One word I can use to describe my first semester at UMD is mediocre. At the start of the semester, I was anxious, but nevertheless confident and excited to experience something new. It is now week 15, and looking back, all I want right now is for the semester to be over with. It's not that things didn’t pan out the way that I wanted them to go, since I still achieved some of my personal goals and haven’t lost confidence in myself for the spring semester. It's just that the ‘downs’ slightly outweighed the ‘ups.’ I probably feel this way just because I’m burnt out, but this experience has changed my expectations about college to a place where I can learn more about myself and what works best for me.
Coming into UMD, I expected the structure and delivery of each course to be somewhat similar to what I experienced at community college. That expectation wasn’t too far off, however there were some notable differences. First and foremost, the courses that I am currently taking are considerably more difficult than those I took last semester. Expectations are very high and the workload is so unbearable to the point that there would always be something to do even during the breaks. Secondly, although I should have expected it, class sizes are so large that most of my lectures take place inside auditoriums instead of classrooms, and professors will make no effort to try and learn your name if you don’t make the first move. Thirdly, I found lab courses to be easier in terms of grading and workload, which was surprising. Something new that stood out from my university experience are TA’s and TF’s. For a majority of my classes, I made the effort to reach out to a TA either in person, over zoom, or through email to ask for assistance regarding course material or study tips for an upcoming exam. I really appreciate that the school makes sure that there is someone else I can go to for help other than the professor, as it's been a super useful resource for me.
The weekly colloquiums in CPSG 100 have been a great experience so far as the presentations from Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck are really engaging and informative, and their attitudes are both amazing, giving me a good reason to actually want to listen to what they have to say every Tuesday. Something that I didn’t expect to learn about were logical fallacies, as I have only ever learned about them in AP Lang. They have never been brought up in any of my classes until now, when we learned how to use them to spot weak scientific arguments. I only recognized a few of them such as ad hominem, red herring, slippery slope, etc., but most of them were new and I genuinely found this topic interesting to learn about. To be honest, I expected that the bulk of the semester would be focused on climate change, but I can see why deepening our understanding of the nature of science will help us grasp the phenomenon better. The excursions and field trips that I did this semester met my expectations: they were fun, learning experiences that I would do again in a heartbeat. Overall, although I didn't have any expectations for SGC or Scholars coming into the semester, I have a really positive outlook on the program so far.
As a commuter student, I haven’t really noticed any changes in my routine from my senior year of high school. I mostly just drive to school for lectures and do most of my studying at home. The only major difference is that my commute takes double the amount of time than it did last year, and on top of that I have to walk an additional 10 minutes to get to my first class. Something I did not expect were lectures to be treated like a supplement. By that I mean they can sometimes feel so useless at times that I found myself lacking the motivation to go to them. Without a doubt, all of my professors are incredibly smart and knowledgeable, but some of them are not very good teachers. I usually end up having to learn all of the content on my own, which can feel very discouraging. Additionally, attendance is not mandatory and all of my professors post their notes and slides online anyways. Something that baffled me was when all of my group members in my engineering class (they are all sophomores and juniors) told me that they don’t go to the lectures at all. Don’t get me wrong, I had gone to a majority of my lectures so I wouldn't fall behind, but I am no longer the same student I was in high school who always had perfect attendance.
One piece of advice I would give to a new SGC student is to not stress yourself out. It's okay to make mistakes, as long you try to understand what went wrong. Personally, I have made a number of mistakes this semester, and although it has demotivated me a little bit, I've found it helpful to view them as valuable learning experiences.