College application season is quickly coming to an end. Soon it will be Turkey Day and your deadlines will be upon you. Since you will be done stressing about transcripts, forms and essays, you will have room in your life to worry about something else. From now until August, you will be nervous about freshman year. And I’m here to report all the great stuff and awful parts of your first year of higher education. After this honesty, maybe you will feel a little bit better after the applications are finished.
Pros:
• Standard freshman classes (100-levels) are not super challenging; the transition from high school to college classes can be very smooth
• If you make mistakes, people will probably give you the benefit of the doubt because it’s your first year
• You will meet tons of new people through your classes, orientation, dorm and extracurricular activities
• If you are undeclared, you will have the opportunity to explore new interests that might become majors
• You have the ability to finish your homework before dinnertime
Cons:
• If you have declared your major, taking liberal arts classes (philosophy, literature, art, etc.) will seem like a complete waste of time
• You will get one of the worst dorms on campus and the public bathroom might scare you
• The random roommate situation
• You will most likely not get extensions on assignments because the professors haven’t known you long enough to trust you
• Dining hall food is disappointing
• Learning the ins and outs of your campus will take awhile, and you’ll be confused for the first month or two
And there you have it. As you can probably tell, freshman year is a mixed bag. While I enjoyed it a whole lot more than all of high school, there were parts that sucked. Fortunately, I can tell you that the pros usually outweigh the cons. Hopefully some of your questions about college have been answered. Now you can put your mind at ease. Well at least after the applications are sent.
Written by Rachel Montpelier. Rachel is a senior at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. and is the editorial assistant at NextStepU.
> Looking for more advice on navigating your senior year? Register at NextStepU.com and customize your path to success.
