Is the freshman year of college really that stressful?

Question

My son seems to be overwhelmed by the normal things that are coming his way. He's involved with a sports team, and his roommate and he get along fine. He comes home almost every weekend and spends a lot of time with the kids that are still in high school. I commuted when I went to college and my husband didn't attend, so we don't know what he's going through- so any insight would be helpful.

Answer 1

Yes. Freshman year is very stressful. Here are some reasons why.

1. It's a new setting. There's more independence and more temptation to party or just be lazy. There may be a number of things on your mind other than school.

2. Plenty of things are going to go wrong. For me, I had to drop calulus and my science classes weren't anything like what I thought they were going to be.

3. A whole new group of people with assorted backgrounds. I went to school with a bunch of from the Chicago area. There are a lot more religous people in college than I was expecting, and I don't mean the good kind, I mean McChristians.

4. You spend a lot of time thinking about how much it costs, even if you aren't the one personally paying for it.

5. You realize that you are getting older and that you're not going to live forever. Time become precious to you. That may happen later in college for some people than others, but a lot of people end up just wanting to get done with college and move on.

6. The exact opposite of number 5 may happen - you'll get so used to college that you'll never want to leave. You'll keep taking classes after you've finished your degree or start a master's degree. If you're one of those people who never wants to graduate email me and I'll tell you were to go.

7. You may have to drop a course. Dropping a course that early in college is bad for morale.

8. Morale. You're going to be wondering if you can make it through four years of it.

9. You'll be questioning why you're even at college in the first place. Sure, you think it's for YOUR benefit. But in time you'll learn it's just to benefit the employeers. Colleges are basically day care centers which keep 18 year olds out of the workforce and make sure that people are thousands of dollars in debt by the time they graduate. When you're in serious debt you're more aminable to what your employeers wants.

10. If you don't have a car, you're going to get tired of being stuck on campus all the time, no matter how big it is or what it has to offer.

Answer 2

My freshman year of college was actually the least stressful. Sophomore year and now junior year have been far more stressful. If your son has enough time to come home on the weekends and doesn't have too much work, then it may not be his work that is stressing him out, but the social environment. He comes home a lot to see friends from high school, so maybe his problem is that he hasn't found the right niche. Is he involved in many clubs or activities? That may be the key to really feeling at home. He needs to feel that his college is his home, not just a place to get a degree.

Answer 3

depends on his character throughout high school.

if he spent all four years joking around, doing nothing and slacking off, yes it will be THAT stressful for him.

also, if he cares about his GPA a lot, yes, it will be stressful. first semester of freshman year is the time when you realize the essay writing skills from high school that used to get you a 90 now get you a C-. it can hit really hard sometimes.

however, if he comes home every weekend and spends a lot of his time with old buddies and what not, i would not assume he is one of the kiddos chasing a 4.0. from personal experience, that type marries his textbooks during frosh week

freshman year is as stressful as you make it. it's very hard if you have no study habits and it's very hard if you're the "perfect GPA" kind of person. either of the extremes is not too healthy for the psyche, but neither will kill you.

bottom line, he'll live. just make sure you find out if he flunked any of the exams. finals are here/almost here. you wouldn't believe how many kids hide that.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Is the freshman year of college really that stressful?
My son seems to be overwhelmed by the normal things that are coming his way. He's involved with a sports team, and his roommate and he get along fine. He comes home almost every weekend and spends a lot of time with the kids that are still in high school. I commuted when I went to college...

Answer 5

As a junior in college, I can honestly say that college is stressful, whether you're a freshman or senior. It simply doesn't matter what level of education you're in-- Stress is there, in many different forms.
For me, the most stressful times are near the end of the semester when we're all trying to write our term papers, and study for exams. Stress levels also depend on the amount of extra activities that students participate in. It could be, that your son is coming home every weekend to "de-stress" and his way of doing it, is spending time with kids still too "young" to be stressed out about college things.

Hope that helps :\

Answer 6

Yes, the freshman year as well as the sophomore years are the most stressful because it's much of lower division classes one is taking. Also, leaving high school is hard, it's way more responsiblilty your son has in college now. Hopefully things get a little bit better the last two years of college. The harder work has been taken care of. :^)

Answer 7

Yes, the first year of college is stressful.

Everything is new. College is NOT high school. You're on your own more.

Um, your Details are a lot of random, not entirely relevant facts.

What, exactly is stressing him? Is it his workload?

He does need to keep up with schoolwork, which tends to be much more demanding than in high school.

Also, in college, students are often expected to think things through, which usually isn't the case before college. A lot of students have trouble for that reason; they've never been asked to actually process the material they're learning.

In college, they don't hold your hand as much as in high school, which is also disconcerting. You're expected to be responsible for doing the work.

Answer 8

college can be very stressful. it's the first time a kid is treated like an adult. they are totally responsible for getting work done on time with no reminders. there are always temptations to leave the work undone because someone has something more interesting to do. it's like he got a job (college) and has to perform up to standards or get fired (asked to leave).

Answer 9

Freshman year in college is absolutely stressful...I entered as an "A" student and came close to flunking out my first year.