It’s been 104 days since I first moved into my cramped Centerville dorm room and officially joined the Science and Global Change Program. I feel like a whole new person since I first stepped foot on campus. For one, I’ve already nailed the sleep deprived college student outfit (hoodie + sweatpants; sometimes crocs if I’m extra tired). And while it’s not Monsters University here, this place is now my second home.
In terms of college classes, I took mostly gen ed credits this semester. I generally understood how a lot of the bigger classes would function; the professor gives a lecture in front of a huge audience then everyone goes about their day. I really didn’t expect much from my gen ed professors because I figured they really didn’t care that much about base level courses. However, some of them surprised me, in good and bad. Some professors are just built different in the worst ways possible, some as bad as my high school teachers. Though, something I wouldn’t find in high school were professors that seem so passionate about their subject, their lectures sound like love letters. I have an older brother that is in college currently, so I pretty much understood what assignments would look like for the most part (kind of like this!) Another thing with classes is that I never expected so many upperclassmen to be in my gen ed classes. Granted you do have to take a million of them, so it makes sense why some people aren’t done with them yet. As of current, I’ve started to realize that finals season is no joke. 12 hour days at McKeldin are really wearing me down I can’t go on for much longer.
For scholars specifically, I really didn’t know what to expect going into the class. I had made the guess it would be like previous gifted seminars from high school, but it thankfully turned out to be not nearly as boring. Firstly, my old gifted program had zero, literally zero field trips or out of school opportunities. The excursions I’ve been on here completely switch up the tempo of what I normally feel during school. The aquatic gardens and hiking along the bay were some of my favorite memories this semester. For the in class portion, I didn’t expect such an emphasis on pseudoscience and logical fallacies. I probably should have figured that out from the science part of science and global change. More often than not, the whole topic of pseudoscience is pretty boring. In general, I don’t think people are super hyped up to learn about unethical practices in the scientific community compared to learning about climatology and how the world is going to end.
Now that I’ve reached the big leagues, do things feel like the big leagues? Yes. The amount of freedom I have is absolutely life altering. I never have to hear my mom yelling at me to go to bed from upstairs (at 11pm that’s just absurd). Normally I’m a music junkie held back by having to keep my headphones off while walking through the school. In college? It’s even normalized. The fresh air around campus is also so nice after I leave a miserable class. Now, something I was completely shocked by is that weekends in my dorm feel much worse than weekends at home. I’m waking up at like 1pm just to do chores then the sun is already down; it’s not great for morale. However, there’s no way I’m getting up early on weekends I need the sleep.
For any future SGC students, and UMD students in general, PLEASE don’t think you can do all your work overnight. You are not nocturnal. I made this mistake and it has cost me so much precious sleep. Also, if your professor seems dumb, they probably are. Take multiple sets of notes: One based off slides/lecture and one based off readings/online supplements. As a social tip, talk to everyone you meet because most people here are nice. The freshman 15 isn’t real unless you eat the Y’s cookies. I swear they put something in those.