Shrena Shah's "Expectations vs. Reality" Reflection Essay

The current classes that I take have lectures either once or twice a week which covers material over the span of 50 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. I will have to say I did think that going to college at University of Maryland, meant there would be less resources offered to students in terms of help. There are many tutoring opportunities that are available for STEM focused classes such as ENES 102 which is mechanics 1. Most of my classes have homework due once or twice a week. This includes group projects and meeting outside of class at least twice a week. There are graded items that result in forms of WebAssign, Mastering Chemistry, quizzes on canvas, posters, and graded papers. Coming to college, I didn’t expect there would be many group projects where I would’ve had to meet up with the group members multiple times during the semester. I will have to say many of the tests are based on memorization and practice which was very time consuming since I would not understand and have to teach myself some of the foundations specifically for my mechanics class.

In our CPSG class, I did not expect to learn logical fallacies since I thought I would be learning that in a Gen-Ed required class such as ENGL 101. We have not covered, at least I don’t think, natural disasters and how climate change contributes. I feel like we briefly went over it, but I would be interested to learn more about it. I think the outside activities are fun and it is a good way to allow students to experience how to use the metro and learn more about the campus. However, it is very time consuming since the metro rides are long and completing the assignment also takes an equal amount of time. Overall, the certain excursions such as going to the different museums for the scavenger hunt and the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens were worth the trip!

In my high-school vision of college life, I thought there would be more time to study since I wouldn’t have classes all day. However, I realized that coming to college, it is good to take breaks now and then since you will find the time to complete your assignments and have a good balance between your classes and studying for midterms. My high-school vision also concluded of me being in my room for most of the time, but I actually spend the least amount of time at my dorm. I like to go and hang with friends at their dorm, go to the library to study, and eat at the dining halls. In my vision, I thought I would find more friends within my classes, but I think it is a little more difficult to find consistent friends especially the first few days because everyone changes their seat. I also thought that it was preferable to sit either in the back or the very front. However, I think I like to sit closer to the front but in the middle of the section since I am allowed to sit in the comfort of my lecture, but feel less anxious about doing something that would be considered distracting.

To future SGC students, I think it is really important to have a balanced schedule with breaks because there are times when you feel like you cannot do it. However, those breaks allow you to catch up mentally and continue to persevere. I would also say to sit closer to the front to make yourself more engaged in the lecture. I think it is really important to be able to clearly understand the professor, which can sometimes be hard in a large lecture. Make sure you have a civil relationship with your roommate even if you do not end up becoming friends. Overall, have fun and take the time you need to get adjusted!

In SGC, I found myself struggling to complete some of the assignments since my computer had some technical issues. However, I overcame this with emailing the professor. I think the workload was consistent but would slip out of my brain at some points. The lectures were a little difficult to make it work with the lab I had to complete for my aerospace class. However, it was not too bad in terms of the content.

In this semester, not related to my academic life, it was a little disappointing to not stay friends with some of the people I met during orientation. I was in contact with a friend I met over the summer, but it was difficult to continue meeting up with them due to our different schedules. Some of the benefits I had was that I did make friends with someone who was in 3 of my classes out of coincidence. I also did find it hard to go to the gym and show up to club meetings with the workload or the exams since every midterms would be back to back.

Last modified: 10 December 2023