My college experience thus far has been extremely positive and I have learned a lot from my two semesters so far. Here are a few things that I wish I knew and would tell my past self about college.
Overall, I would say my high school teachers definitely understated how much different college is than high school. Every course pretty much blew high school out of the water in terms of high level thinking and homework. Most of all, the course that came as the biggest surprise to me was MATH240 or Linear Algebra. This class was extremely difficult and required a lot of my free time in order to fully comprehend the class material. As a requirement for my CMSC intended major, I learned to manage my time and give myself a lot of time to do the homeworks and study for the exams. As for the greatest revelation so far, it was definitely INAG110 or Oral Communication. I discovered that I am quite skilled at public speaking and ended up being very comfortable talking for an extended period of time in front of my peers. I would tell incoming students to check their class reviews beforehand to make sure they can handle all the work.
My greatest success in developing a strong relationship with faculty was definitely my INAG110 professor. He would give me pointers and strategies to use for the next speech that I would actively practice and rehearse and it really helped me take the next step as a speaker. The greatest obstacle is definitely working up the courage to speak to them the first time. Whether they’re on the older or younger side, you have to realize that we are all adults now, and they’re here to help you as much as possible. Once I realized this, it became a lot more clear to me what the atmosphere was like with college professors.
I was truly blessed to get placed on a floor with an amazing group of guys and we have all become super close. Other than the guys on my floor and some of the friends I had here from high school, I was able to make friends through sports and going to the gym, as well as talking to people in my classes. Whether it was just hanging out or even studying together, having people around you is a huge boost to your mental health in my opinion. Similarly to faculty relationships, the biggest obstacle is definitely just branching out. For example, during the early weeks of my first semester I would just leave my door open and anyone on my floor could come in and hang out/get to know each other. Doing this helped me get a lot more comfortable. I would also mention that a good rule of thumb for students is to have a friend or at least someone you can talk to comfortably in each class. That can make getting notes easier, and you can chat about homework or anything like that.
I was most definitely least prepared for time management. I think for a lot of people here at UMD, myself included, we were used to being able to have schoolwork in the backseat during high school and give sports, hobbies, etc. more time of day. Whereas now I realize that school comes first, and playing basketball/hanging out with friends comes after that. I would definitely recommend future students to make sure they don’t overload themselves with classes and credits. It won’t kill you to take 12 credits one semester even if one of your friends is taking 17. Another huge factor for me was to not spend too much time in your dorm. If you’re in your dorm, it’s easy to sit down in your bed and next thing you know you’ve been scrolling on TikTok for two hours. I highly suggest the method of going out for your classes in the morning, and then pretty much spending all day out of your dorm whether it’s going to class, going to the dining hall, going to the library, etc. It helped me a ton in staying productive everyday and feeling like I actually did something.