My first semester at the University of Maryland has been full of ups and downs. In some ways my experience has gone exactly as I expected and in other ways, has suprised me. In terms of classes exclusive of College Park Scholars, the experience has gone pretty much as expected. For my three and four credit classes, the structure of large 100 person lectures and smaller discussion sections are the norm. For one credit classes like CHEM134, we meet in lecture once per week and don't learn a whole lot. While the content in most of my classes is engaging, it isn't too challenging and I was able to get by this semester with pretty minimal studying. The exception to this is CHEM134, which I am convinced was designed to be a weed out class. This material is very abstract and my professor whirls through content while expecting us to absorb every bit of it, and frankly showing very little sympathy to our struggles as a class. I did expect to have a few classes like this, so I just study a little extra for this subject and have been doing fine. In terms of graded items, exams are usually the heaviest weighted graded items in any given class, accounting to 50-60% of our final grade. Although I expected this, I feel it would be more fair to equally distribute weight between projects, tests, and other homework assignments. This way an exam score can't completely ruin your semester grade if you simply had a bad test day. The one class that doesn't have exams is my ENES100 (Intro to engineering course), which I really enjoy. The class is entirely project based and splits up the grade among different parts of the project or "milestones", so my final grade isn't riding on one big assignment. For the most part I have enjoyed my College Park Scholars cirriculum. There were lots of things covered that I didn't expect, one of them being logical fallacies. At first, I didn't see how learning about logical fallacies (I had previously touched on this in high school english) could be applied to science and global change. After a more in depth look, I realized that noticing logical fallacies in arguments is very important for subjects outside of english. When conducting science it is important to make sure you have no fallacies in your statements, predictions, or hypothesis. Something that I hope we cover in more depth next semester is how influences in outerspace can potentially cause global change, for example sun flares, debris, changes to the moon. The outside of classroom activites were largely how I expected them to be, with service day being the main activity and smaller excursions available throughout the semester. One thing I do regret is not going to more than one of the excursion events. I do hope another new york trip is available next semester as spots filled up very quickly this semester. This semester, I have mostly been living in the Centreville. However since I have a car and live twenty minutes from home, I have been going back and forth quite a bit this semester. Whether it was to get a break from the stresses of college life or just to get some good food, going home often is a luxury I realize many other students don't have. In high school I didn't anticipate I would be coming home often, but for the most part my high school vision of dorm life has been pretty accurate. I had imagined living in pretty small, less than appealing rooms but being in close proximity to my peers would create bonding and help me form lasting friendships. Upon my arrival to centreville, this is exactly what I was met with. The transition from living at home in a nice queen bed to a cramped little room with a bed too small to fit my feet was a pretty big shock. For the first few days I thought I would have trouble adjusting but it didn't take long for me to meet friends and the good times I had and continue to have with them allow me to overlook the imperfections of Centreville. For future SGC students trying to acclimate to college life, I would just tell them to relax. It may seem prudent to jump in instantly and join every club, apply for every on campus job and try to get whatever research or internship position you can find. However, this can and most likely will cause a lot of undue stress and pile on work on top of your already demanding classes. Use the first semester of freshman year to really get settled into the college grind. Take 12-14 credits to test the waters, try to put yourself out there and make friends and develop a healthy routine. College is all about being independent and finding your passion, and this isn't done in one semester. Don't feel pressured to rush through it or feel the need to have everything figured out in the first couple weeks.
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