The shoes litter the hallway creating their own bed of slushy snow and noises of excited feet. They lay in pairs but often far apart from each other, traveling off in random directions the second they graduated.
Amongst them were the tell-tale muddy snow of the season which had by now begun their annual migration across the lurid carpet and up the stairs of each and every dorm. For any student this chaos the school was fair warning of was exciting.
This was not a home where the look of the shoe mattered, this was the home of people so focused on their individual passions. The only time to divert a fraction of their time to was spirit and coming together.
A typical day in the life of a student looks like this:
9:00 A.M.:
After waking up, a student goes to their first class where their professor connects with them personally and engages with them through discussion sessions and office hours.
10:30 A.M.:
After class, a student heads to the "ugli," or the ref room, or even the law library if they're feeling fancy to get some work off their chest.
12:00 P.M.:
At lunch, always important, a student will meet friends at the famous south quad (squad) dining hall and catch up with each other on their endeavors.
1:00 P.M.:
Walking through the gorgeous "diag" to get to their next class with yet another astonishing professor.
3:00 P.M.:
Goes back to the "ugli," maybe their dorm this time, or a library to work on homework or extracurricular activities such as writing for the school's renowned newspaper, The Michigan Daily, or analyzing for data for the lab they work in 12 hours a week. A lab with an amazing mentor and a lot of opportunities ranging from psychology to the department of surgery to statistics.
4:30 P.M.:
Goes to work out in the world-class IM building.
6:00 P.M.:
Grabs dinner with your dorm peers and catches up on their day.
8:00 P.M.:
Again, goes to study some more, or even better, goes to Michigan events to support the school and the everlasting spirit.
The University of Michigan students crave the resources and connections to alumni all over the world, the snowball fights they have outside in the diag, and lastly, they crave passion for their individual studies.
Who's got it better than us?