What should you expect from your first semester of college? Going in anticipating college will be the “best time of your life” probably isn’t the best way to prepare for college.

The reality is college won’t be the best time of your life, but it can be a good time in your life. College is a time of life that you won’t repeat. What other time in your life will you get to dedicate months to learning? What other time in your life will you get to surround yourself with similarly aged peers studying similar topics? College will likely be a one-time experience for you.

So why isn’t this the best time in your life? And how can college be a good time in your life? Below are 3 realities about the college experience for which you can prepare!

College is stressful.

When your parents or other adults speak about college, they often make it sound like a party or a vacation. College wasn’t a vacation for them, but they likely are recalling their better memories. 

When you see college depicted on social media, you might also get the impression that college is similar to high school just with older people. It isn’t. Remember that people usually pick the good parts of their lives to share on social media, not the stressful or tough parts.

Your experience of college will be different than others, but you will likely find that college is stressful (especially the first year of college). College academics and other responsibilities keep you very busy during the week, and your weekend is usually filled with hours of working on assignments, papers, and projects. 

How can you make this stressful time of your life a good time? 

• Learn how to manage your anxiety. Almost every student struggles with anxiety to some level. For those who struggle with a manageable level of anxiety, there are many things you can do to help lessen this anxiety. Click here to read this related post, “How to Cope With Anxiety Freshman Year.”

• Prioritize your health. You really cannot afford not to make being healthy a priority during your college years. Sleeping well, eating well, and regularly exercising help in times of stress. Even in the stressful weeks surrounding finals, you can make healthy choices that help you manage the stress.

• Keep going, especially after failing. You might hate failing. (That’s me too.) However, you often learn more from failing than succeeding. If you’re anything like me, you can sometimes freeze after failing, not knowing what to do next. If so, read this related post, “How to Stop Fixating and Start Dealing With Small Problems.”

College is overwhelming.

In your first weeks of college, you will likely feel overwhelmed and maybe even a little bit like you don’t belong at college. So much has changed in your life, and you may struggle to sort through all of it.

What makes this experience so overwhelming? Below are a few of the contributing factors:

• Having a full schedule: Your schedule was busy in high school but in a different way. While you had many activities in your day-to-day schedule, you didn’t have the control you have in college. In college, you are the one who determines when to eat, when to sleep, where to study, how much to exercise, etc. Wrapping your mind around your busy schedule can be difficult and overwhelming. Getting your schedule organized can be the best way to start the semester and prevent feeling constantly overwhelmed.

• Having multiple responsibilities: High school includes mostly school and maybe work responsibilities. While these responsibilities can keep you busy, you typically have enough time to dedicate to them. College includes more responsibilities: paying for tuition, living with a roommate, special college major requirements, etc. A college student often doesn’t have the time they would like to dedicate to each task, so they must choose what to prioritize.

• Having to be a constant learner: Not only are you learning how to study for college classes, you are also learning how to be a good roommate and more. Constantly learning can be overwhelming, especially for the perfectionist who wants to master things before moving on. Realize you’ll make mistakes and that this transition will take time, but you will be thankful you learned all you did in college.

College is full of changes.

Do you like, dread, or feel indifferent to change? The first few weeks and months of college will be filled with change after change. This time of change can be exciting but also frightening.

Each year of college will feel like a different phase of your college experience. Freshman year usually is the year that feels most turbulent. Everything is new and different, but this experience can be a fun one. There’s nothing but new ideas and experiences to discover and explore!

Freshman year also includes lots of new people: roommates, friends, teachers, etc. To the extrovert, this is probably a dream, but the introvert likely thinks the opposite. Meeting and connecting with new people will take work, but this time is a chance to grow as a person starting with whom you spend your time.

Rather than thinking of this time of life as one full of challenges, choose to think of it as a school year filled with opportunities. You get to have these experiences! You get to spend years of your life developing skills without the pressure of many other adult responsibilities! This is a privilege, not a depressing fact.

Reframing your perspective can help the adjustment to college be better. While college won’t be the best time of your life, it can be a good time of your life. Knowing what to anticipate can help you start freshman year with realistic expectations and with the know-how to succeed.