semesters of this awaits her, she shook her head in denial.
“I can’t even think about seven more times.”
