As an engineering major, I knew my first semester as a college student probably wouldn't be picture perfect, but I still hoped for the best. As I reflect on my semester, I can recognize where I should have branched out and when I should’ve studied more. In many ways my first semester measured up to what I thought it would be like, but it also was completely unlike any experience I have had before.
The first thing I want to reflect on is how my semester went academically. In high school I was dual enrolled in college classes (one English class and two math classes), so I had a pretty good idea of the pacing and structure of college classes. However, when I was in college classes during high school the classes I were in were fully asynchronous, so I could pretty much do the work whenever I wanted to and had quite a flexible schedule. Being in-person for classes this semester was certainly odd from that aspect. One thing I didn't expect was for the majority of my classes being around an hour. My high school had an A/B Day schedule, where you only had four classes that would change depending on whether or not it was an A Day or a B Day. This meant that all of my classes were around 90 minutes long, so it was a nice surprise when my lecture only went for 50 minutes. Another thing that was different was the workload. Because I was able to work whenever I wanted to while dual enrolled, having such strict deadlines for so much work was a new feeling.
As far as SGC goes as a class, I really like it so far. I was expecting us to jump straight into talking about science and how we as humans interact with the world in both positive and negative lights. While we briefly touched on that topic in the beginning of the class, we mainly focused on research and human behaviors. As someone going into a STEM field it was interesting to learn about the different types of logical fallacies and to garner a better understanding of how scientific papers are reviewed and laid out to peers in the same fields. Although it was not what I was expecting for my first semester in SGC, I do think it gave me a good foundation of knowledge to have before we begin looking at scientific papers and research about global change.
Another thing that I expected coming into this semester was that I would have the time every day to hang out with my friends. While this is semi-true, I found that most days I just wanted to curl up in bed and take a nap. Many of the people that I knew from high school that were coming here are in different living-learning programs than I am, so they are on different sides of campus. While I did my best to see them when I could, it was hard if they were a 30-minute walk away. I usually only see them on weekends when I'm not home. I had heard coming in that once you get into the swing of classes and clubs, you never want to go home. For me, that could not have been more incorrect. Once the timing of my trips home are confirmed, I pretty much obsess over it until that Friday when I get on the train. I love going home, because my closest friends are all at community college or Towson University (about a 25-minute drive from my house). Usually, me and my friend at Towson try to coordinate when we come home, so we can all go out for dinner or lunch together.
If I had to give advice to an incoming freshman, I would tell them that the first few days are rough. Even if you are only a little over an hour away from home, it’s a big change and you will have big feelings about it. While they suck and you find yourself contemplating whether or not this was a good idea, give it a semester. I was also not in a very good headspace coming into this semester. Exactly a month before move-in day I had to put down my childhood dog of 11 years. A week and a half after that, due to pure chance, we had a puppy. So not only was I dealing with the grief of losing a pet, but I was also getting used to having a puppy in the house and all of the work that comes with them. I then also had to move away from home and my support system. While my situation was incredibly unique, I know so many people that felt the same way I did during the first few weeks. I know it sounds redundant, but it really does get better.
Coming into this semester I had a lot of expectations about what college would be like. I am happy to report that while many things were not what I expected, I still really enjoyed my first semester here at UMD. I think that overall, my college experience has been fairly normal. I love my major and most of my classes and I am looking forward to my next three years here.