Life University Student I currently live in Centreville hall. Although I am not a commuter student I go home once a week. I expected life as a university student to consist of freedom, no guidance and independence. In reality college life meets my expectations because I am responsible for myself and the choices I make. I am not completely independent because I am not financially dependent on myself, but I do have a certain level of independence in the sense that no one can control my life. After living with my parents, depending on my parents, and having them control what I can and cannot do for 18 years of life, it feels weird to depend only on myself and my thoughts. College is an eye opener for my future life because after college I will no longer be living with or depending on my parents. I will have my own house and responsibilities.
Nature of Classes My expectations regarding classes included teachers not checking behind me and reminding me to complete and submit my assignments. I expected classes to be filled with 200 or more students and that the course material would be challenging. Another thing I expected is that the grading system would distribute the weight evenly between assignments and exams.
In reality, two out of five of my classes are filled with about 200 or more students (CHEM 135 and MATH 140). One of my classes has about 25 students (ENGL 101 Scholars) and my other two classes has about 100 students (College Park Scholars (CPSG 100) and ENES 102). The teachers do not check on me or constantly remind me to submit my assignments. They inform me of my assignments and it is my responsibility to complete and submit the assignment in a timely manner. The grading system has the complete opposite structure than my expectations for one of my classes. In ENES 102, exams are worth 80% of your grade. In my other courses, CPSG 100 and ENGL 101S, the weight distribution between participation and a series of assignments is evenly distributed (evenly distributed weight for grades means the course does not place majority of the weight for the grading system on one assignment; the wieght is distributed between multiple assignemnts and particpation). Contrary to these courses, MATH 140 and CHEM 135 have no weight distribution, so my grade is composed of the scores I obtain on exams and assignments. CHEM 135 can become stressful because this course is composed of a series of class exams and short online exams, so in a way my grade is composed of exam scores. The courses are challenging because the material is new to me; to address this I study more and utilize my resources on campus.
CPSG 100 CPSG 100 is a science and global change course so I expected the course would cover the basics about global warming, the causes of it, what science is; however, I did not expect the course to cover how rocks can tell us about the environment in an area, about how humans think, how to code to build a website or pseudoscience. I also did not expect us to have assigned reading books and I expected to complete assignments directly related to global change each week. Regarding outside classroom activities, I expected them to be boring and only consist of presentations.
The course covered a lot of material relating to global change, human thinking and science in great detail. The course was very fun. It consisted of a few assignments relating to global change. The other assignments were related to building our website and there was one about the anatomy of a scientific paper. The website was the biggest surprise because I had to edit the code to construct the website so that the website included information about myself. I also learned about cascading style sheets. Additionally, the outside classroom activities were fun. I participated in two activities, Scholar’s day and the excursion to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which provided me with the opportunity to engage in hands on activities. During the Scholar’s Day activity, other scholars and myself, removed a huge amount of moss from the water source in the rain. The best part about the trip is that we could see the water quality improve after we finished removing the moss. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation excursion informed me about the importance of the bay and how the Phillip Merrill Center building reduces its environmental impact. It also provided us scholars with the activity of cleaning up the bay beach area.
Advice for Future SGC Students for College Life The one piece of advice I must give to future students for college life is to not be afraid to make mistakes and to not stress about having everything figured out. Understand that you are growing up, trying to maintain grades, and figure life out all at the same time. You are going to make mistakes. For those who are similar to me, a perfectionist, nothing is perfect and perceive mistakes as a gateway to allow you to perfect yourself and your goals.