Day in the Life of a Mudder – Anya ’23

It’s been a while since the last day in the life of a Mudder blog post (from 2018 on here) so I thought why not write about a typical day for me last semester. We have a lot of freedom here at Mudd to design our course schedule, there are classes that we need to take but often those have multiple sections and of course our electives and HSAs are up to us in consultation with our advisors. Some people like to arrange their classes to have as late a start as possible, others prefer early classes. I personally like to make it so I can go straight between classes without hour-long blocks in between, but others like these breaks. Quite a few students work to get Fridays off when possible so they can have a longer weekend. Usually students take the equivalent of four or five three credit classes, with maybe some lower credit electives replacing one or more of those. Last semester was a bit unusual for me in that I took a lot of these lower credit classes, making my schedule look a lot busier than it actually was since most of my classes didn’t have a lot of work outside of class. With that, I present to you: my typical Wednesday.

7:30am: Turn off my alarm and go back to sleep.

8am: Get out of bed, get ready for the day, and head on over to our dining hall, Hoch, for breakfast. The Hoch is mostly empty at this time of the morning and I love starting off my day with a smoothie (orange juice with strawberries, banana, and pineapple for me), potatoes, and protein. I pick up my food and sit down with my other early rising friends at our typical table.

9am: Time for Japanese, my first class of the day, at Pomona College. This class was probably the most work of any class I had, since it involved learning all of the grammar and vocabulary associated with another language, but it was also really fun.

9:50am: When Japanese ended, I would head over to sit outside at the Coop, Pomona’s student center, and work on Japanese homework with a classmate. It was really nice having someone to do it with and check answers with after doing it alone for a year due to online classes.

10:50am: At this point, I’d head over to my other Pomona class of the day, Pickleball. I had already finished my PE requirement by this point, but I still took a pickleball class because it was fun, gave me time to relax and just play, and was good exercise.

11:50am: When pickleball ended, I’d walk back to Mudd for lunch. I could have gone to one of the Pomona dining halls, since there is cross-campus dining for all the 5Cs, but Wednesday lunch at Hoch is Pho, which I really enjoy so it was worth taking the time to head back.

1:15pm: After lunch, I’d grab my computer and head over early to my scientific computing classroom for office hours, or later in the semester, to work on my final project with my partner. I’d work on the homework to make sure I got a head start on it before it was due on Fridays, and I’d have the professor there available to answer any questions that came up.

4pm: After Scientific computing, I’d head either back to my room for online biology colloquium or to the lecture hall. I really enjoyed biology colloquium, it was interesting hearing about all these different people’s research, and it was nice to have a class where all I had to do was pay attention and take a few notes to turn in.

5:30pm: Once colloquium was over, I’d head to Hoch for dinner, typically meeting with my friends. I love listening to the crazy conversations we have. Sometimes we stay at Hoch for hours as some people leave but then new people come. If we do leave before it is time to head over to my last class of the day, one of my friends will pull out her deck of cards that she always seems to have and we’ll play a quick card game.

7pm: My last class of the day: choir. Choir really doesn’t feel like a class to me, it is a creative outlet and another break from my other classes. I love going and just making music with other people.

8:30pm: After choir, I do my reading and the short response for biochemistry class the next morning. Past that, I didn’t do more homework on Wednesday nights, preferring to spend my time reading my books for fun or playing games with my friends.

Around 11:30pm: Bedtime!