By Aaron Rigby
Correspondent
With fall break now behind us and midterms right around the corner, freshmen at the College are in the whirlwind of their first semester, having gotten a sense of what they can expect over the the next four years.
It is no secret that freshman year, at every education level, is one of the toughest years that students will endure. A new environment with new people and living away from everything you’ve ever known is highly stressful for young adults entering the next phase of their academic careers.
However, every year, upperclassmen from high schools around the nation visit colleges with a set of goals and an ambitious drive to establish themselves for future success in a desired career field. Now, the newest class of freshmen at the College has set out to pursue those goals..
Zachary Dorner is a freshman political science major, said he is taking the transition relatively well, and better than he had anticipated.
“I love all of my classes and the new friends I have made so far,” Dorner said.
One of the biggest differences between high school and college education is the time and frequency of classes. The College, offering fewer classes at later times, allows Dorner to have a morning routine that is more “lenient and easy-going” as a result. “Waking up at 9 a.m., which is much later than what was necessary in high school, makes a big difference in college,” he said. He also expressed the joy in being able to have “fun night adventures” with his new friends and roommates because of his flexible scheduling.
Though Dorner enjoys the classes he has and likes the professors in those courses, he admits that it has been a struggle to adjust to the required courses, which are unrelated to his major.
“I’m taking one or two classes that I need help in, unrelated to my major, but otherwise I’m doing good transitioning academically,” he said.
Despite enjoying the company of his new friends and roommates, Dorner continues to struggle with the harsh reality of the tight bonds he once had becoming looser because of the distance college creates.
“There are definitely some [home] relationships I want back,” he said. “That’s probably the worst part about college, not being able to see family or hometown friends as frequently as I once did.”
Dorner says he goes home on the weekends to spend as much quality time with his relatives as possible.
Dorner continues to look towards his future at the College.
“I am looking forward to creating my own schedule next semester; picking classes I want at certain times will be a very fun thing to do,” he said.
Emilee Schulz is a freshman education major at the College, and similar to Dorner, her transition has gone smoother than she thought it would.
“I didn’t expect to make as many friends as fast as I did,” said Schulz. “I randomly hung out with people at the playfair, and later over time they became my best friends and we hang out pretty often.”
To deconstruct the fear of adjusting to new environments, Schulz says that you simply “just have to put yourself out there and be yourself.”
As it pertains to academics, Schulz acknowledges that she also had a difficult time transitioning into college-level learning.
“It was a little rough in the beginning… actually, really rough in the beginning,” said Schulz. “But, over time, it's balanced itself out.”
She said it has been difficult adjusting to her schedule, specifically “the amount of school work and my Thursday schedule, learning to deal with back to back to back classes all day, but it’s gotten easier for sure.”
Schulz also said she was surprised to have had some unexpected experiences this semester, only a little over a month in.
“I didn’t really expect to make as many friends as fast as I did,” said Schulz.
Something Schulz says she misses, which many college freshmen can relate to, is the loss of employment while being away from home. She said she “misses working and money.”
While dealing with some hardships in her personal life regarding familial relationships at home, Schulz has been able to see the positives in all situations she has found herself in.
“There’s a lot I miss from home. I feel like I kind of left everything behind, but I’ve been able to embrace the new,” she said.
Understanding the rough patches and how emotionally draining freshman year can be to new students, sophomore Sandra Abrantes offered some advice and words of encouragement to current freshmen at the College.
Abrantes is a visual arts major with a specialization in graphic design and is minoring in fine art. She added that she had chosen her major and minor prior to her first semester at the College, and has “stuck with it” ever since.
“It’s normal to be nervous at first, so was I; but I made friends pretty fast and I’m still close with all of them,” said Abrantes.
She empathized with the feeling of lost home relationships, or at least having those relationships without being as tight as they once were.
“I don’t get to see [home friends] a lot because our schedules just don’t match. But it’s a two-sided thing; nobody knows exactly how to keep consistent communication, but we’re still figuring it out,” Abrantes said.
Schulz wondered whether it was worth the cost to stay on campus in comparison to commuting daily.
“I think it’s absolutely worth it to stay on campus, especially first year,” Abrantes shared in response. She noted that being provided with both housing as well as a meal plan was convenient. “It is a lot of money, but it does weigh itself out in the end, and making connections is so much easier when you stay on campus.”
One of the accommodations Dorner was looking forward to receiving in the second semester was the leisure of selecting his courses himself, in comparison to being assigned courses in the first semester. To that, Abrantes stated that “the second semester is better, for sure. Being able to hand-select courses made it much easier to stay focused and motivated, and having one or two classes a day makes it easier for productivity.”
Similar to Schulz, Abrantes admits that it has been a rough task to try and keep up financially while in college, citing that it is a tough journey to earn an employment position on campus.
“It was definitely hard to keep up financially without working on campus and only working at home on breaks,” said Abrantes. “I felt like I was spending a lot last semester on essentials, but I stayed consistent with applying for on-campus positions and earned one as a student leader for first-year community service.”
Overall, Abrantes wanted to provide students with a word of encouragement, regardless of how positive or negative their time as freshmen has been this far.
“I know more about myself and the people I like to surround myself with than I did at this time last year, which I think is one of the most important and impactful things you can take away from your experience at college.”
