How to Cut Stress When Starting College

Deciding what college to go to can be exciting. You get to visit colleges, look at websites and brochures, and meet with admissions representatives. It’s exciting and it seems so easy at first. However, once you’re accepted, a certain amount of stress can kick in. Now you have a whole bunch of things to do along the way to college. You have to fill out financial aid forms, make sure your immunizations are up to date, and if you’re living in a college dorm room, you’re going to be relocating a lot of your possessions from your room at home. 

Doing all of these things can cause quite a bit of stress because there’s a lot you have to think of and a lot of running around you have to do. Most importantly, don’t take that stress out on your loved ones. It can be hard to not feel like you’re at a breaking point when there are plenty of to-do lists running through your head at all times. Plus, your family may want to hug you more or help you more because you’ll be leaving them soon. It can seem a little frustrating having your family hang on you all the time when you’re trying to run around and take care of things, but enjoy it and don’t get frustrated with them. You’ll find that once you get into college, you will be wishing you enjoyed that time more and spent as much time as you could with them because you’ll be a bit homesick. 

So how can you cut stress throughout this busy time? There are some key things you should be doing – making checklists and timelines as well as making time to do the hobbies you enjoy. Don’t think that you should be doing things for college during every free minute. Set aside time to hang out with your family and friends. Play a video game, watch a movie, or read a book. Go shopping or just walk around the mall. Do things around your town that you like to do. If you make time for these activities, you’ll be cutting down on stress drastically because you won’t constantly feel bogged down by preparing for college. You’ll also be having time to do fun things that you want to do and don’t underestimate how valuable that is.

You’ll want to make checklists. Of everything. Make separate checklists for things that you need to do for the college such as financial aid forms and immunization records and then make a checklist of things you need to bring with you to college. Just packing things up won’t work – you’ll find that you brought things you didn’t need and forgot things that you did need. Making a checklist well in advance of moving into the college dorm room will allow you to think about each item you put on it and if you really need it. It will also allow you to better coordinate things with your roommate – you don’t want to bring 2 TVs and 2 Microwaves. 

Finally, you’ll want to make timelines. Make sure you include deadlines for certain things on your checklists, such as if your college has a deadline for financial aid forms or for immunization records to be turned in. It will allow you to see what is a priority when. You’ll even want to make timelines for your dorm checklist – you don’t want to pack every single thing for your dorm room the week that you move in. Pack up things you won’t be using until you get to your dorm room first and move them to a designated area such as the basement.

Starting College in the Spring

When you think of starting college and moving into a college dorm room, you probably think of the end of summer and Autumn time. While this a common time to start college, it is not your only option. You can also delay starting your first semester until the Spring semester. However, this is not a decision to take lightly. It is something that you need to think about quite a bit to come to the conclusion that is best for you. Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer to this question, but there are pros and cons to each start time.

Should you start college in the Spring semester, you may feel a little more lost and not at ease at first. With starting a semester later, there will have been friendships already formed within the freshman class and you may not feel as comfortable. However, don’t let that stop you. Just because some friendships were formed, that doesn’t mean that you’re completely excluded. Your roommate may also be starting a semester later, and you will still make friends but it just may take a little extra work with involving yourself in school events.

With starting in the Spring Semester, that also means you’re graduating a semester later and depending upon the size of your school and how they do graduation ceremonies, that also means you may have to wait a whole semester after graduation to go through the ceremony. Determine if this important to you. If it is extremely important to graduate with your friends and celebrate immediately after finishing your last Senior semester, then there are things you can do to get yourself back on track. You can take extra classes here and there throughout your first three college years and you can also take summer classes. This may seem like a lot of work, but when you think about it, you’re only missing three or four college courses by starting a semester late and you can easily add an extra class to your college course schedule each semester until you’re back on track. Just make sure that you can handle the extra work load.

The biggest thing about starting college in the Spring semester is moving. With moving into the dorm in the Spring semester, there won’t be as many college students doing the same thing you are so it may be a lot less stressful to move your things from your car to your dorm room in the Spring. Unfortunately, if you live in an area that gets cold and snows in January, this may not be appealing to you. This is where you have to weigh the importance of each factor – is it more important to have a less stressful move or is it more important to not be moving while it’s cold and snowing?

Mapping Out Your Course Schedule - Should You Take Summer Classes?

There are a lot of decisions in college, right down to when you actually start college. You don’t even have to start during the usual Fall Semester. If you need to or want to, you can start during the Spring Semester which isn’t a bad thing. You may want to take a little time off before college to work and save money or just take a break before starting your next adventure. When you are mapping out your college course schedule, you will also have the option of taking classes during the summer.

Summer classes can be online only or you can even take them on campus – they may be smaller since they are taken at an unusual time, too. It can be a huge decision when you’re deciding on whether or not to take summer classes. You may graduate a little earlier, which is always appealing. If you want to take summer classes yet you want to be home with your family, this is where those online classes come in handy. While this can be convenient, they won’t be any less demanding. In fact, your online courses may be a little more demanding. You may have to meet online during certain times for a chat discussion along with posting about the material on top of doing other homework assignments. In this way, online summer courses can be both a little more demanding and a little less demanding because you’ll have more time to work with to choose when you do homework.

While these summer classes can sound great, you may also be sacrificing your summer which is where the real decision is. College can be more intense than high school was, and you may find that you need a break to have extra free time, work, and get together with friends. However, keep in mind that your summer courses are going to be shorter – they may even be as short as six weeks. Evaluate your college course schedule and your summer plans, and if there is a class that you really want to take during the summer that may not be offered again for a while, don’t be afraid to take it.