Reflecting on the past year here at UMD, there have been many surprises for me. I was expecting to struggle in my STEM classes, with my “filler” classes being free A’s. This turned out to NOT be the case for me, as I found CS and (kind of) chem to be some of my easier classes. In fact, besides colloquium, my highest grade before finals is in CMSC132. The class isn’t necessarily easy, but I’ve just had a good time studying and learning everything. On the other hand, my worst classes are art and my humanities class. To be honest, I put relatively little time into those classes compared to my main classes, so this makes sense in retrospect. Incoming students might not be taking as wide of a range of classes as me, unless they are taking many gen eds, so it’s hard to recommend ideas. Since I’m doing IMD and Neuro, it’s currently difficult to find overlap in content, though this should be less of a problem later on. But for everyone else, I’d suggest trying to simplify things as much as possible by relating concepts in different classes if possible. There are many ways you can go about getting to know faculty here at UMD. I haven’t stuck to one way, either. Whether it’s asking questions during or after class, attending office hours, or emailing, there isn’t one way that’s necessarily “better” from my experience. But I would say, definitely try all of them. You never know which professor might be a hidden gem. For me, my IMDM101 professor last semester just seemed like a normal guy, I thought I’d never deal with him again after the class. However, after talking with him some more, I came to learn that he does a lot of work with EEG in the IMD department, which perfectly combines my majors. So, even just a random professor in an intro course might end up being your best friend—I’ll be doing my practicum with him! I’m from Howard County, so I already knew a lot of people here. Still, in most of my classes, there are people I’m friends with, or at the very least, acquainted with in case either of us misses something. Most of the time, it’s not too bad meeting new people, even as an introvert. Some of the obstacles I’ve seen are that in some of my classes, the atmosphere is generally very isolated. I mean that everyone is doing their own thing, and no one really seems interested in conversation. It certainly depends on the class, though, and even different sections might have people worth meeting. Additionally, since I live on campus, I’ve gotten to know the people on my floor, and it’s fun hanging out with them. I’d recommend at least getting to know them a little bit. I wouldn’t say that there is a particular aspect of college that I was least prepared for. I honestly wasn’t prepared for any of it, rather, I’d say that I was able to adapt really well. I’ve been doing better academically now than I have in high school, but this wasn’t due to any preparation before now. Instead, I actually put time into my harder classes, which has seemed to work for me. Overall, the year went pretty well, and I am happy with how I’ve adapted to my classes and meeting more people than I’ve met before.