Finishing up my first semester at University of Maryland, one aspect that surprised me was how much of our work was done online, as I don’t think I’ve had a single assignment that required the submission of a physical copy. While this did make completing and submitting assignments (especially essays) much easier, it also was a bit of a hindrance sometimes. For example, in my Sociology class (which was online for the whole semester) I experienced frequent technological issues where sometimes my assignments would appear as if they were turned in, however were actually missing. To make matters worse, my school email also did not function properly as when I tried contacting my professor and TA to remedy this issue, I found out that my account could neither send nor receive emails. On the bright side, this issue also let me experience how helpful your TAs can be, as I went to talk to mine in person and she worked with me to help fix my email issue. I also expected University level assignments to be much harder than they actually are, with most classes having assignments of reasonable difficulty (although in hindsight I suppose this could be chalked down to most of my classes being entry level). Thankfully, it looks like I’m on the track to get all As and Bs this semester, and hopefully I can maintain grades like these in my following semesters. In terms of my time in the SGC (Science and Global Change) program, I was surprised that we covered things like logical fallacies and the different types of research papers, as I had previously not recognized the value of this knowledge when trying to establish the validity and credibility of the claims you make. I’m excited to learn a bit more about the effect of ancient civilizations and species that are now extinct. For outside-of-classroom activities, I was surprised at the variety of different activities available to me, and if my schedule had allowed it, I would’ve signed up for more than one activity. However, the one activity that I did attend (the trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York) was not only educational, but also a fun opportunity to get to know my fellow scholars program members. I’d say college life differed from my high school expectations in the sheer amount of free time you have available. Between my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes I have over an hour of free time that I can use to relax or study. While this is a plus in terms of freedom, I find that it is also the cause of one of the biggest struggles I’ve faced in college, that being having to manage my time well. While most of my classes aren’t necessarily too difficult, all of them require work and concentration that can be hard to manage, especially with project heavy classes like Computer science (CMSC 131) and workload heavy classes like Calculus (MATH 141). Extracurricular clubs are also quite fun, especially with the broad array of clubs available here at the University of Maryland, but take up a lot of time as well. I actually took the chance to try out a new sport during my first semester by joining the University of Maryland Men’s Crew team as a coxswain. While I had a lot of fun participating, our practices took place every weekday at 5AM, which required me to wake up at 4:30AM. As one can imagine, waking up at such early times everyday resulted in me feeling pretty tired everyday, which was a bit concerning in its potential effect on my academic performance, especially given that my hardest class (Calculus 2) was my first class and took place right after practice ended. Not having my parents to watch over me was also a big struggle, as I didn’t have anyone to really get me back on track if I got distracted while working. Luckily, I set up a strict schedule for myself everyday which I managed easily by using a calendar and the alarm app on my computer and phone. Another unexpected aspect of college life was how serious most students were as compared to their normal depiction in mass media. I expected parties to be a much bigger part of college life, however I’ve found that most students here actually put a much greater emphasis on their academic success and prefer to spend more time going to professor or TA office hours, studying solo or in a group, or doing research in their dorms or at the library with parties only being occasional events that usually took place on weekends when the workload was light. For any future SGC students I advise you not to worry too much about how you’ll perform or not fitting in. Your classes are probably much easier than you expected, and having already gotten into a special academic program, you’ve already demonstrated your above average intelligence and determination. If you’re afraid of not finding people to hang out with, just look around you. The people in the scholars program are all people that are open to meeting new people and forming new friendships, no matter who you are. So in short, just have fun, don’t sweat things too hard, but still keep your eyes on what’s important. Back to home.