Before coming to the University of Maryland (UMD), I expected my college classes would be much like my classes in high school. I believed college classes would be slow paced and have heavy instruction. To my surprise, college classes were, in fact, extremely fast paced and were accompanied by much less instruction than classes in high school. It took me some time to adjust to this new educational environment. For the first time in my educational career, I was expected to learn most of the course material on my own, as opposed to high school classes where the teachers hand-held you through class content. Although much of college education is based on self-learning, it is important to complement material you learn on your own with advice and knowledge from professors and TAs. One of the best ways to both gain knowledge and establish a good relationship with faculty was attending office hours. In high school it is not necessary to go to teachers’ office hours since there is plenty of opportunity in class to pose questions to the teacher. In college, however, there is little time in lectures or discussions for questions. So attending office hours is the best way to ask the professor or TA specific questions about readings, homework, or grades. Before entering college I also expected it to be much more difficult to earn a good grade in college compared to high school. Now, after taking about a semester worth of classes, I would say it is true that you have to work much harder in college to earn a good grade. However, earning a good grade in college is not impossible. Overall, college classes are much more stressful and difficult than I anticipated, but they are also much more exciting and relevant than I imagined.
The main focus of CPSG100 is scientific methodology and the science behind global change. One of the topics we explored in CPSG100 that I did not expect was logical fallacies. In CPSG100 we learned about argumentative techniques and logical fallacies such as: red herring, straw man, and equivocation. When the topic was initially introduced in class, I did not understand how it related to global change and science. However, after instruction on the topic I learned that logical fallacies can be found in any channel where information or ideas are communicated. Whether it be in scientific journals or everyday conversations it is important to be able to identify when logical fallacies are used, so we may become more critical thinkers. In CPSG100 we also learned generally about how the global climate is currently changing. In class we were presented with the statistics that support the fact that the global climate is currently changing at a rapid pace due to human activity. During instruction we also briefly covered how human life will be affected by climate change. I expected we would also learn about how climate is created and the details of how human activity is changing weather patterns, but we did not cover that yet this semester. The outside-of-classroom activity, Service day, was more enjoyable than I expected. Service day was at the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens. During Service day, all SGC students helped clean the pond in the aquatic gardens. I initially thought all we would do on Service day is clean the pond. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to meet many new people on Service day. For me, Service day was a great way to give back to the community, meet new people, and ease into the Scholars program.
One of the things I did not expect about college life was how much time I would have to myself. Before coming to UMD, I thought most of my time in college would be spent attending classes. However, contrary to my expectations I spend most of my time outside of class. I also was not prepared for how much I would have to walk to get around campus. In high school, all of my classes were in one building. However, now all my classes are spread out around campus so I have to walk several miles everyday to go to and from classes.
One piece of advice I would give to future SGC students is to remain open to exploring different opportunities on and off campus. Although it is important to focus on pursuing your goals, it is also necessary to be open minded and try new things. There is always something new that you can learn about yourself and the world around you, and often the best way to acquire knowledge and understanding is to push past your comfort zone and thrust yourself into completely new experiences.