Advice from those who have gone before...
Time to start a new year; Either you're new around here and can barely distinguish the Main School Building from the Dining Hall, or you're a seasoned veteran ready for another year (or so you think). Whichever category you're in, a few tips might help.

Story by Ravi Chugh '02, Janis Sethness '02, Erin Turban '02, Adam Voiland '01, and Luke Voiland '99.

Freshmen: You've just arrived and are overwhelmed with Green Key and orientation activities, hardly thinking about unpacking your boxes. Classes are starting and your five or six textbooks will soon be given to you, and before you know it, you'll be frantically highlighting and studying them.

Before that, make sure you learn a few of the ropes around campus. Talk to your Green Keys and peer counselors frequently. They will always be there to help you make it through your first weeks. Talk to your parents and siblings and other relatives regularly, especially at the beginning of the year, and let them knew how you've been, as much for their sakes as your own.

Also, make sure you get to know your classmates early on the year. Afternoon co-curriculars are great for meeting people. (Make sure you get your work done early Wednesday night and go to sleep early. You could use a good ten hours of sleep after the tiring days of tryouts and practice.) These personal connections will give you a strong base.

Sophomores: New sophomores, these tips apply to you as well. Although, your freshman and sophomore grades will not completely define your college admissions, they are important and colleges will weigh them along with your other grades and activities. It is important for you, however, to get in the good habit of staying on top of your work, but always remember to keep your strong base of friends and family.

Returning sophomores, take it easy on the new students. Remember how you felt your first weeks at school and take that into account when you interact with new students. Broaden your base by forming relationships with the new students, and try to get back into your groove at school fairly quickly. Don't take this year for granted-junior year is right around the corner.

Take advantage of all of the people around you right from the beginning. These will be the people you live with and learn from over the next few years. It is important to make your mark early on.

Juniors: Often heralded as a bear in relation to the other years, junior year actually deserves only part of the fearsome reputation that it has acquired.

It is true that the college process casts its shadow on your psyche; that the academic load intensifies; that faculty begin to look to you for leadership; that your sports will become more serious; that you have to write a term paper; that you have to worry about whom to go to the prom with; and that, sometimes, there just don't seem to be enough hours in a day. That is all true, and that is, unfortunately, the only part of the junior experience people seem to talk about.

The truth is, planned correctly, there's another whole side to junior year, a side that isn't nearly so fearsome. The secret to surviving junior year is only to do things you can truly say you enjoy. That might sound hard with all the requirements at Deerfield but in reality, the academics, the only thing Deerfield really forces us to do, don't get any harder during the junior year.

The problems come with the extra-curriculars. Juniors, often suffering from college fright, will often start trying to do everything at once. They'll take too many AP classes, try to play varsity sports, join more clubs than they can count on both hands, enroll in an SAT course, play in the band, and try to maintain the interpersonal relationships they've formed over the years. And although it's an admirable ambition, there are only a select few capable of actually-maintaining such a workload without suffering from some sort of nervous breakdown.

Be honest with yourself. Do only what you enjoy, but do it intensely. Do it better than it has ever been done before. That might leave you sleep-deprived or overwhelmed, it might leave you working harder than you ever worked before, but it will leave you happy.

Seniors: Your final year will be that of hard work, reflection, and most of all uncertainty. What is certain, though, is that your senior year will mark the end of your Deerfield experience. And, by all accounts, your senior year at Deerfield will be as bittersweet as those of the seniors who preceded you.

The fall of senior year will pass in a hustle of work, extracurricular activities and worry, all fueled by the impending college phalanx. And though it is important that seniors carefully consider their options at this time, it is also clear that you are all bound for excellent schools. Be honest with yourself and your applications. Imagine not which school will offer the best career path or is most competitive, but instead consider the environment you would like to live in for the next four years.

You have the rest of your life to make business decisions and career choices. You will survive the college application process, and you will be liberated from the stress and the deadlines of fall and winter quarter.

Winter may feel somewhat vacuous compared to fall, though the Deerfield workload continues. In particular through the second half of the year the seniors compose their Meditations. This proved to be extremely powerful for me and my whole class. Again I would encourage honesty in evaluating yourself and the influences of your life. It is rare for us to turn our critical and discerning eye upon ourselves and to ask, "Why am I this way?" I promise this exercise in introspection will become more important than it seems due.