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Alyssa Taylor's "Expectation vs. Reality" Reflection Essay


My first semester of college has been a unique experience for me and my expectations
in comparison to the reality of college life was similar in some respects and different in others.
I thought I would have trouble meeting people, but I was wrong. I was actually really nervous about
doing well in college. I was told that it was like taking all AP classes, so naturally, I was very
stressed about starting college to the point of almost dreading move in day. I also thought that I
would have to pull all-nighters a lot for my classes to be able to get work done on time, but the
latest I've had to stay up to get work done was 11pm and I only had to do that once. Since my first
semester of college started while we're still in a pandemic, it's a little different than what the usual set
up would be. For starters, having to wear a mask every time I go inside with the exception
of my dorm room and even at the dining halls, I have to put on hand sanitizer.

Outside of scholars colloquium, my classes have been for the most part
enjoyable and still challenging. Some of my classes - specifically my classes that I'm taking
as GenEds - haven't been hard to complete assignments for, but it was just lots of homework.
I've still had some struggles with communicating with some of my teachers, but everything worked
itself out. Although all but one of my classes is lecture based, all of the teaching styles
weren't the same. Some of them would give us information and ask for our input, while others
would just talk at us for the whole duration of the class while we take notes. As far as graded
items go, they all have about five major assignments due during the semester and finals related
more so to a project that needs to be presented or there's one final presentation, with the exception
of my math class where we have to take a two hour final. although, I thought all college finals
would be a several hour finals, so my expectations were somewhat accurate.

My time in SGC so far has been lots of fun. I’ve really enjoyed all of the
lectures and the content being learned sparks my interest. The only thing that caught me off
guard was the aspects related to the website design. I really didn't expect to need to be able
to write HTML code. This part of the semester really through me off, since I honestly didn't have
a lot of coding experience prior to this assignment. I also was expecting to go more into the
global change part, but it seemed more like going through examples like in our books that we read
and we’re going over this subject in later semesters. The outside of the classroom activities
were a lot different than I thought, especially service day. Service day was lots of fun, but
it was very hot given that it was August. I had lots of fun doing all the excursions so far.
It made it easier to connect with other people in the scholars program.

Life as a university student was quite different than what I expected.
I thought people on my floor would be more into pranks and tricks given the stories I've heard
from other adults (via parents, neighbors, family friends, etc.) experiences from when they went
to college. It was actually the opposite. Everyone was so excited to meet everyone on their
floors. Moreover, I didn't think there would be such a thing as "quiet hours" at night on the
floors and I thought it would be harder to talk to people, but everyone I’ve met so far has been
very approachable and friendly even with people they don’t know. I assumed it would be harder to
talk to people here since people at my middle and high schools weren't as easy to go up and talk
to. I also figured that since the size of the school was on the larger side, I would have trouble
finding my way to all of my classes. However, I was able to use google maps to find my way to all
of my classes that was actually more common than I thought.

To give advice to incoming freshman, I have some tips to help ease yourself
into college and make your experience better. First things first, at the beginning of the semester,
I wrote down every assignment due date and turn in my agenda, the second I got the syllabus for each
of my classes. Next, you need to space out your work over multiple days or you will burn out from
the overload of getting it done on time. The next is to get to class at least an hour early.
Because of this, I was able to reduce procrastinating by almost forcing myself to do work and I
felt more motivated to get work done if I wasn't in my room. Third, if I did do work in my room,
I never did it on my bed. It made me feel lazy and want to sleep instead of doing work. I also
started and turned in assignments earlier than necessary. This allowed me to give my best effort,
take as much time as I needed, but also it was low stress to work on it then because I started it early.
I would also recommend not procrastinating. This can lead to an increase in stress to complete
assignments. In addition to that, be friendly to everyone. From my experience, everyone was always
welcoming and willing to walk up and talk someone they didn't even know as long as the conversation is
light and pleasant. As it’s to be expected, college exams can be stressful if you’re not prepared for them,
so my recommendation would be to study for exams a week before and try to always get a good amount of
sleep (I find that about 9 hours is good for me). I find that it’s a lot easier to process information when
I’ve slept well. My final pieces of advice would be to make sure to also make time for your social life and
manage your time wisely.


Last modified: 13 November 2021