Due Date: December 14, 2020
So in my case, before going to college I had taken college classes during my highschool years. It had been in addition to my regular highschool classes and at the time doing both had been hard to balance, but the experience did make it easier for me to adjust to and shift to the “normal college experience”. However, just taking one class is not and was not the same as being enrolled in college as a fulltime student and with the added pandemic things were definitely different than even I expected. This semester I took six classes (Calculus, Chemistry + lab, AASP, Geography and the CPSG class) and each of them had details in their structure that I had experienced prior to campus life. The whole aspect of having long class lectures, semester long assignments, and homework due on a semi frequent to frequent basis was all things I had encountered in my pre-college college classes where I was given syllabuses that outlined much of the class and was expected to engage in some level of self-study. The thing that made this semester different was the fact that there were no in person classes (with few exceptions). Because of that, the structure of a lot of my college classes were even more self-reliant than I had expected since for most of them, there truly was no personal contact with peers or teachers since everything was online. This difference made the transition more jarring as everything from going to class, to listening to lectures required less effort which made it easier to forget. That coupled with the general disarray of the world, made this semester harder than expected.
In the CPSG classes, one subject I really was not expecting to be covered but was covered extensively, was the discussion and topic of fallacies, and how said fallacies affected arguments, debates, and general beliefs. It was a familiar topic, as I had heard of and knew of certain fallacies (like ad hominems) but I had not expected it to be discussed in class. I was expecting the class to discuss more of climate change and the effects of it on the greater environment, however, that topic began to be touched upon near the end of the semester. Sadly because of the pandemic, there were no outside of activities, and the only activity I did for the class (outside of the class) was my day trip to the National Zoo in DC.
The biggest difference that the pandemic caused was to university life, and the expectations vs. reality of the first semester college experience. While in highschool I was expecting my first semester of college to give me a chance to meet people and join clubs/make friends with my peers on campus. I was, in general, expecting a more social experience and was prepared to force myself to indulge in the social aspects (I’m an introvert and find socializing slightly intimidating but I wanted to still be able to experience social situations), however because of the pandemic, many of the social aspects of college were either put on hold or done over zoom. This meant that I didn’t get to join any of the clubs I was interested in nor did I really socialize as much as I wanted (the lack of in person classes and such meant that I wasn’t “forced” out of my comfort zone). This was the biggest factor that changed much of my expectations of University life. This plus the fact that I ended up moving off campus near the end of the semester, and was relegated to my dorm while still on campus meant that this semester, and probably next semester were and aren’t going to be like the expected college experience.
The biggest advice I would give to future SGC students, is the advice that all new incoming freshmen get, time management. With the whole online only semester, time management was an invaluable skill that I kind of had to (and still have to) learn so that I was able to turn things in on time and get the grades I wanted. Waiting until the last minute or the second to last minute was something that could only be done if the person (or in this case me) knew that they could finish whatever assignment in that short amount of time. But even though I (to an extent) thrive in crunch time situations, I definitely put myself under tons of unwarranted stress with some of my procrastination habits, which is why time management is a skill that all incoming SGC students need to exercise. Another piece of advice I have for incoming SGC students is that it's okay to be overwhelmed, or to feel unmotivated, or to just feel lost. These feelings are extremely normal but aren’t super talked about. The thing about these feelings is not only knowing that others can feel like this, but also that it's okay to talk to your professors to help elevate some of said feelings. I know that personally I had to email some of my professors to help me near the middle of the semester, and though it was sort of nerve wracking, I think it is something that all new students should know is available to help with the feeling of overwhelmingness. Taking advantage of the mental health resources on campus is also so something that new students should be aware of to help ease into college life.