At the beginning of my college admissions process, what now seems like an eternity ago, I didn't know anything about what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I hadn't even begun to consider any schools I might want to go to, or even what major I would pursue. In fact, the only thing I was absolutely certain of was that I did not want to go to the University of Maryland. Obviously, a lot has changed since then. My main concern was that I would be too close to home, that it wouldn't feel like anything had changed since high school, but that has not been my experience at all.
This expectation was mostly based on the proximity of College Park to Annapolis,where I've lived my whole life. The University of Maryland is an understandably popular choice among those who went to my high school, and three of my closest friends since childhood all chose the same school as me. Before coming to school, I was worried that I would end up going home every weekend, that I would be around too many people from high school, and that it would feel like nothing changed. But what I thought would be a detriment has actually been a boon to my college experience; the transition was much easier than I initially thought. The feeling of isolation from home is stronger than I expected, too; I've only been home thrice in one semester of college. Overall, college is much closer to "adult life" than I thought in high school–at least with regard to life on campus.
Classes, however, are a different story. In general, they are exactly as I expected: like high school, but there are a hundred people in your class and you know none of them. A byproduct of the larger class sizes is the significantly greater responsibility you have to your own success in college; you won't get as much help from professors, and if you do, you have to seek it out on your own. The content itself doesn't seem to be much more difficult than in high school; this transition was likely easier since I started taking a couple classes at our local community college in senior year. The change that I expected the least regards the weight of assignments; in high school, a larger emphasis was placed on classwork and homework. If you didn't do your homework, you wouldn't get a good grade in any class in high school. In college however, almost every class I've taken has at least sixty or seventy percent of the grade in midterms, finals, and projects, and often the percentage is greater. This ties into the greater responsibility I mentioned previously; it is possible to still get an A without doing any homework, but it is often necessary to do the homework to understand the material. In other words, there is less tangible incentive to do your homework; you have to be responsible and understand that it is for your own benefit (in most cases).
CPSG-100 was an interesting class, because it was very different from anything else I took this semester. It was by far the closest thing to a high school class (which I think is the point), but it also involved a lot of activities that would never be possible in high school. Having free reign in DC for the metro scavenger hunt was totally unexpected for me going into the year, and it was one of the more enjoyable early experiences I had in college. Respecting the actual lectures and content, there was a much greater focus on science than I expected (although maybe the "Science" in "Science and Global Change" should have clued me in). The various discussions on higher-level thought, pseudoscience, and logical fallacies was something I didn't expect, but I ended up finding it more interesting than the later climate-related discussion.
The advice I would give to any upcoming SGC students is to just talk, talk, talk. Talk to everyone you meet, in your dorm, on service day, and beyond. Most people will open up as soon as they get into a conversation, so it is by far the best way to make friends. A lot of people on the first few days will be anxious about meeting new people, because everyone puts a lot of pressure on making friends the first few days, but if you just start talking it will relieve everybody's tension and make everything more enjoyable. Also, don't skip out on the welcome events; you can find a lot of people by going to these, even if they don't seem very enjoyable. And even though it sounds redundant, go to the First Look Fair and join clubs. There's a reason people keep giving the same advice over and over, it does work. Just relax, and know that however you feel in the first few days, you will get used to college in only a couple weeks.