The courses that came as the most surprise for me were both my astronomy and phsyics labs. In high school, I had only ever done short labs that were followed with a short lab report. In college, I was surprised to find that labs were much longer and that the lab manuals weren't as holistic. The idea of labs are to get STEM majors to think on their own when doing experiments. The lab manuals in high school consisted of instructions like a cooking manual that provided the full scope of expectation. In college, the lab manuals are less specific and focus on creating the mind of an experimentalist. This measn that the directions aren't as clear and have blatant holes in them for the student to decide how they want to go about solving problems. This was completely new to me and I was shocked at how quickly I would have to decide how to conduct myself instead of the lab telling me. The professor and TA are both there to help, but the majority of it is figuring out what you need to do and checking in with the professor or TA to see if the strategy you devised is practical for the experiment at hand. I think the only strategy for this experience would be that students need to be prepared to and expect to have to think critically in a college environment.
As far as fostering a student/faculty, I failed to do so, though not for lack of trying. In college, how you interact with your professors is going to be determined on your major, however reaching them is still similar regardless. In a STEM field, coming into contact with a prefessor is mainly done by email. With this connection, it is possible to arrange times to meet with professors you would like to talk to that you are interested. In academic STEM fields, this is likely to do with their research but could just be because they were your professor for your class. This communication could start from office hours too. Just going and showing an interest in what they do is enough to develop a strong connection. By developing a connection, you can ask them for internships or even for letters of recommendation for internships or colleges. Developing faculty connections will only help you in the long run and helps you build a social network for life after college.
College can seem daunting after high school as it is usually described to be much more rigorous than high school, but it is actually a very righ social environment, which makes it easy to adjust to. Making friends in college is just as important as making friends in any other social situation that you may find yourself in. One benefit from college though, is that the population is diverse compared to other groups of people. From classical guitarists to hockey players to international students, you will encounter a lot of different type of people and form many social connections. When adjusting to college, making friends helps tremendously because most of the people there are going through the same thing as well. Many freshman are sharing your and forming a group of friends makes it easier because you are all facing similar challenges. The friends you make can also help you academically through college. You will have the chance to meet so many smart people and making study groups with them will benefit everybody that participates because it is a collaborative social situation. My favorite thing about college so far has been making friends and talking to people, whether that be about school or just life in general. Having people to talk to and chill with makes college much easier to digest. Because there are so many people, making friends is simple as long as you are willing to put yourself out there. If you talk to people, there will always be someone who is delighted to talk back. You can also join clubs to find people with interests similar to yours. With the amount of groups on campus, there is absolutely a place where everyone belongs.
The aspect of college in which I was least prepared for was the living arrangement I chose. Luckily, my dormmate is very nice and considerate, but the issues of convenience that come from living in a dorm is something I hadn't thought about. I am probably different than other kids in the fact that I actually enjoy spending time with my parents. When I came to live in the dorms, I realized that I had lost 2 people that I really enjoyed talking to (I didn't want to spend all my time on the phone with my parents either). There are several inconveniences to living in a dorm that I didn't think of as well. When it rains outside, there is nowhere to put wet clothing out to dry effectively in the dorm rooms because they were so small. Another thing I didn't think about is that all the dorm rooms have a dehumidifier. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but it actually affected my stay here. I am a light sleeper and the noise from the dehumidifier turning on and off was enough to wake me up the first few weeks I spent here. The biggest thing I wasn't prepared for was the food situation. I don't know if this is just my family, but all of my family members can cook. When I came to live at Maryland, I didn't realize that the food was going to be a step down from what I would eat on a normal basis. This was the biggest shock for me as it unfortunately meant that I wasn't as happy as I could be. I would say that there is really no way to prepare for these conditions, but to just expect them when you live in a dorm and try not to let them affect your daily life.
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