Due Date: December 14, 2020
When I started at the University of Maryland, I expected my day to day structure to be attending Zoom after Zoom after Zoom. I thought all my classes would be synchronous, so I would just be sitting all day on my laptop. Now don't get me wrong, I definitely do spend the majority of my day-unfortunately-on my laptop. However, the class structure is very different than I expected. A lot of my classes on testudo changed over from synchronous to asynchronous at the last minute. I do not spend nearly as much time on Zoom as I thought I was going to. More than half of my classes ended up being asynchronous-my biology class, biology lab, chemistry class, and most of my chemistry labs-with leaving only my math, university100, and science and global change scholars program classes to be synchronous. Also, a lot of my professors use Panopto recordings to show asynchronous content, in which I thought it was going to be on Zoom. The required graded assignments are as expected for the most part and I am not surprised by the items in the courses' syllabus. I really like the schedule I have made out of my asynchronous classes. I would have thought that it would have been harder for me to develop a consistent schedule, but I am staying on track.
In class, I thought it was really interesting that we covered climate change over history. It was surprising to find out that the temperature differences back then had such impactful effects on human society and its development. What was even more surprising-but concerning-was that the expected temperature of Earth is supposed to get significantly warmer than the medieval warming period ever got. I have never learned about how humans in history have reacted to climate change. I also did not expect to cover information about the fossil record, but I enjoyed learning about it and it fit nicely into what I am learning in my biology class, principles of ecology and evolution. I was shocked to learn that we had to learn about HTML coding and make our own websites. Fortunately, I took AP Computer Science Principles in which we focused on writing HTMl code. I like the idea of the HTML portfolios and I find that it will be impressive for the future because I will have my own website about myself. I figured we would talk more about how to prevent climate change, but I am hoping we will focus on that in the future with this class. I expected to have lectures during the zoom and not outside of the classroom. I appreciated that we had outside of classroom activities to do the community building, academic success, self care, and diversity and inclusion modules. I think it is important for freshmen, especially since this course is all online, to branch out there in different ways. Some of the modules are incredibly useful too, such as academic success because it introduces freshmen to attend guided study sessions.
In my high school vision of college life, I always expected to have a roommate my freshmen year. Even though I am in a dorm, I do not have a roommate because of the Covid-19 restrictions. While I greatly appreciate having my own place, I never would have thought that I would not have a roommate my freshman year. I expected that I would easily stay on top of doing my laundry, but it gets really difficult sometimes. I always wait to do my laundry until I am physically running out of clothes to wear, which does not sit well with the small washing and drying machines. I expected I would not come home at all to visit, however I have returned home about once a month. It is a luxury to go home, do my laundry, shower, watch TV on a big screen, and spend time with my old friends from home. I also expected to utilize the libraries more often than I do (I have not been to a library yet), but I usually just do all my work at my desk or sometimes branch out to the Centreville study rooms. I expected my hallmates to be respectful during the night and not make too much noise. However, this is not the case. My hallmates love to stay up extremely late and talk in the hallways. I did not expect this to be as big of a problem as it is for me. In high school, I was waking up at 6 am and it was painful. I thought college would be the same, but it is not because I am able to make my own schedule as long as I attend my Zoom classes on time. It is very convenient to just pop on Zoom in the morning, with just waking up a couple minutes ago. Lastly, I always thought college food from the dining hall would be terrible. It turns out that the food is pretty decent, which exceeds my expectations. They have a variety of food to choose from, ranging from basic American food to Asian food to vegan food options.
I would remind future SGC students not to stress too much about the workload and balancing everything. Although it takes a while to get adjusted, it is not that bad and definitely doable. I would also suggest for future students to be welcoming and friendly to everyone you meet because that is an easy way to make friends. Many other freshmen are nervous to make friends, so pushing it would be a great way to break the ice. Especially with Covid-19, future students have to remember they have to make do with what they have. Even though it is not the best scenario, at least appreciate that you are part of University life and engage in all different activities.