Kevin Whiten's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

Looking back on my first semester as a college student at the University of Maryland, there were many aspects of being a college student that I had expected, and there were many aspects of being a college student that had surprised me.

The nature of my classes at the University of Maryland was perhaps the one thing that I had actually expected going into college. The structure and pacing of classes felt very similar to college-level classes that I had taken in high-school. The notetaking skills required to succeed in college was probably what I had been the most prepared for, as I've been taught to not copy everything down if everything isn't important since middle school. In some classes, notetaking was even more lenient than some of my classes in high school. In a way, the required pace for notetaking was actually the most unexpected thing about college classes, as I've always been told that I need to "copy down what's important" because I wouldn't have the time to copy down all the notes in college. Seeing the size of a few of my classes -- especially coming out of virtual classes due to the pandemic -- was shocking at first, but actually expected. When I would envision sitting in a college class before becoming a college student, I would envision a large room with three-hundred or so seats all facing a row of chalkboards or projector screens. In reality, most lecture rooms are about a fourth of the size that I had imagined they would be, which is something that I was actually relieved about. In terms of grading, it was about what I had expected. The class that I feel had prepared me the most for the nature of college grades was the dual-enrollment chemistry course I had taken my senior year in high-school. As a result of taking this community college course, the way in which assignments were put in as a grade as well as the way in which professors curve grades at the end of the semester were all things which I expected. The duration of fifty minutes for most lectures and discussions was something that I had not expected, as my classes in high-school before the pandemic lasted thirty minutes longer than all of my lectures this semester.

CPSG100 was perhaps the class that I had the most expectations for going into my first semester as a college student. Something that I didn't expect that we covered in class was how changing climates had affected human activity in the past two-thousand years; What I had expected to learn instead was how changing climates after the industrial revolution has affected human behavior leading up to the present day. Despite not expecting this topic, it stuck with me as one of the most interesting lectures. I had heard so much about climate change post industrial revolution that I hadn't thought too much about how humans throughout the world had dealt with climate change in the past, such as how the Viking expansion was in part due to the Medieval warm period. Another topic covered in class that I didn't expect was the formation of different rocks. This was also another topic I found engaging, since I didn't know too much about how rocks formed outside of basic information I learned at the beginning of high-school. What was most surprising to me in CPSG was learning about logical fallacies. This topic turned out to be valuable to learn, and it has allowed me to better determine the strength of an argument. What we covered in class that I did expect was the predicted future average global temperature, how we're contributing to this rise in global temperature, and how we can begin to reduce our impact. The outside-of-classroom activities were for the most part in line with what I had expected, and in some cases even more fun. For example, I didn't expect to be trudging through water up to my waist in order to remove an invasive aquatic plant species from a pond, but that's just what I did during service day.

Compared to my high-school vision of college life, life as a college student at the University of Maryland has been about what I had expected. I expected to walk a lot, and I walked a lot. For the first few weeks, I was walking so much from place to place that at the end of the day my legs would be sore. Since I now know the quickest way to get from class to class, my amount of walking around campus has decreased, but I still tend to walk about as much as I expected. The greatest thing about college life that I didn't expect was the quality of food at the dining hall. I had expected the dining hall food to be only slightly better quality than cafeteria food served on trays, but I was completely suprised by both the quality and variety of food served at the dining hall. For the first few weeks, I almost wished that my appetite was unlimited so that I could try everything that was being served on a given day. After about a month, however, I came to expect what was being served, but I'm still at times suprised by certain foods they have out for certain themed days. The amount of time that I've had to dedicate to studying is something that I did not expect in my high-school vision of college life. In high-school, even when I would take challenging classes, I still usually had about four to six hours of free time after every school day. In college, spending a majority of time after classes completing assignments or studying quickly becomes the norm.

My first semester at the University of Maryland was filled with both proud moments and moments I wish I had done differently. One tip that I would give to any future SGC student in order to ease them into college life would be to save the shows and games until after you've completed a set amount of work. At the beginning of the semester, there were times when I had to opt of of certain things that I wanted to do because I had pushed all of my work off. It's also important to take breaks in between long study sessions so that you don't become too overwhelmed; You can take a break by taking a walk, working out, watching a show, or getting something to eat. It's also important to have some kind of positive association to studying, and one of the ways I achieve this is through music meant for focus. I've also found that I enjoy writing problems out on a whiteboard, so I'll sometimes work out problems on a whiteboard when I don't have to turn my work in. My most important tip would be to find a study group for the classes that you have to put the most work into. Creating a study group for CALC2 was one of the best decisions I made during my first semester, as explaining a problem to others is one of the best ways to learn something, and I would always feel more confident about what I know after a study session as compared to before.

Last modified: 10 December 2021