University isn't so bad after all Coming into college I thought it would be much more challenging compared to high school. By majoring in mechanical engineering I was convinced that I would not be able to keep up with the rigorous course load even in my first semester. It created a fear inside me that had me worried about the first day of classes throughout the summer. I walked into my first Calculus three lecture on the first Monday of classes and diligently took notes and did so throughout my entire first few weeks of classes until my first exams approached. Once I got to exams I spent a significant time studying and preparing for what was to come. I received my grades for all of them and got all As and it was at that point that I realized it was not going to be as challenging as I originally thought. Ever since that moment I have started to put in less time to my classes and have still done a good job through all of my classes. The graded work was very similar to high school was also shocked me coming in. I thought college was going to be a whole different level of challenging when in fact all it gave me was more time to complete my work and prepare for exams. I like the structure of college a lot more than high school as well. In high school, I had every class that I was enrolled in every day. This caused me to not have as much time to decompress from these classes with the afterschool job that I also was maintaining. In high school, I also had a full-year schedule as opposed to a semester schedule. I much prefer the semester schedule so far because of how the finish line is visible so much earlier as opposed to a full year of the same class. I was unsure of what to expect in CPSG100 coming in because I wasn’t entirely sure what I had signed up for with scholars. I liked the program a lot at first with the excursion and the metro scavenger hunt highlighting the program. The class is not entirely what I am interested in so it didn’t provide as much useful information as I thought it would for my major. I found it to be busy work a lot of the time because the topic was not something that I was entirely familiar with or interested in but the out-of-classroom experience was worthwhile, especially the service day. I also thought that the course would be a lot more overwhelming than it was. It provided a nice relief of a less challenging class as opposed to the rigorous engineering courses that I go about from day to day. I also have found this semester to be somewhat less stressful because of the abundance of gen-ed courses that I am enrolled in. English 101 has been a peaceful class for me to relax and do work that is much less challenging than I anticipated. My expectations regarding schoolwork have been luckily eased as the work is not as impossible as I had imagined it to be coming into college. I came into college nervous as only two people from my high school had come to this university so I was worried about having not many friends to hang out with while I was here. Luckily, during the first week, people were very friendly and I was able to connect with them and find people that I can eat with and spend time with while I am here. I am not a fan of Centreville Hall specifically because of the split halls between the north and south sides of the building. My side of the building on my floor are not very social people and no one is friends. I had expected for college to be a social place with everyone dorm room doors open and open to make friends but no one on my floor seemed to be interested except for minimal people. I am very happy being here though and do not miss home as much as I thought I would. It has created for me to be happy on occasional weekends when I do go home and occasional weekends when I end up being on campus. Regarding advice for future SGC newcomers. I think that college is not all that it is hyped up to be with pulling all-nighters and cramming for tests. If you budget your time well by doing assignments like this one week in advance, exams become much less stressful because of all the previous preparation that has been done for you in advance. I thoroughly have enjoyed college so far and most aspects of the SGC program and would do it all again if I had to.