As the semester winds down, I am grateful to say that I’ve really enjoyed my introduction to college life. From the social to the academic, every aspect of my time here has been positive. While there have certainly been challenges, I’ve grown a lot and am excited to be in the position I’m in. Even with finals looming, this time of year gives me the chance to reflect on my time in Maryland and look to the recent past for perspective on the future. College hasn’t been exactly what I expected, but my reality so far has been all I could ask for.
My social life at college may be more fun, but my academic commitments are the foremost concern and most important aspect of my time here. Considering that, I’ve been glad to have really enjoyed my classes this semester. I am taking a number of prerequisites and general education courses—some of which I’m happy to soon be over with. The classes directly pertaining to my majors have been of particular interest, with both my environmental science and journalism courses building a strong foundation in my chosen fields of study. Compared to high school, it is great to be able to select my courseload from such a vast catalog and engage with content I find genuinely interesting. The general environment within my courses has also been a pleasant upgrade from high school.
I graduated from a fairly small high school, and I always knew that my classes here would be a significant change from what I was used to. I’m grateful for that change, though, as I find my courses here are far more productive and valuable to me. Coming into this university, I didn’t honestly have a set expectation for what a college class may be like. Fortunately, though, I feel I have adapted well to the academic reality on campus. I was certainly overwhelmed by the workload when I first got here—especially by the volume of readings—but as the semester has progressed, I’ve gotten better at prioritizing and understanding coursework and managing my time. The specifics of my classes are fairly aligned with what I anticipated, with the large lectures being the independent, content-rich environment I expected. I have, however, been surprised and happy to engage in more collaborative discussions and lessons in some of the smaller classes—something I didn’t expect at a university of this size. Moreover, the difficulty and grading structures of my courses are certainly a step up from high school but still manageable.
As far as Scholars goes, CPSG100 has been a bit different than I expected. I’ve found the content interesting but also unique from what I’ve encountered in high school and other courses this semester. Coming into the class, I expected us to delve into climate change and its scientific background immediately. However, I was glad to see us spend more time on foundational information—even if some lectures were unexpected. To that extent, our focus on pseudoscience was not anticipated but interesting and very applicable to my journalism classes and their emphasis on facts and the truth. Topics like that are a testament to CPSG100’s uniqueness in my courseload, and that has been very refreshing. I also anticipated more climate change-focused content from the course, but I am enjoying our recent introduction to the topic and look forward to further discussion next semester.
The outside-of-the-classroom aspect of CPSG100 has been about as expected and just as refreshing as the course itself. I found Service Day to be much more fun than I anticipated and a great way to bond with my peers. Similarly, my excursion opportunity helped me forge a deeper friendship with one of my peers and gave me a fulfilling sense of helping my community. It was a valuable application of the ideas I’m learning in class and showed me their importance.
Besides the academics, my college life has been pretty similar to what I was expecting. The on-campus environment lends itself to an active social life, and I’m fortunate to have a good group of friends I spend time with most days. My perception of college before coming to Maryland was a space where kids try to get through their academics so that they can socialize as much as possible. That was the impression I got from the media and my brother, and I’m glad to say it has been fairly consistent with my life this semester. I am certainly committed to my academics, but my social life is a definite driver for me to get my work done. I feel I’ve been able to balance these aspects of my life here and have really enjoyed myself as a result.
Almost everything I’ve written here has been positive—and that feels like a reasonable reflection of my experience so far. But it hasn’t been without its challenges, and I would want future Scholars to understand and be okay with that. Being from Rhode Island, moving here was a big shift and felt isolating at times. That said, everything has worked out in the end. If I could go back a few months, that is what I would tell myself: It’s not going to be perfect, but the college experience will force you to grow and reward you with valuable experiences if you embrace it—discomfort and all.