Gavin Bramble's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

Essay:

Life as a college student in my first semester was definitely different than my expectations going in. The nature of my classes, exclusive of CPSG100, was a bit different than I expected. This semester, I took CHEM135 (Chemistry for Engineers), MATH241 (Calculus 3), ENES100 (Introduction to Engineering Design), and MUSC205 (History of Popular Music). For CHEM135, the structure was different than I expected. Coming in, I thought it was going to be a live lecture over Zoom, but, instead, it was asynchronous on Panopto. This was beneficial because it allowed me to be flexible with my schedule so that I could always fit in the lectures into my daily schedule. The tests were also much harder than expected, which was probably due to the open note nature of the tests. So, not only did I have to know the material, I had to be able to apply what I learned to solve problems, not just plug and chug a formula. We also had weekly homework assignments, which were straightforward and easy to get a good grade on, and I expected to have some form of weekly homework for chemistry. For MATH241, I was not really surprised by the nature of the class. There was a Zoom three times a week (which were recorded in case you were to miss a class), three midterm exams, one final exam, and one MATLAB project. To me, this seems standard for a college course. My professor also dropped the lowest grade out of the three midterm exams, which was unexpected and beneficial to me. The one thing I did not expect was the length of the MATLAB project. I had never used MATLAB before, so I was completely confused as to how to actually use the program. It took me hours of research and tutorials to be able to use the program and complete the project, which also took me much longer than expected. For ENES100, the course met my expectations, except that I had no tests all semester, as my grade was based solely on homework, classwork, and projects. The course itself was easy since I had seen most, if not all, of the material before in my high school engineering classes. Lastly, MUSC205 was a bit different than I expected. Instead of Zoom or Panopto, my professor wrote out pages on Elms that I would have to take notes on. This was probably my favorite class this semester since I love music, so learning the history of popular music was very interesting and enjoyable. The class also served as a nice contrast to my STEM heavy schedule. I was surprised that none of my quizzes and exams required a lockdown browser and for us to be present in a Zoom call while completing it. When I talk to my friends that go to other colleges, they were telling me how they have to use a lockdown browser when doing tests and have to be present in Zoom.

As for CPSG100, I did not expect to learn about the scientific method, hypotheses, theory, scientific papers, HTML, logical fallacies, pseudoscience, science fiction, rocks, and the five major extinctions. Much of the material we learned this semester was not expected. I was expecting to be learning solely about climate change and what can be done to combat it. But, I have enjoyed learning about everything we have done so far, the material is quite interesting. We haven't learned about solutions to climate change and what we can do as individuals to reduce our own carbon footprint, even though I was expecting that we would have learned about these topics. The outside-of-classroom activities did not meet my expectations, but that is okay due to the circumstances of the pandemic. Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck always talk about how, in a regular semester, we would be going on field trips and completing service projects, so I wish that we would have gotten the opportunity to be involved in these as well.

I live on campus in Easton Hall, and University life definitely does not compare to my high school vision of college life. I always envisioned myself participating in clubs, joining intramural sports, going to sporting events, walking around campus every day for class, and living with a roommate. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I am waiting to join clubs when the pandemic is over and things move to be in-person. Intramural soccer and basketball were canceled. Football games had no in-person attendance for students. My classes are mostly on Zoom, so I am doing class from my room, but I still try to walk around and learn about the campus. Lastly, the rooms are limited so that nobody has a roommate, so I am living by myself. Still, I have still been able to meet lots of people, make new friends, and find ways to have safe fun during the pandemic.

Advice that I would give to future SGC students to ease them into college life is to use time management effectively. Classes are important, so it is necessary to set aside time for classes, homework, projects, and studying. But, it is also important to set aside time for yourself to relax and spend time with friends; breaks are important so that you don't overload yourself. Go out of your way to meet and get to know new people so that you have friends to spend time with while you aren't doing schoolwork. Lastly, don't be too worried about how to balance college life. As long as you utilize time management skills you will be able to have plenty of time for schoolwork and hanging out with friends.

Last modified: 11 December 2020