The classes I took in my first semester, besides CPSG100, were Chemical Principles for Engineering, Intro to Differential Equations and Linear Algebra, Weather and Climate, ENES100, Academic Writing, and ENAE100. Luckily, I was fortunate to have had lecture/discussion style classes in high school, as if I hadn't already had experience in this style class, it would've been difficult to adjust to, since ENAE100, MATH243, and AOSC200 all had lectures and discussions to teach the content. Overall, the structure of all my classes lined up with what I expected of them, besides MATH243. In my junior and senior years of high school, I only took math twice a week. MATH243, like most math classes at UMD, had lectures 3 times a week and discussions twice a week. I was unused to taking math on all 5 weekdays, and it was something I had to adjust to. Thankfully, it wasn't a large change that caused any issues for me.
I was surprised to find I needed to do a lot more out-of-classroom work than I was used to. In high school, I had an unspoken rule of "not doing any/much schoolwork outside of being in school". This meant that most homework, studying, and project completion I did occurred within my school walls. I didn't understand the point of spending 7-8 hours in school every day and then going home and doing more work for another hour or two. While there were times I had to do work at home, they were very rare. This rule of mine was so important to me that I actually timed all the times I completed schoolwork at home throughout my high school career (only around 15 hours over all four years!). I was able to get away with this method in high school and get very high grades. Unfortunately, in college, this is not the case. I was lucky if I spent only 15 hours doing work outside of class per week. I had to quickly change my mindset to make sure I completed all my work on time and understood all the material for tests. I had expected I would need to do work outside of class, but not nearly as much as I do.
As for CPSG100, I hadn't expected to focus on pseudoscience and thinking as much as we did. In the past, most books I read on similar topics to the books we read in class, I didn't have much interest in. I was surprised to find I actually did enjoy the required readings. While I still can't say I'd reach for them to read for fun as a first choice, I will admit I never dreaded reading them, as I have for other class readings. I thought we would be exploring the climate aspect more than we did. A lot of the topics we are learning in class regarding the climate, I had already learned this semester in my Weather and Climate class. I'm sure in the future we will be exploring this topic more, so I am very excited. The outside-of-classroom activities I have participated in through SGC have been service day, my excursion to the American Natural History Museum, and some small events scholars have held (like the block party). Service day was much more fun than I expected it to be (being in waders on your second day of being on campus didn't seem too appealing), and it was a great way to get to know my classmates and make friends. My excursion to NYC was super fun, and I really enjoyed being able to explore the ANHM (and see where Night at the Museum was filmed) since I hadn't been there since middle school.
Outside of the classroom, University life is pretty comparable to how I thought it would be in high school. While my dorm room in Bel Air is smaller than I had envisioned, I still enjoy where I live. My roommate is great, and two of my close friends I made on campus live two doors down from me. It is great to be able to barge in and hang out with them anytime I want. The dining hall is on par with what I expected, and there are always events happening on and off campus to attend, so I never get bored. I also enjoy being so close to D.C. and getting to explore the area so easily. I'm involved in a few low-commitment clubs that are great to participate in. I'm also part of LOOP, a club/student organization that competes in the University Rover Challenge. LOOP is great, and I've made many friends in it. It was a lot harder to get accepted into it than I expected (around 200 applicants, and only 20-ish accepted), and I do have to devote many hours a week to completing work for it, but it has been a great way for me to get involved and gain experience in engineering.
Advice I would give to future SGC students is to try everything! Don't overload yourself with classes, and allow yourself to go out and make friends. Never say no to doing something because you are scared to go out of your comfort zone. Academically, make sure to use school resources. Everyone wants you to succeed, so make sure you take advantage of everything UMD offers for free if you find yourself struggling.