Ezra Gallun's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

The Essay:
My first semester as a student at UMD in the SGC scholars program was not only a lot more fun but definitely a lot more challenging than I was anticipating. During my orientation over the summer, when I created my first semester schedule, I thought that 15 credits wouldn’t be too difficult and that I might even try to do more than that.

Thankfully, my parents explained to me that 15 credits was plenty as a first semester freshman and now I’m glad I didn’t take too many classes, because the ones I took turned out to be pretty difficult. I wasn’t prepared for the structure most of my classes followed, where the midterms and final make up around 75-85 percent of the entire class grade, because in high school the grade was made up of a lot more class assignments and smaller tests worth much less of the course grade.

If I failed a test in high school, there were usually test corrections or metacog opportunities available, but none of these options were given to me in my college classes. At the same time, I wasn’t expecting to meet people who were so much like me in my classes. In high school, I was definitely an overachiever compared to my peers, but now I take classes with people who are willing to study with me and do assignments together.

One of the classes I didn’t have any expectations for, ENEE 101, actually turned out to be really fun because my section was full of really interesting people and the TA was super helpful and friendly.

In CPSG 100, I came into the year with the expectation that the class would just be a long lecture series on climate change, and that it would be mostly full of information that I had already learned from classes, events and people previously. Thankfully, I was proven wrong, as the scholars lectures turned out to be one of my favorite classes each week. I liked that the weekly quizzes were formatted in a way that if I paid attention in class, I wouldn’t have to take notes because the lectures were very easy to follow and full of interesting content.

I especially liked the lecture we had right before the Thanksgiving break, which I was able to watch in person despite most of the class being away. I really liked hearing about the types of misinformation and disinformation, how people mix them up and how conspiracies (like the space nazis) are created and spread throughout society. Living on campus, I was likely originally going to be in Centreville with the rest of the SGC crowd, but I picked a roommate who is in the Arts scholars program, so the university decided to place us in Bel Air Hall instead. I was sad to be separated from my scholars program initially, but at this point, I have met some of my best friends in Bel Air and I still got to meet the people from SGC, so I’m very content with the dorm.

Living on campus as a student is much different than I had originally anticipated. Before I moved on campus, my parents had given me a lot of freedom, so I originally thought that living on campus was just going to feel like more of the same, just in a different building. In reality, it took me a while to get used to simple things like sharing the room with my roommate, having to leave the building to get meals, and not having my own bathroom with a shower. I learned that sharing the space can be difficult, but communication solves most problems that can be encountered in the dorm. Originally, I was worried that I would feel too close to home, being from the Silver Spring area of Maryland, and only about a 20 minute drive from the university. Fortunately, College Park feels like its own microcosm of Maryland and I didn’t feel too close to home despite running into people I knew frequently.

At the start of the school year, I thought that I would only meet people from Maryland, because I knew that the percent of people who go to UMD and are from Maryland was very high. I am very happy that I was wrong, and I met people from all across the United States, and even some people from overseas. UMD is a melting pot of cultures, which is exactly what I was hoping it would be.

If I had to give one piece of advice to all incoming freshmen, I would suggest that they try to meet diverse groups of people in the first few days, especially if they’re living on campus, because a lot of the people you meet early on will become your best friends in college. For students specifically in SGC, I would recommend that they try to talk to all the people in SGC, because everyone I’ve met who is part of the program is super nice and the SGC community is unmatched.

Last modified: 9 December 2025