The largest personal surprise for me was my ARCH 272 course, sustainability in college park, In which I was delighted by an entire course filled with guest lecturers and wonderful climate/sustainability related projects. I was able to find this class through the scholars supporting courses, and was lucky enough to see I found it available in the only semester it was running for the year. It is an extremely different pace of learning as compared to highschool, as it allows for you to learn via multiple different leaders in their respective fields, and complete your own paper and presentation regarding an idea on sustainability for campus. You will receive lectures from people who run the university's sustainability goals, concepts for better power and transport on campus, and people in charge of making the layout of UMD more sustainable. When going into classes like this, forget highschool! Of course remember how to be a good academic, but no time in your previous academic career will you have learned in the style of ARCH 272! I’s very key to stay on top of understanding main ideas about sustainability for the midterms and quizzes, while also retaining how to think sustainably for your own project in the future. The next class that caught me by surprise was the way ENES100 is taught, through two phases, a learning and building phase centered around constructing a working vehicle to complete some task designated to us around the start of classes. ENES100 challenges you to learn outside of the box, and truly try and understand certain concepts that could be foreign to you completely. You are paired with 7 others, all from different engineering major pathways, its one of the most unique learning experiences you can have as an engineering major and is an extremely fun concept as compared to high school group projects. To succeed in that class it is key that you manage your time, and coordinate your group, to fully achieve your goals as a group. There is no I in team in this class, so make sure you work hard in order to reach the finish line as a team and not all by yourself.
Personally, I have not developed too many faculty relationships on campus, however the select few that I have are absolute delights that have no doubt helped me succeed and grow in college. First, Id like to mention my calculus 1 teaching assistant zaire, who was not only an extremely helpful in terms of calculus help but extremely personable and showcased that college allows for much different connections as compared to highschool. When you are struggling in a class with a professor who doesnt teach in a style you can grasp, befriend your TA!!! They are absolute joys who are there to help and make classes that can be extremely difficult much easier. One other lucky relationship I made was with the engineering advisor Mr Fitzgerald, where i stumbled into his office on accident, and informed me on the mechanical contractors association student chapter at UMD. It was a completely coincidental occurrence, and allowed me to not only connect with more engineering majors, but is going to offer me unique insight to a career path im interested in. My advice in scenarios like this is to be curious! You never know who does what on campus until you ask, the answer is always no until you try. It may not be in a fashion of accidentally stumbling into the wrong advising office, but grab that flyer and take that course because you never know what form of upper level connection you could create.
Relationships in college are a lifeline indeed, where you can meet friend for life or for even simply acquaintances for the span of a course, its extremely important to connect with your fellow peers. My personal experience with relationships on campus has been wonderful, as a commuter student, it was initially hard for me to maintain friendships as a barley saw or had time to connect with any of my fellow classmates. I however got lucky and made some very cool friends during my new student orientation. My first piece of advice is to reach out and connect at any possible avenue, friends can come from literally anywhere on campus and they make life in such a big pool of people so much more enjoyable. Having connections from NSO made it so I wasn’t completely alone in all of my classes, and gave me people to reach out to to grab food or even prepare for final exams. The greatest obstacle is ensuring you balance your work life and your social life in a way that keeps you happy and productive. You can’t be out partying or spending money everyday of the week, but you also cant be alone every day simply working hard with absolutely nothing extracurricular. One of the relationships im most grateful for is the one I have built with my girlfriend I met on campus, funny enough at chess club. She has been extremely supportive and an amazing person to grow to know and love. My next set of advice is to never be afraid of going for relationships you feel may be unattainable, the worst thing a person can say is no, and college is genuinely a land of opportunity to grow as a person and in the style of relationships you have. To make the best of everything, always be kind and honest to all the relationships in your life regardless of the nature of the relationship, and always try and help those who have helped you. Form study groups, find an awesome roommate, and maybe even fall in love.
In terms of rough things with college, there were a few things I was not able to handle when entering college. First, the dread of studying in college is much greater than that of high school, as the materials you will face are much greater in terms of difficulty and the periods in which to learn them are much much shorter. There is absolutely no way to procrastinate in college and enjoy everything peacefully, you need to lock in as soon as you can regarding midterms and final exams. There is very little handholding in college when it comes to grading, so make sure you reach for help when you need it, otherwise you can fall far extremely fast. The size of classes I was also extremely unprepared for, as there is a possibility of being in a hall with over 200 other people, and there is very little time for 1 on 1 help in lecture halls. This ties into my recommendation of befriending your advisors, but to also attend office hours if you do have questions. It gets extremely easy to neglect that crucial time, and it can cost you some serious points on your gpa. Its also extremely overwhelming when absorbing the sheer amount of commotion that occurs on campus, youll most likely be living and working in an extremely jampacked city. My advice is to not fall prey to fomo, you have four years of college fun in front of you, its okay to explore your first year, but dont get consumed in the wrong aspects of your new freedom.