The structure of my classes didn’t totally surprise me, as I feel like it’s similar to highschool AP classes where the pace is pretty fast and it’s necessary to understand and be able to practice what you’re learning. The midterms also didn’t take me too much by surprise as I took a midterm in high school for my anatomy class, just me taking and studying for that test already prepared me more for the midterms I’m taking now. Taking anatomy in highschool was actually the first stem class I took that wasn’t required and was what drove my decision in picking my major. Although I should’ve taken more AP level science classes, I still don’t regret choosing the biology major. I like my biology and chemistry classes even if sometimes they stress me out. But I also feel like the major is challenging enough to keep me on my toes instead of cruising through with no problems through college. I feel like there was always a preconceived notion in high school that college was always going to be harder, and now I realize that really depends on the major. Of course, no major is going to be completely smooth sailing, but for some it is definitely easier. I never expected to learn so much about myself and how I study through college but I’m glad I did as it can help me in the future. The delivery of the classes sometimes surprised me, especially my math class as I feel like there was a lot less teaching and some classes were totally just practice problems and going through how to do them instead of teaching new concepts everytime. As a result of me not taking too many stem classes in highschool, some of the things I learned in biology and chemistry are totally new and interesting to me even if they are sometimes difficult. The required graded items for my classes didn’t really surprise me either, as they are usually just practice problems and canvas quizzes going over what we did in class. What did surprise me were my biology homework assignments as I had to download a whole new software to do some of them, while also doing very challenging worksheets for homework but I think it was due to my teacher having a 2 star rating. Things we have covered in class that I didn’t expect was when we went over the different types of logical fallacies. I thought we would talk more about global change as I was in a similarly named program in highschool and was prepared for the class to be more environmentally (or globally) focused. The outside of the classroom activities we did were exactly what I expected especially since I went on familiar trips in highschool and knew to expect the type of instruction and behavior that was expected of us. University life is similar to how I expected it to be when I was in high school because one of my cousins went here and already told me how it was for her. Also, when I went to beach week for seniors during the summer, it gave me a taste of what living away from my family would be like, as we didn’t have any parental control over summer and had to feed ourselves and just know what to do without them. I like how my parents don’t have to know what I’m doing all the time as I get to explore my interests without them intervening and asking too many questions to dissuade me from trying new things. To be honest, college life is a lot better than I thought it would be and I enjoy the time to myself and away from the rowdy house I usually live in. I like being able to pick when I eat and hang out with my friends whenever I can. Advice I would give to future SGC students for college life is to make the most out of it, go to those introductory events even if they seem lame because it’s something new and interesting to experience. Some events also give out free things and I wish I got more free merch by going to more events even if I was lazy. Hangout with friends when you can but definitely don’t put it over your studies if you’re in a hard major. If you have the time though, have as much fun as you can. Also, don’t skip classes if they don’t have a recording, it’s not worth it and is a hassle to get that instruction back if all you have is a book. Go to the classes that have points for attendance because even if it seems like 2 or 3 absences can’t hurt, they could be the difference between an A and a B. Some disappointments I experienced was getting a D on one of my tests, but I learned from that test and steadily increased my scores, and although it was very stressful I’m glad I got a wake up call from that and genuinely tried to get on top of my assignments.