As my freshman year comes to an end at UMD, I truly believe I have learned a lot and grown in ways I could not have imagined coming in. There are many lessons and experiences to takeaway, some of which I will document below, as well as trying my best to give incoming freshman a heads up on certain important aspects of college life.
First, the transition from high school to college life was difficult but still manageable in my opinion. One thing that I liked was my proximity to home, which isn't always a luxury to people coming from out of state: I went to high school approximately 30-40 minutes from college park, which meant that on weekends, I could go home and spend time with my family and my dog. Your social life also goes through a huge transition, as your high school peers split off, and you’re left to find your own place in this brand new environment. My peer relationships made it a little less overwhelming as I realized that everyone was in the same boat, not just me. There were definitely many obstacles as well. Everyone has different schedules, responsibilities, and lifestyles, which makes it difficult to plan social events since everyone is available at different points in the day. It took me a while to find my group of people, and as incoming freshmen, I would encourage you to take advantage of all the opportunities in the beginning of the year, including those GroupME’s, social events, clubs, and greek organizations if you’re into those.
Of course, faculty connections are also an important part of college life, as these connections carry beyond the university of maryland. I was able to connect with a professor for a research opportunity that ended up with a paper being published in a journal of pure mathematics and computer science. Over the course of 3 months, we wrote python scripts, collected data, conducted statistical analysis with the data, and then recorded our heuristic findings in a paper. I think the greatest barrier is having the courage to talk to a professor in the first place, as cold emailing can feel daunting and overwhelming for many. Many might also feel discouraged as rejections are common with cold emailing. I recommend tailoring your emails towards the professors interests and also your resume even. If you aren’t comfortable cold emailing, then I suggest staying afterwards after lecture or at office hours to speak with your professor about some topics that you find interesting. You’d be surprised at how many times these conversations spark a topic that both of you are passionate about and can start working on. Other times, they might connect you with another faculty member that does research in a certain field.
Over these 2 semesters, I definitely went above and beyond my comfort zone with coursework. I think a lot of these surprised and challenged me, but I think the takeaways I got from them were worth the struggle. I decided halfway through the first semester to add on a math double major, which opened pathways for me to take some rigorous proof classes second semester. One of these, MATH 402(Algebraic Structures), was a rude awakening to the technical requirements of higher level mathematics. Having little proof background coming into this class, I was really caught off guard by the attention to detail and rigor, and that caused me to struggle on the early problem sets. However, the content in the class was different than any other math class I’ve ever taken, partially due to its abstract nature but how ideas didn’t seem to connect to each other. I think taking courses outside of your comfort zone might be daunting at first, but if you put the grade aside and prioritize learning and perseverance, then this is a perfect way to grow yourself.
As always, there’s always something you can look back on and wish to improve on in freshman year. For me, this would be managing my social circle. When I first entered, I was hesitant at first to join clubs and different social organizations since I felt that I wasn’t skilled enough to be a productive member. This caused my first semester to be very lackluster as I wasn’t putting myself out there and building those connections. My advice would just to be proactive, everything is in your own hands in college, and its your responsibility to grow your social circle and professional connections. Financial freedom was a burden in many different ways. I had to manage my budget responsibly, which was difficult at times. As second semester started, I started eating out a lot more, which was detrimental to my budget and my wallet. The added freedom with college life can exacerbate the spending that you do, so be sure to manage your budget responsibly and spend money carefully.