Adjusting to life as a University student was a challenge at first, especially in the online environment due to the covid-19 pandemic. While I did not have to worry about living on my own in a dorm room, taking all online classes provided many challenges that I was not prepared for during high school.
The class that was the biggest surprise for me was taking an intro to genetics class. I had been fascinated with genetics since I took AP biology in high school, so I was very excited to see that I was scheduled to take genetics in my spring semester. While the first unit’s content was largely similar to topics I covered in my high school biology class, I was fascinated by how deep we went into analyzing the genome in class, and the many ways that genetic defects can arise.
I personally had a really hard time developing relationships with faculty during my freshman year at UMD. This is mostly due to the online nature of my classes this year. I am normally a pretty shy person, and have a hard time reaching out to new people, especially new teachers, and it was particularly difficult once everything started online. Even when I would go to my professors’ office hours to ask a question about a topic, I never really felt like I was making a connection, since all of the office hours were conducted over Zoom. For future students, I would recommend taking advantage of office hours as a chance to form a relationship with professors, especially if the option to meet in-person is available.
Along with forming relationships with faculty, I also found myself having a hard time making friends in my freshman year. Once again, since all of my classes were online, and I lived at home, rather than on campus, I never really had the opportunity to meet other College Park students, and get to know them. In the majority of my classes, people would stay muted with their cameras off. Even in a group project in a breakout room, most people would not turn their cameras on, and only unmute to give a suggestion for the assignment. Since I sometimes have some trouble reaching out to new people, I found making new friends in the online environment to be very difficult. However, as a member of the Mighty Sound of Maryland marching band, I was able to meet some new people in the band. For new students, I would recommend interacting with other students in their classes, especially if they are taking classes in-person. Meeting people in the same classes can not only lead to making new friends, but can also help with assignments and studying.
The hardest aspect of university life for me was managing my time effectively. With only having two or three live classes during the day, the majority of my day was open for me to work on other assignments. However, with the extra time, I often found myself procrastinating on my work, and instead choosing to watch YouTube or play video games. It took me a while to break my habit of procrastination, and actually finish my assignments during my large blocks of free time. While I still have not completely mastered my time management skills, I have definitely gotten better at not procrastinating as the year progressed.