Essay:
A course that came as a surprise to me was MUSC205, the history of popular music. When I was signing up for classes in the summer before going into my freshman year, I had room for one more class, and my brother recommended for me to take MUSC205. The course double counts for general education requirements (counting as a humanities and diversity credits), which already helps so that you can get your requirements done quicker so that you can start working on your major classes earlier. For the class itself, it was one of my favorite classes in my first year of college. As someone who loves music, the content was interesting and I genuinely enjoyed taking notes, doing assignments, and just learning about music throughout the years. The class was less of a nuisance "grind-study" class and more of me genuinely wanting to learn the content and enjoying it at the same time. I was able to broaden my musical horizon and discover new songs and artists. So, if you have an interest or passion for music, I highly recommend taking this class.
Honestly, I haven't been able to really develop relationships with faculty members. It makes it hard to do so in a virtual semester, and I am not one to stick out in a crowd so when everyone has their camera off I leave mine off as well. That connection is hard to do so, but I can definitely see it being easier to do in-person, so next fall should be a better opportunity to develop relationships with faculty. Given that, my greatest success in developing strong relationships with faculty members was probably with my COMM107 professor. She really made the class more of a conversation among people and not like a professor teaching the class, which helped me get a connection with her. She would come into breakout rooms and hold conversations with us so I really got a good connection with her. I can honestly feel like I could comfortably go to her with any questions and she would be able to help me out. To the incoming freshman, I would highly recommend going to class eager to learn and show interest in the subjects at hand. Also, introducing yourself to your professors will allow you to start a bond that you can develop as the semester progresses.
My relationships with fellow students have allowed me to cope with the adjustment to university life because you are making friends with people that are also in the same position as you. Having people where you are allows everyone to be understanding of each other, and everyone is going through the adjustment together. Making friends is great so that when you need a break from schoolwork to relax and have a good time, you have those people to fall back on and take your mind off work for a few hours. The greatest obstacles in pursuing these relationships is just putting yourself out there, which can be uncomfortable. After just being in high school where you've already solidified your friendships and aren't meeting new people, it can be a bit overwhelming coming to college not knowing anybody around you. But, to overcome this, you must seek discomfort and meet new people. It may be hard at first, but once you keep doing it, you get better at it and can meet new people with ease. Next year's freshman can make best use of their connections with their peers if they can gather friends from multiple places. To elaborate, it is important to have friends in your major, who you will most likely meet in your classes, but it is also important to have other friends that you might meet from your dorm, clubs, or other extracurricular. Surround yourself with people that you want to be around and make you a better person. College is a place where you can discover who you are and what you want to do with your life so it is important to make relationships with people that will be beneficial to that.
An aspect of university academic life that I was least prepared for was how the classes are run. Of course, I knew going into college that it wouldn't be the same as high school. But, I was not ready for the structure of classes. Classes are a lot of lecturing and just delivering information to the students in the class. Then, it is up to the student to go to discussion to further learn the material and develop those skills. It is up to the student to do practice problems and examples. College material really requires a lot of effort on the student to learn the material outside of class and to refine the skills needed to be successful in those classes. I was not expecting this style of learning going into college, but after a few weeks I got the hang of it and now I am used to the structure.