Harnoor Sachar (SFS’26) is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Science, Technology, and International Affairs. She is from Bergen County, NJ, and is interested in pursuing global health.
There’s a quiet pressure that comes with your last semester of college: the urge to start counting. Counting weeks. Counting “lasts.” Counting how many assignments stand between you and whatever comes next. This semester, I’m hoping to do the opposite.
What I want most from my final semester at Georgetown is to soak in the best parts of being a college student, like living in a walkable community where my friends are always five minutes away or having access to awesome mentors in my professors. My goal is to say yes to everything, whether it be a last-minute dinner or one of the many Georgetown speaker events I wouldn’t normally prioritize because “I have so much work to get done.”
Most importantly, I don’t want to rush through this semester with one foot already outside the gates. It is my last chance at being a Georgetown student! I’ve noticed that senior year, despite all the excitement, is full of a lot of uncertainty, whether it be grad school applications or questioning where we are going to live after graduation. And while one of my priorities this semester is figuring that out (or at least trying to), it can be easy to let that overshadow the present. Balance is key, and I want to make sure that before I start stressing out about what is to come, I enjoy all that this semester has to offer.
I find it incredibly special the way that college life collapses the distance between people, ideas and experiences. I know I will miss walking across campus and running into some of my best friends or a professor from freshman year who still offers perspective-shifting conversations. Whether it be studying side by side in Lau or debriefing over Leo’s breakfast, Georgetown has given me the gift of shared time, and I hope to enjoy that over the next five months, before my friends and I are scattered across different cities.
Academically, I hope I can prioritize enjoying the diversity of my curriculum and academic path. I chose Georgetown because of its unwavering emphasis on interdisciplinary study and encouragement toward unique career paths. Here, I have moved between science, policy, ethics, history and culture in the same week, and yet somehow, I have begun to understand where it all connects.
For one final semester, I look forward to taking classes that challenge the way I think and expose me to new perspectives, encouraging me to ask questions and truly making me want to learn.
Most importantly, I don’t want to treat this semester as a countdown to the future. My last semester should be its own complete moment, with little connection to what comes next. College has taught me how to live alongside others, how to think expansively and how to stay curious, which I will always carry with me. If I leave Georgetown having truly soaked in this last season, I’ll consider that a semester well done!
