As my freshman year at the University of Maryland comes to an end, I am able to look back and reflect on the entirety of the year. The first year of college is a huge turning point in everyone's lives. In my experience, this year has been one of learning how to be on my own, exploring new things, and finding myself. While this year has had its ups and downs, it has been a year full of fun and independence.
Throughout this year, I took a total of 12 different courses, including the Science and Global Change scholars Colloquium. The most interesting and surprising course that I took was my INST326 course. In this course, I learned about Object Oriented Programming in Python. In high school, we weren't offered many programming courses, so because of this, I walked away from this course with new found knowledge. This course was a requirement for my major of information science, but I was able to discover from this class that I enjoy programming, and that I was on the right path. I lucked out in the way that I enjoyed my major requirements, however, I would advise that freshman should take additional electives in other courses that may interest them, to find what they are passionate about.
So far in my college career, I have begun to develop relationships with the faculty who work here. Mostly this is done by scheduling appointments or going to after hours with advisors and professors. Over the next four years, I plan on continuing this method, because it is important to develop meaningful relationships with professors because they can offer insights and help to point students in the right direction. I would highly recommend that incoming students spend parts of their free time at office hours and talking to professors/advisors so they can develop those relationships as well.
Similar to relationships with faculty, freshman year is also the year to branch out and make new friendships. I am lucky enough to have an amazing roommate to introduce me to people, and I was able to introduce her to friends that I have made. I was able to make friends in my scholars colloquium, as the first few days of school were spent doing events with them. I also made friends by joining a ski club and doing other activities around campus. As a freshman, I would advise them to join as many clubs and go to as many events that they can. It is truly the perfect time in life to branch out, meet new people, and try new things.
Overall, I was mostly prepared for university academic life. However, I did have to adapt to the large lecture halls and how I would sometimes have classes with hundreds of others. While sometimes this made it hard to learn, I was able to adjust. What I found extremely helpful was the discussion sections, which is normally a classroom filled with less people. I would recommend that incoming freshmen take some time to learn how to adjust to the different atmosphere of college academics. It should also be noted that there are a lot of options for people to learn effectively such as reaching out to the TAs and going to professor's office hours.
In conclusion, my freshman year at the University of Maryland has been a transformative journey where I have met new friends and found my own passions. I would encourage incoming freshmen to embrace every opportunity that comes their way. The first year of college is filled with exciting new possibilities for an individual to explore, and it is important to seize these possibilities as much as one can.