My first semester at UMD has been a very enlightening and life-changing experience. I feel as if I have matured greatly over the past three months, met incredible new people, and learned many new things in this trial run to adulthood. My expectations for college have been vastly different from my reality in all aspects of my life whether social, or academic.
Concerning the nature of my classes, including structure, delivery, required graded items, and pace, it is vastly different from my expectations. At the beginning of the semester, I was taken aback to learn that the Teaching Assistants led all of the discussions and graded all of the assignments. I originally thought the professors would grade most of the assignments and lead some discussions. I also did not know there wouldn’t be lectures every single day, and it was the standard structure for discussion and lecture to alternate. Moreover, I did not realize there would be so many opportunities for grades in my classes. For example, in my math class, there is homework three times a week, and it weighs a decent amount on my grade. I was extremely nervous at the beginning of the semester, as all of my teachers warned me about the difficulty of college. The reality is that college will be challenging, but as long as you are organized, manage your time well, and keep a schedule and in your day-to-day life, college will be fine. The pace of classes like math and chemistry can be overwhelming, but these classes are also “weed-out” classes. Unfortunately, I did not learn that my math was a weed-out class until I was a considerable amount into the school year. Although cliche, I also did not expect that consistent studying would be necessary in college. I was forced to pick up good study habits and make study plans for each exam instead of cramming the night before a physics test like in high school. Lastly, I was extremely confused to learn that there are multiple midterms throughout the semester. I thought I would only have one midterm and one final per semester. Instead I have three. Despite the monthly stress it put me under, it gave me multiple attempts to improve my grade. I also did not expect to have access to as many resources as I do here at UMD. Throughout my research of UMD in the summer, the variety of resources was stressed, but I severely underestimated it.
Focusing on the Science and Global Change program, I expected the class to be solely focused on topics like, climate change, the rising oceans, and greenhouse gasses. I thought the class would be very monotonous, and the lectures would feel like we were being spoken to. However, these classes are incredibly engaging, and we go very in-depth into how the Earth, weather, and climate work, before we even learn about how we know it is changing. Even before we even spoke about climate, we learned about how misinformation is easily spread. One of the first lectures was about not believing in everything you think, the traps people fall into with their beliefs, and how this contributes to pseudoscience. After establishing how and why pseudoscience forms, we learned about what real science is and what it means to do science. I was incredibly delighted to find that we were taught about the logical fallacies people use in arguments. I had never been taught about these, not even in my AP Language class in high school, and I thought I would have to take a communications or debate course to learn about fallacies. This class shapes us into being extremely multifaceted students with more than a pretty sounding major. Something that was not explored yet that I expected was talking about how we can change our climate. Furthermore, I did not know that we went on trips throughout the semester. The trip that surprised me the most was the trip to New York City. I hadn’t even expected trips with scholars.
In relation to my University life, my reality has far exceeded my expectations. I live on campus in Cumberland hall, with my amazing roommate, and the people on my floor are really energetic and social. One thing I really like about Cumberland is how close I am to the Y (Yahentemitsi Dining Hall), especially when I am feeling particularly lazy and don't feel like walking far. I did not expect the RA events to be as fun as they were, and I also did not expect to meet as many people as I did during welcome week. I adore being on campus with my friends and people I care about. I like the freedom that comes with not having a curfew, and I love the interconnectedness and culture of this campus. If I had any complaints about this campus, the one thing I would say is that the campus is very deceiving and it is actually about ninety percent hills. It seems like no matter which direction I am traveling in, I will always be going uphill. Nevertheless, the campus is beautiful and I love how large it is so there is always somewhere new to explore.
Any advice I would give to a future SGC student is to enjoy freshman year and soak up every minute. (Even the Kenilworth Garden clean up). I would tell them not to worry about everything falling perfectly in place immediately. It probably won’t happen, but the best you can do is accept where you are, realize that things will change with time, and adapt to your new surroundings. Additionally, I would tell them to make sure they stay organized, whether from using Batter Campus to organize Canvas, or synchronizing all of your calendars via Google Calendar, because it is really easy to fall behind. Either way, my first semester at UMD has been amazing, and I am excited for the future!