Akanksha Patibandla's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

High school and college are very different from each other. College requires a lot more effort than high school. You have to put in extra work to do well. It is a lot of self-studying out of class if you want to be successful. I also imagined there to be fewer exams than I have now and there only be one big final at the end. I did not expect to have this many exams. I feel like I have almost one every week or every other week. There is also a lot less structure to college classes than high school classes. Every day is different in college, which makes it hard to adjust sometimes. There is no one to keep me in check when I don't go to lectures or don't do my work. Even though I came in knowing that lectures are with a very big group of people, I'm still not used to the number of people that one, single professor is teaching. On the other hand, I enjoy the breaks between classes. I have time to take a rest and get ready for the next class. I also like how we can choose our own schedules and class times that fit best to our liking.

I didn't expect a lot of different things to be taught in CPSG100. Making websites and and even using html to make it was really unexpected since it is off topic of science and global change. Also learning about logical fallacies and pseudoscience related topics also was a bit shocking for me. I expected a lot of learning about climate change and its effects. I also expected to learn about more human impacts on the world, and what we can do to stop this global change. I hope we learn more about these topics in the upcoming semesters. I did not expect to have a lot of outside classroom activities too. We do not get too much work, but I didn't realize there was a lot of reading and also watching a lot of online lectures along with the class. The class is very interesting and eye opening, which I expected. There are just so many ideas and topics that I have never heard off that I learned about in colloqium. I did not know about such things like the medieval warmth period or the little ice age until class.

Life as a college student has been up to my expectations so far. As a student who lives in Centreville, I have met so many different people from all over the country. Whether they have the same interests as me or not, we all are students. I did expect there to be plenty of work to keep me busy in college, but yet I knew that there were times that I could have fun. It is like a work hard, play hard type of setting. I have dreamed of coming to college ever since I was younger. I have been excited to learn about subjects I truly want to learn more about. I have made so many new friends and even kept some old ones and finally adjusted to this new environment.

Some advice I would give to students in general coming to college is that it really does take time to adjust to a new environment. It will feel lonely at first and you will be missing home for a bit, but it does get better. Almost everyone is going through the same thing. You will meet people who are accepting of you whether it's friends, professors, or classmates. Some advice I would give to sgc students is that class is really fun when you let it be. This is stress-free class that allowed me to meet so many people and learn about various topics never taught about in other places. You just have to be accepting of the class and you will have a great time in the class. Also, some of the work done for this class are larger projects. Time-management is key and it is best to not put work till the end. Try to get the work done little by little so it does not later become a burden.

I also wanted to bring up the difficulties to coming back to in-person classes when we have been stuck online all of last year. It was a big adjustment. Last year was really easy because we were not assigned as much work and we learned to be lazy. Coming back, we have to take exams in person without our notes. We were also stuck at home with our only our family to talk to and had to suddenly interact with so many people.

Overall, the college experience has not been bad, and I'm excited for the next couple years. I am busy with work, yet I get to enjoy the littlet moments of life in the science and global change program.

Last modified: 11 December 2021