I came to UMD expecting college to be just like high school, except I am living at my high school. Obviously, this was an oversimplification.
First, my classes. In high school, I expected the workload in college to be just constant intense grinding every day. But after registering for my classes and seeing my class schedule for the first time, I switched it up and thought I would have so much free time. I only had about three classes a day, and I even signed up for some classes that should be really easy. Chemistry? I already learned that in high school! I was sure I was going to be relaxing all the time. Of course, I was wrong. In reality, the actual workload of my classes was very reasonable, and actually surprisingly similar to high school. Although, one thing I noticed is that there really are no easy classes in college. Or if there are, I have not found one yet. Each class was either intellectually challenging, time consuming, or difficult in its own ways. Many of my classes were structured so students can easily fall behind if they do not understand something because the delivery of course materials is pretty fast-paced. We have to be independent and responsible for our own success, because professors will not monitor their students individually. And despite the shorter time actually spent in class compared to high school, the amount of homework, projects, and midterms make up for it. However, I still have plenty of free time outside of class to myself.
CPSG100 is a required course for my scholars program, Science and Global Change. As the name of the program suggests, CPSG100 covers science, global change, and the connection between the two. I expected the class to be almost entirely focused on global climate change, and the science behind why it is happening and how we can slow it down. Although we will probably get to those topics in later semesters, we did learn a lot of interesting things that I did not expect at all. We learned a lot about science in general, including the scientific method, scientific research papers, and logical fallacies. Another thing that I definitely did not expect was learning how to make an html website, and how to put an essay on it. But what surprised me the most was the things we did outside of the classroom. Even before the first day of classes, I went to a park to clean invasive species out of a swamp for service day. This was maybe not the most pleasant experience, but definitely a new and interesting experience. The other activity we did, the metro scavenger hunt, turned out a lot better than I expected and was probably my favorite part of the class. The scavenger hunt itself was fun, and I had the opportunity to explore DC while bonding with my group.
College life in general was quite a bit different from my high school vision of college life in some ways. I expected myself to struggle with the transition between living in a house to living in a dorm, because there are just so many changes to every little daily activity. But the transition turned out to be incredibly easy and smooth. I remember my first night here I was really annoyed by the extremely loud air conditioning unit in my room when I tried to sleep, and the second night I forgot the AC was even there. I also expected to be really stressed in college, but I have not been very stressed about anything so far (maybe finals will change that). In high school, I was really looking forward to the freedom I will have in college, and I do indeed have a lot of freedom. My favorite thing about college life is that I can make my own decisions and feel in control of my life.
The main advice I would give to future SGC students is to use your time wisely. It is important to set high standards for yourself academically and to meet those standards. You should use your time here to acquire knowledge, explore your passions, pursue your goals, and try new things. It may sound like a lot to do, but these four years are very important and the things you learn here will probably benefit you for the rest of your life.