Silent Confessions

No more than ordinary.

Posted in Graduation, Personal

Assalamualaikum,

In my last post, I included a link to a Google Form where I asked for suggestions on what I can write about between now and up until graduation (or even after graduation), and so here’s my first post for my pre-graduation series [and no, I’m not making it a full legit series of blog posts, because I will always forget and leave it halfway through].

“How much has your life changed in the last 4 years since the very first day you arrived in States ? =)”

This question is perhaps one of the biggest things people would ask anyone who spent all or part of their undergraduate years studying abroad, and one that someone should definitely spend time to look back and reflect on their life and how much they’ve changed and grown. I’ve been thinking a lot about this too for the past couple of days, considering how I will be speaking at the UW-Madison International Student Graduation Celebration in May (a week before my official graduation commencement), so I really need to take some time off to figure out my speech and everything.

March 28, 2017

The End is Near.

Posted in Personal, Study

Assalamualaikum,

2016 will be ending soon, and with that, it means I have one semester left to graduate and get my bachelor’s degree. That means I’m this much closer to being a real adult, of officially being a ex-MARA student, of not doing whatever it takes to just finish my studies in a major that I no longer have the passion for.

And, of course, it also means that I’m so much more closer to actually having to figure out what I want to do with my life, which, at this point, I am clueless.

December 7, 2016

#GradSchool Thoughts, Part 1

Posted in Grad School, Personal

Assalamualaikum,

I’m going to make this an ongoing blog series, with random updates and posts as I navigate through my graduate school applications, going to interviews (if I was invited or if it’s required) and everything else in between.

University of Rochester, Warner School of Education interview for Student Affairs

At University of Rochester before my interview. Photo credit: Aizan Fahri

So, to start things off, I’m currently working on my graduate school applications to four different universities, namely: University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Rochester, Colorado State University and Michigan State University (in no order of preferences). My application to Rochester was already submitted (I applied for the October 15th deadline), and I have just recently submitted my application to Michigan State University (last weekend). I am currently working on my statements for CSU and Madison and should be submitting them before my Thanksgiving break (end of November).

For all four universities, I’m applying to their Student Affairs program (they have different variations of the program, but essentially they’re all related to Student Affairs), with an additional Human Ecology program at UW-Madison. So that’s five different Master’s programs at four different universities. All of them are for next year, so they would be starting either in August or September 2017 (so I’ll be going to my Master’s right out of my undergraduate studies).

November 9, 2016

1 Comment

Senior & Final Year of Undergraduate.

Posted in Personal

Assalamualaikum,

“My name is Syaza Nazura, and I’m a senior in Actuarial Science.”

There’s something weird about the statement above that it gives me a chill down my spine every time I say / write it. I mean, hey, I’m a senior now. I’m almost, almost done with my undergraduate life and it’s almost time for me to enter the real world now.

Now, to be honest, I’ve technically been a senior since last semester. My credits are enough to be considered as a senior last semester, & I could’ve graduated a semester early (meaning this semester) if only I took my literature course this past summer. If you include my classes this semester, I have 6 classes left to officially graduate, so I could’ve taken one of them online over the summer, take five classes this semester and graduate this December. But I decided to take it slow a little bit, take 4 classes this semester (and add on one extra class just for fun), and only two classes for my final semester of undergraduate next semester.

September 30, 2016