Looking back at the end of my freshman year at the University of Maryland, there were many aspects of college life which suprised me, and there were many strategies that I developed in order to adjust to the new academic environment.
The course which came as the biggest suprise to me during my freshman year was ENES100 (Introduction to Engineering Design). ENES100 was a suprise to me due to how different the strucutre of the class was as compared to any other class I've taken. ENES100 is a class split up into two parts: the first being similar to a typical lecture where you're taught the basics of circuitry, Arduino programming, engineering design principles, and other information needed for the second half of the course, which has students work together in teams of 8 in order to design and construct a robot for a specific task which your team was assigned. The second part of the course is unique as instead of coming into class and taking notes or completing a worksheet as you would in a typical course, you come into class and work with your team to design and assemble your robot using fabrication methods available to you during and outside of class, such as 3D-printing and laser cutting. Instead of attending your instructers office hours to get help, teams typically attend open lab sessions, where the lab becomes open outside of class hours with teaching fellows there to assist your team. Alongside this course, I was also taking ENME272 (Introduction to Computer Aided Design) which teaches students how to use CAD (Computer Aided Design) software such as Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor. Due to taking this course alongside ENES100, I was able to assist in creating parts for our robot through one such CAD software, and discovered how much I enjoy creating and designing parts through CAD. I would highly recommend for anyone who plans on taking ENES100 to either take ENME272 before or alongside ENES100 in order to get the most out of the course.
My greatest success in terms of developing strong relationships with my faculty members was with my CHEM134 professor. CHEM134 was perhaps the most challenging course I've taken so far, and required me to strongly commit myself to learning the material. One way that I achieved this was through attending my professor's office hours when I was confused about any course material. Attending office hours was an important peice to my success in that class, as it allowed me to clear up any confusion I had about a concept as well as allowing me to get to know my professor as a person instead of simply as a professor. This is an important distinction as the more I got to know my professor, the more comfortable I became with asking questions. Without attending office hours and talking through problems with my professor, I wouldn't see myself doing as well as I ended up doing.
Arguably even more important than developing strong relationships with faculty is developing strong relationships with fellow students. At the beginning of my first semester as a freshman, I formed a study group with two other students who were in two of my classes. This study group was a large factor in enabling me to cope with adjusting to college life, as knowing that you aren't the only one who might be struggling in some aspect to adjust to college life can be a great relief. Forming a study group was also important to me in terms of doing well in my classes, as teaching other students what you know and having them teach you what they know is one of the best ways to learn. One of the greatest obstacles in terms of pursuing these types of relationships is having to leave your comfort zone. In my personal experience, it was hard for me to leave the comfort zone I had of studying by myself, but the result ended up being highly worthwhile for me, since not only did I learn more, I also gained a few friends in the process.
The aspect of university academic life that I was, in retrospect, least prepared for would be the freedom in terms of how I used my time outside of class. During the start of my first semester in college I struggled with how to managed my time, and as a result I started being late to a few of my classes and missing out on certain opportunities. This led me to become more responsible with how I use my time, and one of the changes that I made in order to become more responsible with my time was to set aside time each day to review and make a list of what needs to be done by the end of the day, as well as noting any upcomming assignments. I suggest that any incoming freshman makes a habit of checking their email as well as their upcoming assignments at least once a day to avoid any unnecessary stress.