Personally speaking, as an Astronomy major, my Astronomy 120 and Astronomy 121 classes have been tremendously surprising in the depth of content and complexity of the universe beyond my understanding going into the major. I believed that I had a relatively good grasp of the fundamentals of the universe, but I was very much so wrong on that front. There is so much information I still don’t know, and so much that I have learned over the past two semesters. From the pressure gradients of planet atmospheres to the spin of individual particles to the possibility of black holes losing their event horizons due to rapid rotation. All of these are possibilities that I had never considered before in my passion for astronomy, and I learned all of it here at UMD in such a short amount of time. However, I only learned this information by being active and engaged with my classes and frequently asking questions to my professors and TAs, who were more than willing to help me understand course content and how everything works. Due to the kindness and care faculty put into my education and teaching this tremendously interesting content, I have learned so much about how the universe works, and has reinforced my choice to pursue an astronomy degree here at UMD and beyond, possibly in graduate school. Additionally, I came into these courses passionate about course content, although I had little actual knowledge of what I was going to learn. I knew the basics, of course, but much of the complexity of these topics and issues were new to me. Pursuing a degree in something that you are passionate about, and taking classes that genuinely intrigue you and make you want to show up every day and do the work are going to lead you to having the best experience possible in college, and will lead to you being the most successful and learning the most about the your given interests.
Developing relationships with faculty members has been a vital part of my experience here at UMD, and it is something that I wish I did even more of previously, and will continue to do for all of my classes going forward. Having good relationships with faculty, especially those who are going to be teaching you, is pivotal for having a good experience in college. These professors are incredibly knowledgeable in the subjects that they are teaching, so much so that what you learn from them in a semester or two is only a fraction of what they know on a given issue. The professors at UMD are highly skilled in their respective fields, and are very eager to share their knowledge with you and see you succeed in a subject that they have dedicated their lives to. For example, my Astronomy professor the past two semesters specializes in the study of Neutron Stars and all of the weird stuff that goes on with them, and the TA for the class is an expert on Exoplanets and finding worlds that could harbor life. They both specialize in dramatically different subjects, but both of them have tremendous amounts of knowledge and wisdom that they have passed down to us, so we share some of their knowledge and can make an educated decision as to what fields of astronomy we want to go into ourselves. In order to actually set up these relationships with university faculty, you need to go to office hours and be willing to take time out of your day to talk to and relate to the people around you. Professors and TAs really enjoy having people at their office hours, and they enjoy even more teaching people the things that they love.
At the start of my freshman year, I didn’t have many friends on campus, and I felt very alone much of the time. I had trouble connecting with people in my classes, and I was concerned that I would never find new people that made me feel comfortable and welcome. I did have some friends coming into college from my time in high school that also came to UMD, and they helped me tremendously in opening up to new people and making friends with more people. Having this groundwork already and a group of people that I could trust from the start made it much easier for me to make friends, and I still rely on them and spend much of my free time with them. Having a busy schedule with classes proved to be a significant obstacle in making connections with new people, and simply being willing to go out of my way and out of my comfort zone to go talk to people was something that I struggled a lot with. Having so much work to do constantly loomed over my head, and it was something that I had to deal with while trying to make these connections with people. For next year’s freshmen, they can make the best use of the connections with their peers by having study groups and friends that are willing to help you with your work and there for you when you need them. Having people around you that can help you both in and outside of your classes is vital in both your and their success, and having that companionship can be incredibly important in passing your classes and having good mental health.
For university academic life, in retrospect I was least prepared for the amount of time I would have to spend in office hours and tutoring, and how much help I would need to get to succeed in my classes. When I came into UMD my classes in high school challenged me very little, and I often spent very little time studying or dedicating time to my classes and still passed with very good grades, but classes here now are far different than they were in high school. Classes at UMD are incredibly difficult and require a lot of time and effort in order to pass them and do well, and the knowledge that they will impart on you will be vital to your success in the future. I was very complacent at the start of the year and assumed I could continue my processes of minimal studying and still succeed, but I was terribly wrong. I needed to go to office hours and talk to TAs to understand the content that I didn’t understand in class, and tutors helped give me time where I could ask specific questions in a one on one scenario where the person I was talking to was there to help me, and me specifically. The staff really helped me understand the important information that they were teaching me, and having the one on one time to learn this helped me tremendously in my academic endeavors.