During my freshman year at University of Maryland, there was a huge culture shock when it came to the way school was structured, and how we reach our requirements. My biggest shock came from having to take labs that were separate from the lecture class. In high school, we would always work lab experiments into the main class curriculum, but in college the labs are completely different classes with a different professor and set of assignments. I discovered this because as a bioengineering major, there are a lot of lab requirements in our first years here. It can be a lot of fun getting hands-on experience with the science and making new friends along the way.
Another aspect that comes with going to a large university is the difficulty in making relationships with your professors. Because there are a lot of students here, and freshman year classes mostly consists of lectures with hundreds of students, it can be harder to stand out. To help with this problem, I decided it would be best to seek out faculty members other than my professors. This way it would make me more of a unique case to them instead of one of the hundreds of students from a class. I also was looking for research opportunities, so these relationships are mutually beneficial to build. In terms of scholars, I decided to join the Peer Mentoring program for Science and Global Change and became the captain. With this, I will be working closely with the directors of SGC and build that necessary relationship.
Making friends at UMD was definitely something that made the adjustment from high school much easier. Because everyone is going through the same thing and experiencing new things altogether, it is nice to be around people with shared experiences. It was also helpful that I came from an in-state high school, so I had a few friends that came here already. Although it was helpful, it could have also been a bad thing. If I did not also prioritize making other friends and getting out of my comfort zone, I would have missed out on a lot of opportunity to meet even more great people. In the beginning of college, everyone is looking to make new friends which made it a little easier in my opinion. I would advise incoming students to take advantage of events and clubs so they can meet new people of similar interests.
In terms of being prepared for college academically, I did not expect to work much more than it was in high school. I took college level courses (much at the same time) and expected it to be what college was like. I also liked that we did not have to wake up as early. In reality, the work is much more demanding and time consuming than anticipated. I was definitely least prepared to oftentimes work from the second I wake up to the second I go to bed. The number of necessary hours I spend doing work is unprecedented in my academic career so far and I was not expecting to commit so much time every day. I would advise incoming freshman to make sure they are preparing themselves for the rigor of a college semester. It is also imperative to have amazing time management.