I am a second-semester freshman, and I am a Marketing Business major. My desire path is the analytical side of marketing that does most of the surveys and data collection and conversions for advertisers and major companies. By no standards was I expecting this path to be easy or lacking in math; however several challenges I have faced in my freshman year so far are strange to me.

For starters, I am two months into the second semester of my college freshman year, and I am severely struggling in my 1413 survey of calculus class, which is an intro to calculus class tailored for business majors. Our most recent test felt like a slap in the face to me because I went from making a B on the first test to making an F on the second (recent) test even though I did the same amount of studying and changed nothing on my end.

I am left thinking that it was something wrong with the test and my understanding however upon greater reflection it could have been something else entirely because the overall test grades in my class 12 out of 22 students got F's leaving the current grades of the class extremely skewed right with most of the class in D range or below. Given that this is a core class required for business majors, I'm sure most people are feeling the same stress and pressures that I am right now. Luckily, I have three more tests to pull up my grade and hope for the best!

However, that is not the only class that can be a struggle. Each student has to take Macroeconomics and Microeconomics, which in theory go hand and hand with each other but that is not correct. Microeconomics looks at individual products and how they interact with the markets they reside in, meaning you are still dealing with supply and demand, but the equations and key factors you are looking for differ greatly from the ones you use in Macroeconomics.

In Macroeconomics you look at the overall market of a place or product, taking a bigger picture of how different economies interact. Suffice to say; the difference is a big change from what I was thinking, especially since in high school they only touch on microeconomics topics while truly discussing macroeconomic theories. Be warned that if you go into these classes with the idea that you know the majority of it already you might struggle and get behind.

Another struggle I have found in my time at college so far is that online classes can be easy to overlook and altogether forget. Everyone that is a marketing major and a few other business majors have to take a class that is purely online called Computer Information Systems Management or CISM which is a class that helps students learn how to use programs like excel, power point, and word in the most efficient manner with all the neat tricks it offers.

It is an extremely useful class; however, there is little to no direction or instructions as far as what to do or how to work the programs before the exercises assigned for grades. The instructions can also be unclear because the way they are written is the exact terms; however, we have no prior instructions for what those terms mean.

Not having a teacher can be very difficult for some, and not have any kind of instructional videos or power points available makes learning the material even more difficult. On top of that, it is an online course meaning there is no in-class instruction or schedule for class times; you are completely in control of when you do the assignments if you remember to check the class at all.

None of this is meant to discourage those who wish to study business, just serve as a fair warning for those going into this path without much knowledge of what to expect. No major is easier than another so be prepared to work, no matter what if you don't know what specific things to expect in a college education this can be a step in the right direction. Gathering as much information as you can about your intended major is very important to be successful at college. Best of luck to future freshman!