Transitioning from high school to college

Transitioning from high school to being thrown into the fast-paced environment that is college seems incredibly daunting at first. I advise you to take a step back and a deep breath and remember that everyone before you has been in the exact position as you right now with the same worrying thoughts.

My anxiety was at an all-time high the summer leading up to my first semester of college, but something that helped me get a handle on my college experience was browse through the different organizations on GetInvolved.

I also looked through Cougar Pathway and applied for on-campus jobs. This helped me get an idea of what my extracurriculars would look like, and along with my classes, I figured out my entire schedule before the start of the semester.

When classes started, I befriended a few of my peers, but we only came to each other with class-related questions. It wasn’t until a few months later that I made friends who I still keep in contact with, so don’t stress about immediately needing to connect with people.

In high school, the end of my junior year was online and cut short, and while my senior year was entirely in-person, my school changed the grading scale and teachers were allowed to make tests open-note. These accommodations let me breeze through my senior year, causing me to worry about the work I would be assigned in college.

During my time at the University, we’ve never been

By Logan Linder

online, so I had to learn how to get over my security blanket of wishing everything was online. My main fear when going into college was that I had become too used to the light workload in high school and would be fully unprepared for what college would bring.

I was hit with my professors assigning all of our work at once, sprinkling the due dates in whenever they felt like it. Because of this, I needed to constantly be aware of my assignment due dates and plan accordingly. Many of my classes overlapped, and I’d end up having multiple assignments due on the same day.

It took me a month or two to figure out what study habits and techniques worked for me and aspects of my routine I needed to change. While it is a hassle to essentially rework my entire study routine each semester, it’s less anxiety-inducing when you’ve figured out what’s the most efficient for you.

Coming into college as a freshman, many are unsure of what they want to do in their lives. Some come in without a major. Others think they know what they want to major in but end up changing it two years too late.

Parents and the rest of the world will likely tell you that you need to have your life figured out when going into college and that it’s all about setting up your future career. While parts of this are true, this adds unneeded stress and takes the fun out of college. I managed to meet a few of my best friends, hopefully lifelong ones, which I wouldn’t have done if I didn’t take time out of my studies to be social and explore college.

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A.D. Bruce Religion Center strives to welcome all. We embrace people of any age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, ability, nationality, cultural background, theology, political views or anything else that might otherwise divide us.