Since beginning my freshman year here at UMD, I've learned about a lot of very interesting classes offered on campus. One class, which I'm currently taking, is INST 154 which is about the Apollo missions. When looking through Testudo for possible gen-ed credits to take, I saw it and read the description and it seemed very interesting to me. One of my friends in my other class was taking it at the time and she told me it was a very fascinating course to take. Taking this class has made me realize that UMD has so much to offer in terms of courses and that there are so many interesting classes I want to take, such as the ethics and morals behind killing. Due to this realization, I chose not to pursue a minor so whenever I have extra space in my schedule, I can take classes I actually find interesting instead of ones I'm required to take.
I personally don't feel as though I have made any very strong connections with any of my professors. This is mainly because I don't attend any office hours on a regular basis. I hope to work in a lab starting next semester and throughout my undergraduate studies, so I hope with, I'll be able to foster a strong relationship with a BIOE professor who can help mentor me throughout my time in college and advise me in terms of decisions for the future. For those who want to make strong relationships with faculty members, simply talk to them after class if possible or go to their office hours. The more frequently you're there, the more they'll recognize you.
My second semester has made me realize how truly difficult my first one was. Currently, I feel as though I'm able to easily maintain my workload and distribute my work even though I'm currently taking more credits. I truly believe the reason I was able to get through the first semester without too much agony was my roommate. She is a pre-dent student so since we're both STEM students, we had fairly heavy workloads, especially for our first semesters in college. We spent a lot of time together studying and even though we were constantly bummed that everyone else was doing whatever they pleased, we almost always had each other. We're currently very good friends with the girls on our floor but our friendship didn't really fully come to be until after winter break. It can be difficult trying to form strong friendships quickly which is what you're basically trying to do your entire first semester. With time, you will find your people and they'll support you in both your academic and personal goals. When finding these friends, I've found it helpful to look for someone who has similar mindsets as you when it comes to school. Friends who take school and/or partying as seriously as you do are good indicators that you guys will work well together.
College is basically throwing you into a massive place with thousands of people and making you make decisions that will essentially shape the rest of your life. Which is definitely not scary. College is so much independence that it really shows your drive and how much you're willing to work to achieve your goals. Something I wasn't fully prepared for was, yes, the amount of work. As an engineering student, I knew it was going to be a lot of work but the scope of it and the amount of studying you have to do in order to be successful is A LOT. I think the fact that my county got rid of final exams before I went to high school did not help to prepare me at all for college. I was also very unprepared for the fact that the phrase midterm is a lie. I had midterm after midterm after midterm and even when I felt the relief of finishing one, I knew that it wasn't very long until I had to start studying for the next. In terms of this, I feel as though there isn't much you can do to prepare yourself for all the work and studying, just make sure your summer before is as relaxing as possible. All you can really do is brush up on some time management techniques and use an agenda or something similar to keep yourself organized. For the more personal part of college, I would say make sure you know your values and that you make friends that align with them. Also, be true to yourself and do what actually makes you happy and you enjoy. It's not worth it wasting your time doing stuff that you feel you should do but don't actually want to do.