As I look back on the beginning of the semester, college is very different from what I expected. Some of the professors are not hands on and they expect you to always read ahead. The grading is very different. In my math class there is no partial credit and I definitely did not expect that. There are a lot more assignments than I expected as well. I have to complete a new lab report every week for my chem lab. My engineering class is not what I expected. We are building fully functioning autonomous vehicles, when I thought we would be drawing and designing. My classes are very challenging but they are a lot of fun. There are a lot more midterms than I thought, I feel like I have one every week. I appreciate the professors for taking their time to make sure students understand the material. Although college is different from what I expected, it is definitely worthwhile.
In CPSG100 I did not expect to cover logical fallacies and analyze scientific papers. I was expecting to learn more about how climate change is affecting our world and the different ways that we can make a difference when it comes to sustainability. I figured we were going to learn more about environmental studies and biodiversity. The outside-of-classroom activities are exactly what I thought they would be like. I thought they would be about learning about global change and our planet. We learned more about sustainability and natural history on the excursions.
Life as a university student is different from what I expected. There are no parents here to tell me when to go to bed and when to eat dinner. I thought I would go out a lot on the weekend with friends, but since I chose a difficult major I find myself catching up on work and studying for midterms. In high-school I thought that I would not go home as often, but in reality I find myself going home a lot more than I thought I would. Since covid happened I expected to bring dinner back to my dorm, but the dining halls are packed at all hours of the day. I expected the dorms to be very busy and loud, and since I was with girls I expected the bathrooms to be dirty, but actually the bathrooms are pretty clean and there are quiet hours at centreville. There are so many activities that involve the students and I didn’t expect there to be so many fairs! The sports games are so much fun. The student section is always packed with eager students that go all out for games. I did research on the University of Maryland, and I thought it was a huge party school, but actually I find the campus quite peaceful at times. There are parties and many students go out to the bars but it is not overwhelming. Overall, life as a university student is fun, challenging, and invigorating.
I would tell future SGC students to not sign up for 8:00 am classes. I’m kidding, but actually I would tell them to go at their own pace. They do not need to rush and take a ton of classes at once. It may be too much to handle. There are summer classes available as well. I would also tell them to stay on top of assignments and maybe create a to-do list, because classes go by fast and new assignments are created each day. One last piece of advice I would tell future SGC students is to allocate time for yourself. Make sure you take some time out of your week to collect yourself and check in with friends or family. Mental health is very important and it can be hard to manage a college. College is not what I expected, but it is going to be a fun and insightful 4 years.