College is a great stage in everyone’s lives, but that doesn’t mean the transition to a new school, and often a new state, goes smoothly and without any anxiety. College students in every grade level, especially the freshmen experiencing college for the first time, must adapt to new surroundings, people and living arrangements each year.
“I think moving back to college is always a big adjustment, just because you go from a routine at home to a very different routine at school,” says sophomore environmental science and policy major Quinn Lugenbeel. “Going from living in a dorm freshman year to a sorority house with 30 other girls this year definitely took some adjusting.”
Living on a college campus is likely a very different experience and lifestyle than how most people live in their hometowns. Most college students reside in dorms and have extremely small living spaces. Even the upperclassmen that are able to upgrade to an apartment or sorority house often reside in much smaller rooms than what they’re used to at home.
Freshmen definitely have the biggest adjustment out of all the students on campus. They must learn to adapt to a new environment, living space and lifestyle, all while juggling a college course load for the first time and meeting new people.
It is perfectly normal to feel homesick and anxious, especially during that first week after moving in. This feeling does not last forever as getting into the routine of school and making friends over the first few weeks helps a lot.
Freshman government and politics major Campbell Stein explains, “I felt very homesick the second day, but once you get into a schedule and start classes, there's no time to be homesick.”
Freshman year is important and teaches students what it’s like to live independently and how to be confined to a small bedroom with another person.
“I feel that I already know how to live with someone because of last year, so I felt more comfortable. It was a big change to learn how to live with someone in a small living space last year,” says sophomore psychology major Anna Vaikness.
Both Vaikness and Lugenbeel had to transition from living in a dorm to living in a sorority house with over 30 other girls. Both agree that adjusting to the lifestyle and house setting has been a huge challenge, but they felt comforted that they already knew how to get around campus and had established connections with their peers.
“Adjusting to my living situation felt similar to freshman year, just because it was a big change,” Lugenbeel says.
While some upperclassmen moved into their sorority or fraternity, others moved into one of the many off-campus apartment complexes near campus. There are many options, but the more affordable rooms such as Tempo and the View are not much bigger than the freshman dorms.
Another huge change that many upperclassmen face is that they are often surrounded with new people. As a freshman, it’s not uncommon for your best friends to be the people you live with, whether that be in the same hall or building. While some go on to live with these friends again, others decide on different living arrangements.
This doesn’t mean the end of the friendship, but it’s a hard adjustment to go from seeing someone everyday, to stressing to find time to see them while juggling a busy schedule in different living spaces. “I met some amazing people last year who I’m glad to call my best friends. We all lived in the same hall and spent every day together. I still live with some of them, but those I don’t live with, it’s super weird not seeing them as often. I didn’t expect the change to suck as much as it did,” explains sophomore aerospace engineering major Brendan Bullock.
Change can be difficult for some people, and feeling anxiety, stress or sadness about this is not abnormal. College is difficult, not only academically, but socially as well, and dealing with such huge changes when returning to school each year only makes the transition that much more difficult. However, these feelings do not last forever because eventually life on campus becomes much more normal and the stress eases.
“But after a few weeks it overall gets so much better. I feel so much more comfortable and happier now after being here a few weeks and getting readjusted,” Lugenbeel says.