Adjustment issues for first-year students

Here are some common month-to-month adjustments for first-year college students adapted from: Helping your First-Year College Student Succeed, by Richard Mullendore and Cathie Hatch, National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.

September/October

• Feelings of excitement
• Experimenting with newfound freedoms
• Frequent calls and visits home
• Becoming familiar with campus
• Homesickness and loneliness
• Anxiety about classes, professors, roommates
• Students ask, “Do I fit in here?”
• First assignments/test grades returned
• Romantic relationships from home often remain strong
• Experiencing the consequences of decision-making
• Roommate problems may arise
• First midterm exams at the end of October.