After finishing my Freshman year at UMD, I have had a much different experience than anything during High school. First, despite the fact that I was not on Campus due to Covid-19, the size of the University and the number of classes that it offers was very apparent to me. I was able to choose from hundreds of classes for my general education, and one of the classes that I enjoyed taking was CCSJ100 which was a criminology class. I suggest looking at the entire schedule of classes and checking every category that you may have the slightest interest in to see if there is any class that you may be interested in. I found CCSJ by looking for every possible class that would fulfill multiple requirements for general education and thought it looked interesting. One thing that I wish I had done more of was developing relationships with faculty members and professors. It was harder for me to do this because every class was online, and especially because in half of my classes the professor did not actually have any synchronous classes and only posted recorded lectures while discussion classes were only teaching assistants. However, I could have taken advantage of Office hours more than I did, because it seemed like not many people went to them. I recommend that incoming students take advantage of office hours and try to actively participate in class so the professors know who you are especially in bigger classes, because if they know you and who you are they may cut you some slack when it comes to grading. Another thing I wish I did more of was getting to know my peers. Especially being in a scholars program, I should have gotten to know more of my scholars peers because they will be in my scholars class for sophomore year and in the same dorm building that I am staying in. The greatest obstacle for me was distance, because I did not want to go to campus when all of my classes were online, so it is harder for me to meet and talk to students in my classes outside of class time. Next year, I recommend that incoming freshmen do their best to take the initiative in meeting their fellow students and trying to make friends in their classes. It will make classes and campus life more enjoyable and will help you adjust to being away from home during the semester. Throughout my freshman year, the thing I felt that I was least prepared for was studying. I did not create good study habits in high school because I did not need to in order to get good grades, but that is much different in college. There is not as much structure, which leaves all of the studying to you, whereas in high school I had review sessions in the classes leading up to the test and sometimes got study guides. I recommend that incoming freshmen start creating good study habits as soon as possible and structure/plan your days out so that you have time to study every day or almost every day.