Adjusting to College Life - Academically, Mentally, and Socially.

If you are off to college in a few weeks, you may be wondering what to expect. For many college freshmen, this uncertainty often morphs into anxiety that may manifest as preoccupation, difficulty focusing, and sleep disruption, among other symptoms. This blog article will explore tips for a smoother entry into college to help you adjust and meet new people. 

Sometimes colleges implement welcome week activities into their schedules to help you become acclimated to your new surroundings. But in other cases, you might have more free time to set up your room. Either way, these first few days can feel disorienting. The first few weeks of college is one of the most stressful times for new students. This is not only due to the physical transition, but college as a source of academic, social, and developmental transitions as well. This often results in a feeling of disconnection, as students feel that they have lost prior support systems, and they must navigate new relationships. 

For many of us, our prior social relationships were provided or fostered by family members and high school interactions. Thus, college can make us feel that we are on our own, making new interactions intimidating with nobody to guide us. In addition to this, students are suddenly entrusted to make their own decisions regarding sleep schedules, meals, finances, health behavior, and academic structure. Some describe this as having the floor pulled out from under them - they are not sure what to do. And without receiving help on adjustment, this remains difficult even for continuing students.

However, it is possible to adjust for continuing stressors and continue to thrive in a college setting. Provided below are some ways that you can ensure you are doing your best physically, mentally, academically, and socially:

• Academic

  • Self regulation helps. Students with strong self regulation experienced better academic outcomes, whereas students with lower time management abilities and higher procrastination did worse. This might seem intuitive, but many students need to learn self regulation strategies rather than simply being told to manage their own work. This includes skills such as goal setting, planning, monitoring progress, and adjusting existing strategies. This improves ability to cope and improves feelings of self efficacy, contributing to a stronger sense of agency. 

  • Breaking tasks into smaller steps, prioritizing assignments by importance, and writing down a concrete schedule have all helped so that students feel less overwhelmed. 

  • Minimize phone use. Studies on smartphone use reduction have demonstrated that increased smartphone usage was linked to poor time management, coping, and social skill development. 

  • Create a daily routine. Structure in daily routines greatly improves academic functioning, health, and emotional regulation. For example, have a set sleep-wake schedule, exercise time, meal time with friends, study time, board game night. 

  • Commit to your schedule. Try sticking with a schedule created from daily goals, daily prioritization, and work to specify assignments. This will help decrease procrastination.

  • There is psychiatric overlap between avoidance second to anxiety, executive function, and initiation issues. Interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or even just Behavioral Therapy can work. For clinicians, helping students with awareness regarding executive functioning challenges can aid them in instituting effective strategies for structure and good habit formation support.

• Social

  • Reduce loneliness. Students who learn emotional regulation, self compassion, mindfulness, and social interaction skills showed reductions in loneliness. 

  • Find ways to be social. Finding clubs/groups with shared interests has also proven to be helpful. Schedule time to go to at least one of these clubs, as repeated exposure helps to make people feel more comfortable.

  • Social Anxiety tips. For individuals with social anxiety, explore gradual exposure:

    • start small with eye contact, saying hi to someone in class or asking one question will help to slowly build social skills (rather than jumping to parties).

    • Expect that it may feel uncomfortable and learn to tolerate the discomfort.

    • Reduce safety behaviors like checking your phone or avoiding speaking.

    • Also, do not overestimate rejection or misread neutral interactions as negative.  Reframe it as “their rejection is my protection” or ‘they didn’t respond because they are busy’.  

    • Most students feel awkward early in college, it is not a personal failure.  

  • Other helpful social skills include asking a simple open-ended question, active listening and mirroring (summarizing), or a simple self-disclosure (I am new here too).  

  • Be careful with social media use because it can worsen loneliness and encourage isolation except if it leads to real interaction or making in-person plans. 

Seek help if: avoidance is severe, panic/anxiety exacerbates, persistent loneliness/depression or you are having thoughts of wanting to kill/hurt yourself.

In summary, starting college comes with a mixture of emotions as we leave the safety and structure of home.  Students who are innately disciplined and structured tend to have an easier time with academic transitioning.  This article has provided you with methods to prepare yourself to go back to school, do well academically, and make new friends. Ultimately remember that it is up to you to implement these strategies in order to have a successful semester.