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First-Year Phases
Welcome to Purdue! Joining the Purdue community
is an exciting adventure for you. As a new Boilermaker,
you may experience a variety of emotions and you'll definitely
go through some different phases during your first year on
campus. We hope that this information will help make
the transition easier for you and also help you make sense
of what you might be experiencing. Remember, there are
always people you can turn to if you need assistance. All
of their contact information is available on this Web site.
Following are 10 phases that many students
go through during their first year of college. As
a college freshman, you may want to prepare for
them and develop some strategies to work through
them. Remember, MANY students go through these
same things; you are not out of the ordinary
if you feel the same way!
Phase 1: Early Summer Anticipation
This
is when high school seniors graduate and begin
to look to the future. You may have
feelings of sadness about ending one stage of
your life, accomplishment for making it through
high school successfully, and anticipation for
what new experiences lie ahead!
Phase 2: Midsummer Anxiety
Students
begin to realize that soon they will be leaving
home, family, friends, and the security those
things have to offer.
Phase 3: Late Summer Panic
Students are
plunged into the unfamiliar territory of the
collegiate environment. Complete
with a new roommate, university bureaucracy,
classrooms, homework, and a foreign social world. This
is a whole new ballgame compared to high school!
Phase 4: The Honeymoon
You've made
some new friends, are all settled in to your
residence hall room, and don't have any tests
or major homework assignments for at least three
weeks. On top of all that, there
are no rules and no parents to enforce them! Let's
go have some fun!
Phase 5: The End of the Honeymoon
Where
did all this hard work come from? And
where did all the time go? You may begin
to miss the comforts of home, family, and old
friends, and you may start to get a little homesick.
Phase 6: The Grass is Always Greener
You're
sure that transferring to another school will
solve all of your problems. Somewhere
smaller or closer to home, maybe? No doubt
you'd be doing and feeling better at another
university.
Phase 7: You Can't go Home Again
This
starts the first time you go home to visit. You
may be hit with the harsh realization that life
for the rest of the family DOES go on without
you. Most likely, your parents haven't become
recluses because they miss you so much, your
siblings may even be enjoying having some extra
attention and space.
Phase 8: Primitive Coping Behavior
Well
into your first semester, you have learned how
to use the library, know your way around, even
know something about campus resources! You're
actually making it on your own and are excited
about the things you've learned. You're
on the way to being self-sufficient!
Phase 9: Realization
This phase
generally precedes finals. You
might realize the great amount of work ahead
and that your future depends largely on your
academic success. It may seem a little overwhelming
right now, but it'll all be worth it when you're
walking across the stage of the Elliott Hall
of Music on graduation day!
Phase 10: Putting it together
Sometime during the second semester, you'll start to see
college as a total experience. You'll realize that hard work
and achievement must be priorities but that you don't want
to totally exclude time for having fun. You'll have learned
what it takes to make the most of the college years. You're
ready to jump into and enjoy some of the best years of your
life!
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