Anna Paulson's Freshman Time Capsule Reflection Essay

For the most part, most of my classes were how I expected them. However, I was surprised by my first organic chemistry class because I was expecting to dislike the class based on the horror stories I would hear about the course, but it ended up being one of my favorite classes. I really enjoyed the course because all the drawing in the course and studying didn’t feel dreadful, but at times it was definitely difficult. Some advice I have for students taking organic chemistry is to attend the GSS sessions they hold as well as doing all the practice exams (if your teacher makes them available on elms). Organic Chemistry can be hard, but doing a lot of practice helps a lot with memorizing the different mechanisms.

Unfortunately this semester I wasn’t able to build my relationships with a lot of the faculty members around me because my schedule was heavy with STEM courses and it was hard to attend any office hours of my teachers. However, I was able to build my relationships with my Lab TAs though which has been really nice since I have been lucky to get the TAs I did for the lab. I recommend incoming freshmen to attend their professors' office hours if their schedule allows them too because you can learn a lot from your professor by going to their office hours, but also go to your lab TAs' office hours because it can be extremely helpful in answering post lab questions and understanding what to do for lab that week.

My relationships with other students at the University of Maryland helped a lot with adjusting to UMD and enjoying my time here. While it can be hard to make friends, or click with some people, building relationships with those around you will make your time here more enjoyable and successful (especially with having friends in the same classes). While it can be hard to hang out with friends with a busy schedule, making time or finding a way to hang out with them will help a lot with making your time at the university more memorable as well as avoiding burning out so quickly. The best way to make use of connections with peers is finding things you have in common with those around you and going out and doing them together. For example, I really enjoy swimming and it has been awhile since I went swimming, but I found some friends that also like swimming and was able to go swimming with them which was really fun.

I was least prepared for taking all STEM courses this semester. In my last semester I took a large amount of STEM courses, but this semester I had only STEM courses which made my semester really hard to get through with the amount of assignments I would have due. I often felt like I didn’t have enough time to get everything done or I would get burnt out quickly. Even though my schedule felt light this semester, the amount of work I had for my courses was often overwhelming and hard to get through. One suggestion for incoming freshmen I have is to avoid taking a lot of STEM courses at once because the work loads can often be cumbersome and draining.

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    Last modified: 30 April 2023