In terms of my expectations vs the reality of my college courses, the majority of them fit what my expectations were for them since I had taken college classes prior to coming to the University of Maryland. The structure of the classes are similar to what I had experienced before, in that they have a format of lecture and then assign work based on those lectures. The graded material itself was more difficult than what I had anticipated, but specifically for my chem135 class. The delivery of material in the lecture format doesn’t really appeal to me but I managed to deal with it because of that prior experience.I found that a lot of the work from the classes that didn’t have any relation to my major weren’t really as interesting as I had thought they would be prior to the semester. In the cpsg100 course, something that we covered that I wasn’t expecting us to cover was the nature of what science really is and how the scientific method was intended to be used. Dr.Holtz and Merck went really in depth about what science really is and how pseudoscience and dishonesty can cause confusion among the masses, displaying how a specific type of process is necessary to dictate what can be considered science. Something that we didn’t cover that I was expecting to cover in the course was what earth's magnetism has to do with the climate and if there were any connections between the two things. In terms of the outside the classroom activities, they were a lot more hands-on than I was expecting them to be. The first volunteer service in particular was a lot more extreme than I was expecting, taking a lot of physical effort as well as mental fortitude. I did enjoy it somewhat, but it definitely wasn’t what I expected. The museum's scavenger hunt trip that we went on at the beginning of the semester also somewhat betrayed my expectations, as it was a lot more menial than I anticipated. Less of our time was focused on actually learning from the museums and was more so spent trying to answer the questions as best as possible. We did still learn a few things from the museums nonetheless, and it was overall a good experience. In comparison with how I thought university life would be prior to starting my first semester, I found that my experience here at college park was a lot more tedious than I thought it was going to be. Having to balance school work with studying, trying to sleep as much as needed, and doing chores such as laundry was more of a hassle than I was expecting. Also the dining experience wasn’t really what I expected either, as the selection of food is really big at most of the dining halls but generally the food was pretty bland. In terms of my interactions with other students, it was about what I expected. People never really approached me for a conversation or anything like that, and my focus on whatever objective I was trying to achieve in the moment generally took over my attention span. The advice that I would give to future sgc students would be to always over prepare for things like exams and projects. The biggest hurdle I had this semester was my chem135 class, specifically the exams as they were the most difficult part that I had to deal with out of everything this semester. Sacrificing some extra time that you would be putting towards extracurriculars or personal fulfillment for the sake of preparing can go a long way towards making passing those really difficult classes a reality. Also don’t neglect to ask other people for assistance when it comes to preparing for exams or just studying in general. Studying alone can be effective and is more than in a group for some people, but generally in my experience studying with someone who understands the subject better than you helps your understanding more and makes learning easier. The last piece of advice I would give to help a new student’s transition into college life is to aim high but don’t be discouraged when you encounter adversity. Sometimes even when I put in a lot of effort into studying or really tried to learn a topic I just wasn’t able to grasp it well enough to perform as I wanted. Don’t let that bring you down and continue to try harder and you’ll eventually succeed in whatever area it is you’re having trouble with. In terms of my non academic life, I found that school made me stress a lot more during the time that I wasn’t there and should have been relaxing. Overall I feel my expectations were more so met than they weren’t. I didn’t really enjoy the semester but it was productive for my learning and my mindset.