On the morning of August 26, 2024, I navigated my way down to the bottom of Reckord Armory for my very lecture as a college student: CALC241, or Multivariable Calculus. As I entered the crowded lecture hall, the first thing that struck me - besides the heat - was the sheer volume of students in the class. Compared to high school, where a large class size had been maybe 35 students, 170 other students and I now found ourselves all dutifully scribbling down notes (well, some of us, anyway) in a lecture hall that, while large, was nowhere near UMD’s biggest. The same feeling hit me five months later, when - serving as a peer mentor for CHEM135 - I walked into a lecture hall with 322 students, more than my high school graduating class.
In classes like these, I quickly learned, it was almost impossible to make a connection with your professors without putting in some effort. I sat in the front row, I paid attention, I answered questions, and by the end of my first semester, most of my teachers had learned my name - something a high school teacher would know by the second week. This isn't, of course, to blame my professors. Instead, it's to emphasize how much harder it can be to make those relationships stick. You should still sit up front and answer questions, of course, but, whenever you can, I would advise going to office hours, reaching out with questions, and finding opportunities to get closer to your teachers - not just to "network", but to actually get to know them. One of my best experiences this semester has been working with Dr. Griffith while mentoring for her class, CHEM135. I was able to talk to her in smaller settings, hear about her thoughts on the course, and get to know her as a person. Whether or not you gain something tangible from talking to the people around you, it’s an important way to connect with the community and also just… fun.
One of the biggest obstacles facing incoming freshmen is that lack of connection. Particularly on a campus as large as UMD's, it can be easy to get lost in the sheer scale of the university. I was lucky enough to make some good friends early on, and having those connections helped make getting through the adjustment period smooth sailing. The best way I can suggest to form relationships with other students is through clubs. Sketchup has been an absolute blessing for me, since I like working with theater and love the people in it. I have friends in the Gamer Symphony Orchestra (fantastic), Creative Writing Club (good motivation) and Board Game Club (nerdy but fun). None of these clubs are useful for professional development, but they offer you a great way to be a part of a smaller community that feels less suffocating than the entire university. Getting to know your teachers, participating in campus events, and taking program-specific classes when you can, like ENGL101S, also help you integrate into the community better.
I'll admit that my course advice is pretty limited. So far, even though I've taken 39 credits in my first couple semesters, I have yet to really deviate from the planned schedule for an Electrical Engineering student. I haven't taken any fun GenEd courses. Outside of taking TLTC333 and TLTC399 (Fundamentals of Academic Peer Mentoring and Independent Study in Academic Peer Mentoring respectively), which I would highly recommend if you have the opportunity, the courses I’ve taken are unlikely to be applicable to non-EE majors. The biggest takeaway that I've had, though, that I feel is worth keeping in mind for students across majors, is that the classes are all very interconnected. The concepts in PHYS260 were built off of concepts in CALC241 and CHEM135, and understanding the ideas from 241 was incredibly useful for ENEE290. Obviously, some classes, like Calc 1, Calc 2, and Calc 3, are going to be connected to one another. But keeping an eye out for connections to your other classes, and doing your best to avoid forgetting past content, will give you a much more complete understanding of the topics being taught.
Honestly, I felt confident coming into college, and I feel confident now. College is a big change, but it doesn’t have to be an especially difficult one. The one area that I felt like I underestimated is how easy it is to skip classes. Particularly when lecture slides are posted, or recordings of the course are provided for you, the desire to just study from your room can be pretty compelling. This hasn't been a particularly big challenge for me, but it can get in your way. Even if you think that you're following along, you probably aren't. I shared classes with some of the students that I taught for CHEM135, and overheard plenty of conversations from students who had practically stopped attending the class. I heard a lot of discussion about how it was easier and made more sense to study on their own, instead of heading to lectures. Shockingly, though, those students consistently understood the content less and performed worse on exams. In the same vein, I went through a period of a few lectures where I skipped my Physics class in favor of studying on my own. When I returned, I found that I didn’t get the concepts nearly as well as I had thought I would. There are good times to miss class - when you're sick, for example - but when you feel compelled to skip your classes, I would urge you in the strongest terms not to. Although the freedom that college provides is a great advantage, be careful not to abuse it at your own expense.