Minh's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

Due Date: December 12, 2022

Initially, before entering the University of Maryland, I thought the grading system was similar to the assignments in high school. In high school in Montgomery County, schools are structured by 7 classes all taken throughout a single day. In college, however, the system is quite different. We must decide on courses based on what major we are taking, and a multitude of different requirements. For example, depending on what credits you have completed, there are some course subjects that you can completely avoid, whereas, in high school, you are required to take certain courses every year (i.e Math, English). In college, depending on the credits you have completed, you can avoid taking a single English course entirely. However, there are General education courses you must complete throughout your 4 years.

When deciding on your courses, you need to balance the number of courses you take and also the credits the courses are worth. For example, this year, I am taking introduction classes for my major along with other general education courses. However, as I progress through college, once I complete my general education courses, most of my courses will consist of only higher level Computer Science courses. When choosing classes, you must be mindful of how many credits the courses are. For instance, to be eligible as a full-time student, you need to complete 12 credits per semester, which leads me to my next point. The University of Maryland system is split by semesters, whereas in high school in Montgomery County, we were graded based on the quarter.

Throughout each class, the required items are somewhat different from high school assignments. Similarly to high school, colleges give homework, quizzes, and tests. But they are more structured than high schools. The “tests” given by colleges are called exams and they hold great importance to your overall grade by the end of the semester. Typically 3 per semester, these exams could weigh over 15% of your grade each. These tests require way more studying than normal tests, a mistake that I learned very quickly. Once you start doing poorly during these exams, your grade will falter greatly.

Similar to Advanced Placement Exams, at the end of every semester, there are culminating exams called finals. Once the semester ends, there is a final week where all the exams take place. These final weeks are the most stressful as some final exams are worth large percentages of your grade.

Besides the format of the material of the course, the course itself is quite different from high school courses. These classes are taken every week where a schedule is planned throughout the week instead of 7 consecutive periods like in high schools. This makes registering for classes a very important occasion. Finding the right courses at the perfect times that allow for your schedule to flow smoothly is crucial in creating the ideal schedule before the semester starts.

Information that we have covered in class that I didn’t expect was the explorations into falsely concluding information. In high school and throughout my educational journey, my science teachers have always highlighted the importance of creating a correct hypothesis and how correctly conducting an experiment, and how using the data to make conclusions. In CPSG100 however, what intrigued me the most was the discussion of different ways people have been able to falsely conclude information based on common assumptions. This fascinated me because our discussions dove into human nature and their nature to create false narratives in their mind based on little information and why some humans so ignorantly cling to such conclusions.For example, my favorite fallacy is No True Scotsman. No True Scotsman essentially states that one can be led to a conclusion solely based on the fact that in their mind, there is no way that the opposite could be true. An example of this is saying that all bears are scary because you can’t imagine a nice bear when there are surely lots of nice and cuddly bears around. This fallacy is purely created by someone so ignorant they can’t believe the other side.

There were no topics that I expected us to explore that we didn’t. For the most part, reading about the program, I thought we were going to discuss global warming and our effect on the environment which we did to great lengths. Learning about the 6th mass extinction and also human’s effect on global warming which cripples our environment were subjects I expected would be discussed.

The outside-of-the-classroom activities were the most enjoyable for me. Exploring DC and learning how to use the metro was valuable information that I think everyone at least in the DMV area should know. This greatly differs from what I thought our excursions would be. Following the service day, I thought the rest of our explorations outside the classroom would consist mostly of environmentally friendly activities but the trips to DC and the museums were lots of fun.

As a student living in Centreville, relative to my high school vision of college, I thought having more freedom would be much more enjoyable, but unfortunately with all the fun, there is a significant amount of school work too. Before college, I didn’t think it would be too stressful but now feeling the pressure of your GPA dropping and also struggling to learn college-level material is a different perspective.

Some advice I would give to incoming SGC freshmen is that college has quite literally been what you make of it to be. College gives you so much freedom and time to reflect on yourself and learn to build good habits. It takes a lot of initiative to truly make the experience what you want it to be. With all the information, and resources the school provides and all the people here, you can do anything you want. If you want to learn more there are books, the internet, and professors you can talk to. If you want to start a business, there are courses and a facility to help you create a startup business. If you want to work out more or get better at a sport, Eppley Recreation Center has all the tools and equipment you need to succeed.

Also, another piece of advice from an introvert is to join clubs. Yes, it is quite generic and overplayed but if you are an introvert like me, going to college is a scary place with tons of people. A great way to find and make like-minded friends is to join clubs about things you truly enjoy. Sharing a love or a passion with someone is one of the easiest ways I have been able to make friends. Once you force yourself to attend a club meeting and sit in a room surrounded by people who are passionate about the same things as you, eventually you’ll make a friend, and from those friends, you can make more.

Last modified: 12 December 2022