First Year Ups and Downs

Not all students are the same, but most experience this road-map of feelings and events during their first year of college. Take a look. Understand you are not alone.

Resources to Help

The First Few Days on Campus

  • Making friends
  • Issue of identity
  • Interacting with a roommate(s)
  • Phone calls home
  • Countless triumphs and defeats
  • Lots of ups and downs
  • Finding best driving route to campus

The First Few Weeks

  • Classes begin
  • Professors are sized up
  • Class work on syllabi approached with good intentions
  • Add/drop classes
  • Learn about many out-of-class activities
  • Finding parking, finding classes
  • Everything is new--intense--exciting and frightening; overwhelming and stimulating.

Three - Four Weeks into Semester

  • Routine in place
  • Still may feel homesick
  • Phone/e-mail home
  • Try to find the right group of friends
  • Learn you have freedom to complete or not complete assignments
  • Parents adjusting to student leaving all the time
  • College seems deceptively easy
  • What to do with free time?

The Second Month of School

  • Social life may quiet down
  • Roommate complaints may surface
  • Commuters may feel "left out" of campus happenings
  • Still wondering-where do I fit in?

Half Way Point of First Semester

  • First major papers/midterms due
  • Pressure/tension/stress-to meet your own and/or parent expectations
  • May get sick
  • Time management becomes a reality
  • Procrastination/lack of motivation is common

Second Half of Semester

  • Doubt sets in-is success possible?
  • Differences between demands of high school and academic challenges of college become more clear
  • Begin making Thanksgiving plans
  • Next year's housing plans are made

After Thanksgiving

  • Prepare for finals
  • Planning for holiday break begins

Winter Break

  • Much needed refueling time
  • Being together stirs up for parents and students new struggles over separation, letting go, independence, decision-making and new value system
  • Commuters don't feel like they have a break-have been at home all semester

After Winter Break

  • Excited to get back to school-your new home
  • Feel a sense of belonging on campus

Beginning of Second Semester

  • Feeling more comfortable and confident
  • Know the difference between required and recommended class work
  • Dreary weather surfaces; moods can plunge
  • Join a student organization
  • Maybe rethink major

Spring

  • Weather gets better, allowing for more outdoor activities
  • Social activities increase
  • Romances develop for some
  • Plan your schedule for next year
  • Many decisions to make about summer plans i.e., summer classes, housing, jobs, etc

End of Second Semester

  • Stress increases
  • Projects, papers, etc. seem to be due all at once
  • Study for exams

Going Home

  • Issues of independence surface i.e., curfews, trips, home rules, is permission necessary?
  • May decide not to go home
  • Parents are challenged to let go all over again

A Special Thanks to Michigan State University website resources.

Taken from: Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years (1997) by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger.