Have you ever been to BD after a General Chemistry Exam? If you have, you have seen the most energetic, gregarious and abundant social scene at Wash U for freshmen. Hundreds of scared and anxious freshmen pile into the dining hall with the aroma of fear of failure lingering and the energy seemingly coming close to a boiling point. The kinetic energy in the room is palpable. “The answer is A”, “I didn’t finish,” “no, no you’re just wrong.” The decibel level is higher than a rock concert. The party scene is real. People cluster up and compare answers, as others walk around in a seemingly drug-induced haze. I pity the student who walks in truly just wanting their late night half and half (chicken tenders and fries) and has to deal with this spectacle. The rare person that is bold enough to assert that the exam was “easy” quickly becomes the victim of the hundreds of others, being a catalyst for their anxiety. I think that people that don’t actually take Gen Chem come to BD after the exam to act as a reagent and say fake answers just to see people’s faces. BD after the first Gen Chem exam is for everyone. The first General Chemistry exam is eye-opening testing our mental ductility. Some question their ”life track”. As soon as it was over, I thought maybe I could be a rapper. As scary as General Chemistry at Wash U is billed to be, it is one of the best ways to make friends or connect. More than a class, the culture of General Chemistry allows people to bond together. From nights in Olin to celebrating being done with exams, there are so many people to study with and so many resources to use. So even if you didn’t rock that first Gen Chem exam, at least you will have made a couple hundred friends and gained some good critical thinking skills from lamenting over how hard that first exam was. Wash U is a party school after all.
By Molly Ruttenberg