As a first semester freshman, all of my classes were online due to the pandemic. I stayed home, which felt very strange. It seems that I have missed out on the traditional college welcoming experience. The classes I took were BSCI170/171, COMM107, CPSG100, ENGL101, and PSYC200. For my biology classes, we were completely asynchronous and largely just worked on our own through each unit (organized into modules). For the rest of my classes, I had a mix of synchronous and asynchronous online class. I must say that the hardest thing for me to adjust to in the beginning was the long periods of time that we had before an assignment was due. In high school, each homework is due the next day so you usually have a day to complete it. In college, assignments take on more of a "project" timeline, where you have to pace yourself accordingly with the time that you are given. I would say that if you had block scheduling in high school then you may be more prepared for this. Time management aside, I actually found UMD courses much, much easier than my high school courses. My high school was incredibly competitive and everyone had near impossible standards. Perhaps partially due to the online format of classes this semester, I personally thought UMD courses were much more manageable than high school.
In CPSG100, I must say that I was blown away!! I admit that I was not the most excited about "science and global change" when I received the emails and letters. I thought that it would be boring and I would just get more talk about climate change and that we need to do stuff to save the planet. On those first zoom meetings, Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck were both very helpful and engaging and I believe that helped me have more of an open mind before even starting the colloquiums. The part that surprised me the most was that I got to learn the history and actually see how scientists analyze rocks and use different historical events to predict climate change and its effects. It is not like listening to the news trying to convince you to just listen to their word. Knowing the actual empirical evidence behind phenomena allowed me to understand and get excited about climate change in a way that hearing it from the media did not. Who knew rocks were so exciting? I would say that I did not expect the amount of reading that was involved in the course. Also, I am very sad to have missed out on field trip opportunities due to Covid-19. I think if this semester was normal, those trips would probably be memories that stay with me for the rest of my life. On a separate note, I want to say that I was surprised about how much overlap there was between the classes I took. It is a bit hard to explain. See, in high school each class was pretty much separate from one another. But somehow someway, every class that I took this semester shared common themes. For example, both the colloquium and my psychology class talked about Occan's Razor. (I even wrote an email in the beginning of the semester to Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck about this).
Life in college...well...I would say that it is currently very similar to life in high school during the quarantine since I am staying home. This was definitely not what I expected prior to college. I thought that going into college would be staying in dorms, walking to class, and hanging out with friends. These days I just sit in front of the computer for the majority of the day doing classwork and homework. I think that I am saddest about is that I did not get to make those "life long college friends" that my mom always talked about. However, I would much rather do my part to keep everyone around me healthy than to be dumb and go to parties for my own selfish reasons. I must say that I am disappointed in those that do go out to have fun for themselves without considering that they could possibly kill someone by transmitting Covid-19. I would urge everyone to act more mature. Other than that, I personally enjoyed online learning for the most part. I found that I could work at my own pace and not feel peer pressure to perform a certain way.
One good thing with starting my first semester of college at home is that it makes the transition super smooth. All I have to focus on is my classes. The biggest piece of advice that I would give is that if you have questions for anyone, just ask them. You are paying a considerable amount of money to go to college. You are entitled to asking professors and TAs and peers questions. You are now interacting with adults and it is time for you to take control of your life. I feel like in high school, teachers are less willing and see teaching partly as babysitting. In college, everyone is on a level playing ground. Teachers will treat you as colleagues, which opens up numerous opportunities for you. Advocate for yourself and expand your knowledge.