For this first semester, the structure and difficulty of my classes was lighter than I expected. Most of the material could be found online and the concepts seemed to be straightforward. They were mostly ideas that I viewed as common sense. This was partly because I had learned some of this material towards the latter stages of my high school years. I had also been following the computer science field before I came to the University of Maryland because I would have loads of free time travelling to high school basketball tournaments. On the note of extracurricular activities, there was a lot of time between classes to explore the various gyms, recreation facilities, sports, and clubs that the university has to offer. As a Computer Science student, I have realized that most of my grades were dependent upon computer-based projects and benchmark exams. The computer-based projects could be completed easily so long as you looked at the lecture notes and participated in discussion sections. The in-person delivery was decent because the instructors seemed well-versed in their classes and the TAs were able to cover the content gap if there was any misunderstanding. The TAs also had the ability to help the students with test-taking strategies and difficult problems that the instructor did not have time to cover in class.
Being that our section of Scholars is called Science and Global Change, I did not expect this class to cover so many aspects of history. There were several occasions where we discussed developments in architecture, scientific understanding, and even general civilization in the colloquium sessions to talk about the ways that science has improved our lives and could have helped past lives. However, I thoroughly enjoyed these lectures because they were entertaining and informative at the same time. In fact, I enjoy learning about major historical developments because they always seem way cooler than what is going on today. My favorite lecture happened in a recent colloquium session, where we learned about the Norse people and the journeys/expeditions of their vikings. On the other hand, I was expecting the lectures to speak more on the development of geological understanding, or even the changes in Earth’s features that we have seen over time. I do believe there was one colloquium session where this was touched upon but it spoke solely about the use of rocks and sediment for prehistoric dating. These classes were fun but I think the sessions that took place outside of the classroom were more fun. I especially enjoyed the first activity that we completed as a group, where we travelled to a suburban area in the DC area and helped clear an invasive species of weeds from a pond. While the temperature was very high that day and the number of weeds seemed to be endless, I made many lifelong friends along the way.
In all honesty, I was not looking forward to going to college when I was in high school. There was a period of time in my senior year of high school where me and my friends had very little school work, played basketball very often, and went to parties weekly. This period of time was very enjoyable for us and I sincerely feared that college would never be even close to this much jubilation. However, the first few weeks of college showed me that I was, to my delight, highly mistaken. I learned to make new friends almost everywhere I went and I learned to have lengthy conversations with people who I barely knew. I also realized that, as mentioned previously, there is a huge amount of free time between different classes of the day, so there are many chances to do whatever I want. Whereas in highschool I had to sit through classes for half the day, I can attend classes, do work, and spend time with friends at my own discretion. I also thought college was going to be very busy all the time. However, I still find time to chill out with various different people.
When giving advice to future students, I would first tell them to work very hard for the first couple of weeks. For me, the classes were easier than I expected but the first semester classes for someone else may come off as very difficult for another person. Stay on top of the course work that is given and always ask for help from either the course instructor, the TAs, or classmates if any issues or any questions arise. However, if this person does not procrastinate on assignments and spends quality time studying, he or she will realize that there are massive gaps of free time that are available throughout the day. In this time, that person should try to make as many friends as possible. They should take every opportunity to spend time with those friends, whether it involves dinner, cards, basketball, or any outside social activity. If any problems arise outside of class, a person who is alone will not only tend to feel demotivated and helpless, but they may not be able to think of a solution on their own. A person with friends, however, may be able to seek council or help from these friends and recover from those issues.