My first day in elementary school(s) was hell. No friends, xenophobic children, flipping between a bunch of different education systems in the USA and Malaysia. Teachers were damn stupid too.. my 'science' teacher taught me that water was made of 1 hydrogen atom and 2 oxygen atoms
My first day in secondary school was a bit better. The teachers were far more sane. Kids matured a little. There was also that that time when female hormones spiked, and so did my looks, so I've had girls fight over me for my first three years in secondary school. Last two years were mundane.. kept getting OK grades, my best friends moved to better schools, etc.
First day of diploma was cool. Disappointing, I guess. I expected college to be full of uber-smart people, but they were on average only slightly smarter than in school. The funny part is that there's at least 20 people from my school who are in ivy league universities all over the world.. which is a ridiculously high rate for a standard public school.
First day of degree.. I transferred to one of the top engineering schools in Australia and got wtfpwned. Grades don't matter. I graduated with first class honours, higher than 95% of everyone else. What you fucking
learn in university matters! Remember kids, when you learn "basics" in the first few years of college, they matter. Fourier transforms, derivatives, programming skills.... all that will come back to bite you in the ass when you're nearing the final years. Not so bad with liberal arts degrees, but vital in engineering or science programs.
tl;dr: Grades don't matter, what you get out of it does.
BTW, Zironic, I heard that UC Davis is about as painful as UNSW. First day homework is the least of your worries