College life courses as a whole are very very different from any other courses that I have experienced so far. Some of the courses I am taking are completely different in difficulty than high school, while other ones are on a much easier skill level. As a whole I do feel that all the classes I am taking so far are at least comparable and relatable to the difficulty of my latter year high school classes. It was definitely quite interesting when my lifestyle changed to have school as a much larger portion of significance, because after all I am living on campus. As for classes, I feel that CPSG 100 is vastly easier than all of my other classes, and serves as a welcome break from all of my other classes. While in all of my main more than one credit classes I have to learn about core STEM concepts and other subjects like public speaking, the workload is much much less. While there are quizzes and the weekly discussion, the assignments given are doable within a couple hours maximum per week, and are not just busy work or work that is mentally challenging, but rather it is work that is intellectually stimulating and helped me to understand while developing an appreciation for the many different things we discussed and learned in class. There were around the same number of graded items but the difficulty was not as much. Speaking to the content, curricular, and extracurricular activities, CPSG 100 had a fair share of both and did a good job with both as well. For the curriculum and content of the class, I definitely expected we would be far into global change and effects on the ecosystem by now, however we are still only talking about the prehistoric climate disasters, but it makes sense and follows a line of reasoning that will eventually lead into modern global change. I feel that learning about logical fallacies and reading the Kaida and Kolbert books were also pretty good. I definitely enjoyed the content and things we learned in the first semester albeit they were not entirely what I was thinking. The three main extracurricular events, the service day, the metro hunt, and the excursion all did a good job of helping me interact with the local community and maybe the ecosystem. However, I feel that some of the activities could have been reworked or improved a little. Specifically, I feel that the service learning project could have been modified a bit. While I did enjoy helping to clean up Kenilworth, I did not really enjoy working in the sweltering heat and mucky swamp. While I definitely did question myself asking what I was doing there, I did also enjoy getting a good sweat and helping clean up the swamp to beautify it and remove the invasive species all while using waders, trying not to get dunked, and trying to row a boat. All in all I enjoyed it, but would prefer maybe a different activity. The metro hunt and the excursion were on the other hand a very enjoyable experience. Going to traipse around in DC and getting to experience the urban culture was very nice, and learning about the environment and ecosystem at SERC was also very nice. Additionally, the multitude of options available for excursions made it very easy to pick one I was interested in, and worked time wise. I feel that these two activities were excellent and should be kept. Maybe consider reworking the metro hunt to be less scavenger hunting, and more team bonding and sightseeing? Just a suggestion. As for the college living experience, I definitely feel that it takes a bit of getting used to but you can really really quickly set it to your default life. Some of the biggest things that were a shock to me was just really how big this campus is. To get a meal, I have to walk literally a tenth of a mile in about 5-8 minutes, while if I bike it takes around 2 minutes. Additionally, Mckeldin library is almost a good half mile to three quarter miles away from Centerville and North Campus in general. UMD is just so massive it forces people to get healthy from walking, or to get a bike or other means of transportation. On the third day I literally walked 10 miles in total trying to explore and see what was around campus. Having a bike makes it much easier. The university life generally aligned with what I envisioned was awaiting me on campus, however I was a little too surprised to see less drunk and unruly students than what I imagined nights on campus to be. But in general, college life is kind of comparable to high school life and life on campus. I definitely enjoy some aspects of it, like everything being close, however I do not enjoy having to live in a different environment and being away from my family. If I had to give advice to an incoming freshman university student, I would probably tell them to relax and be themselves, but especially go exploring, branch out and get adjusted as quickly as possible within the first week, because things basically go from 0-60 within two weeks at the start of classes. And when I say 0-60, I mean that things will ramp up moderately quickly, however it doesn’t stop and keeps coming until you reach a constant equilibrium of hard work, exams and quizzes, and maybe drowning in some of your classes, in which case it is important to stay on top of things right from the get go. Maintaining self control is something else I and a lot of other people struggle with. Keeping myself accountable is still a struggle as I find myself procrastinating and playing games occasionally in addition to putting off especially tedious work. Being able to control yourself to that degree is an endeavour but also a part of our transition into adulthood and the work society. Additionally, I encourage them to explore the surroundings and see what they like. I especially started exploring the trail to get to Washington DC, and while I have not made it I have gotten within 5-10 miles of the mall and capitol building. All in all, I believe I was very fortunate to have made it to Maryland and to have this good of a running start in my academics in college, and hope you would too.
