Coming into my first semester as a student at the University of Maryland, I was genuinely anxious about many aspects of being a student. How would my classes go? Would I be able to do well in them and not stress myself out all day? Would I be able to make friends? Safe to say, I had a lot on my mind going into the beginning of the year. Overall, however, I’d say my experience, though it had its ups and downs, was wholly positive.
As a computer engineering major, my classes were pretty rigorous. Although some of the material in some of my classes, I had seen in high school, adjusting to college-level courses was truly an adjustment no one person can describe. To me, the most unexpected aspect of classes were actually how fast paced the classes were. All through your high school career, I was always told that in college things would be moving twice as fast but I did not actually realize how fast that was. It was definitely a big adjustment to make, and due to our current circumstances, virtual learning both helped and hurt with that. On one hand, virtual learning was actually nice to have as most of my lectures were asynchronous meaning I could go back and watch lecture videos as many times as I want, and at a pace that works best for me. This proved as a very helpful studying tool as I got to be in class as many times as I wanted. However, as many students experienced, virtual learning created a lot of unexpected problems I didn’t face when I was in high school doing the same thing. Because college classes are so much faster-paced, obviously students are going to have questions, but because there weren’t any in-person classes, I either had to figure out my own questions by asking friends or I would attended crowded TA-led office hours. This was a pretty difficult adjustment to make and I am still trying to find ways to better understand the material while having the disadvantage of learning virtually. In the end, I was able to find routines and study habits that worked for me. Finding those routines and habits were probably the most difficult experience I had as every student has to figure out what works best for them, but once I got into a rhythm, the fast-paced college life started to slow down.
One aspect that I genuinely looked forward to coming to the University of Maryland was the Science and Global Change scholars program. From what I heard from older students at UMD and from what I could tell online, this would be a very enriching experience. I thought I would be able to learn about climate change through a more unique lens and that expectation was definitely met, however I got a lot more out of CPSG100 than that. I really enjoyed the first few months of class where we learned about the scientific process and how people use logical fallacies to cut corners in that process. On the surface, this information seems repetitive. Throughout high school, I learned a lot about the scientific method and aspects that go along with that, however in CPSG100, we applied that knowledge. I thought this was something that made the class unique to anything I had experienced in the past. Additionally, I really enjoyed the climate change centered content. I thought the information was presented well and I genuinely learned a lot and I look forward to next semester where we dig deeper in these topics. Outside of the class, I enjoyed going on the excursions and taking part in the scholars serves activities as it added to the already enriching experience that scholars has been so far.
To me, the aspect of college that I had no idea what to expect was the social aspect of being at a University. I decided to stay on campus in Centreville hall and I enjoyed that. I made a lot of friends in my scholars program and in other programs as well. As a high schooler thinking about college, I thought that college, especially a large school like UMD, would be a somewhat overwhelming place because there are so many people. Thankfully, because I stayed in Centreville, I felt like I had a smaller community within the massive school that is UMD, even at a limited capacity because of current circumstances.
Through few months of being a University student, I learned a lot. Mainly, I learned that college is not necessarily what you fully expect it to be. Although some aspects like the difficulty of classes or content covered in those classes were expected, there is a lot of different nuances to each piece of college life. Although I have a lot to learn about the college experience, there are a few pieces of advice I can offer. First, I would say to be as organized as possible. There is no way I can fully explain how important this is, but once you have a good organization system, you’ll be more able to balance your busy schedule. Second, be as outgoing as you can the first few weeks. Friends are one of the most valuable tools you could have in college as they can help every aspect of adjusting to college. As a freshman at UMD, there’s going to be thousands of other students going through almost exactly the same experience, so it helps to have people around you to go through the gauntlet of college together. Hopefully with these words of advice you can thrive as a future SGC student.