My favorite courses so far have been the courses that I took to fulfill Gen Ed requirements. The biggest difference between academics in college and high school is that high school classes cover broad subjects, but in college, you can learn about some pretty niche topics. That is what surprised me about college classes at first. For example, this semester, I took a history course that examined the parallels between ancient Rome and the contemporary U.S. While I did have to learn a lot of ancient Roman history, I also learned to frame this new knowledge as it relates to American culture and politics. This is not something I would have learned about in such great detail in high school.
This year, I was able to build good relationships with my math professors because I always went to their office hours. I'm not the best at math, so I had to go to office hours a lot! Even though my initial intention was just to get help with homework, I ended up being able to build a relationship with them because they recognized my face and name among the huge number of students they have and more importantly, they got to know me as a student. The biggest obstacle was obviously not being able to see them in person; there was not much class time available to interact with professors, especially if they taught through pre-recorded lectures. Even without the pandemic, I can see this being an obstacle because professors probably use up most of their class time to actually teach, not talk to students! For incoming students, I recommend going to office hours often because this is the best way to build a more personal relationship with your professors.
Your friends will always be your biggest supporters when it comes to coping with a new environment because they are going through the same thing as you. If you ever feel overwhelmed or sad or anxious, or anything negative, it is good to know that you aren't alone! There will always be someone who is feeling the same way as you or has felt the same way and knows how to deal with it. Either way, they can support you through tough times, and there will definitely be tough times through out your first year at college. The biggest obstacle in connecting with other students is definitely putting yourself out there in the beginning, because you are in a completely new place with a huge number of people you have never met before and it is super uncomfortable. So, putting yourself out there is the hardest part, but once you've done that, it gets a lot easier, and you will become close to a lot of great people. The best way to meet new people is to talk to the people on your floor/ building and to join clubs that you really like, because you are guaranteed to meet people with the same interests as you.
I was the least prepared for exams. I was in the MCPS school systems, and we didn't have final exams. So, when it came time to take finals in my college courses, I had no idea how to prepare and I was in constant stress in the weeks leading up to the exams. What I've learned from this experience is that you should take good, detailed notes during every lecture, over the course of the entire semester. In high school, I used to prepare for tests by sitting down with the book or lecture Powerpoints and studying everything at once, but that won't cut it in college. The final covers everything you have learned in the entire class, and its not feasible to cram it all into your head a few days before the test. If you accumulate good notes and learn the material thoroughly as you go along, you will have a much easier time studying once you reach finals season. Also, past exams and practice questions are the key to success in my opinion, so do a lot of those.