In the weeks leading up to arriving at the University of Maryland, I was not sure what to expect as the typical college experience, especially in the middle of a pandemic. I had thought about what it would be like for years, but now, I had to factor in the online school, single dorm rooms, online clubs, and less people on campus. Originally, I had wanted to attend a small school, but when I had decided to attend UMD, I finally came to terms with the idea of going to a big school, just to attend school where half the student body was at home. This semester was surely not what I had expected it to be. In some ways, it was actually better, but in others, it was much worse than I had hoped.
Coming from a prestigious private high school, I was told not to be intimidated by the course load and difficulty of college courses because of the rigor I dealt with in high school, but I still felt nervous about the expectations of a college class. For some of my classes, Psych 100 and Comm 107, I feel that I have a good grasp on them, and the rigor and content is definitely do-able. Those classes I feel comfortable in. Comm 107 is also one of my two in person classes, my other being chem 132, so it was the only class that gave me some kind of feel of a what a real college class is like. Like I had anticipated, Chem 131 is my most difficult class. I was not very good at chemistry in high school even though I worked non-stop to do well. This made me very nervous to take a college level chemistry course. Although it is my most difficult class this semester, I am actually understanding the material much better than I expected looking at my high school experience. Unfortunately, I think the online aspect of Chem 131 is making it more difficult for me. I think I would be doing better if it was in person because the class is asynchronous, and I have a hard time taking tests on the online platform. The website we use shows your grade decreasing as you take the test and shows you when you get the problem wrong which gives me major test anxiety in a class, I am already anxious about! I definitely expected to have a hard time in chemistry, but I had not quite anticipated what about it would make it most difficult for me. I expected it to be the difficulty of the content, but I honestly think it might be the fact it is online more than the content itself. Lastly, Chem 132, chem lab, has been a really weird experience for me. I only have it every other week, and the classes are really small. The first day I had it I expected it to be really scary and daunting, but it was not bad at all and my TA was extremely helpful.
Focusing on CPSG, I did not expect to go into so much detail on the history and evolution of climate change but expected to focus more on the modern issues of climate change. Although it was unexpected, I really enjoyed learning about how climate issues have evolved overtime in different environments across the world. Learning about what has led us to the modern climate crisis is very interesting. There was not really anything I expected to learn about that we did not because I was unsure what to expect from the content. I was aware though that we would not be covering solutions to the problem this semester, so that expectation aligned with the reality of the content. When I first researched the Scholars program, I saw all the fun excursions and activities we would do as a program, but this expectation quickly disappeared as we went into school during the pandemic.
As for University Life, it is very different than I had anticipated, but I think that is mostly due to the pandemic. I definitely expected to meet more people and to be a part of clubs and just have a more booming social life in general. I think being more social will be possible once the pandemic ends and there are more people on campus, but until then, it is better than I would expect a social life during a pandemic to be. Living on campus was definitely the better choice for me and my mental health. Although most of my friends are on my floor, meaning they are also in SGC, I am very happy to have met these people and look forward to making new friends through clubs and other activities. Going to a Big 10 school, I imagined weekends at sports games with friends, which is obviously not how things went. In the future, I hope I will be able to live out that fantasy. Overall, my life on campus was not as social as I had normally expected, but more social than I had expected during a pandemic.
Lastly, some advice I would give to a future SGC student is to try and make the most of it, no matter the situation. As a freshman during the COVID-19 pandemic, I know how important it is to make the most of what is available. Though things may have been hard, and it might have taken some creativity, I have found a way to thoroughly enjoy my semester and make UMD feel like home.