Fear can lead a person down many unwanted paths. If you are suffering any fears, it is of the utmost importance to conquer these fears immediately. During your college years, especially when you are a freshman, fears are rampant.
These fears typically arise out of your newly gleaned independence, responsibility, accountability, and freedom. Structure has vanished, and chaos is running amok.
Your fears need to be dealt with in a healthy manner before they manifest themselves in an unpleasant manner. College fears are typically based upon grades, money, relationships, loneliness and homesickness.
Conquering freshman fears can be challenging, unless the fears are well determined and manageable. Many fears stem from the ignorance of a given situation. Getting to know the college prior to September is a great idea.
1) During your final year of high school, you should make the trek out to the college several times, preferably during each season, so that you can get an accurate assessment of the surroundings, and what to expect when you get there.
These visitations can help you to alleviate some fears, since the place will become more recognizable in due time. If you take someone with you, you can then give them a tour of the areas you are familiar with, and then you will be conquering your fears by addressing them directly.
2) Prior to your first semester, find out who from your high school will be attending the same college.
Make some plans to attend freshman orientation activities together, so as to combat the fear of not making any new friends.
This linking up can also be done on social networking sites, such as Facebook, which may have groups devoted to freshman study at a particular college.
3) Fear and anxiety are the body’s preternatural response to the unknown.
As a college freshman, fear will run rampant through your mind, causing you undue stress on your body. A college freshman needs to conquer these fears before they get the upper-hand and ruin not only the school year, but the person as well.
As a high school senior, you should have been making the transition go smoothly, so that college was not a major shock all at once. In order to conquer these fears, you must first acknowledge them, and learn why they are prevalent. You need to take ownership over your fears, facing them with a courageous and uncommon valor.
4) The key is to tackle one fear at a time, so they do not seem so overwhelming.
Once you have determined a fear, confront it with all of your might, and figure out a way to bypass that fear. If you fear failing, then perhaps you could have a private talk with your professors, and find out exactly what they are looking for, and maybe they can give you some coping mechanisms to handle the work.
5) Money is a major issue for college freshmen.
Finances tend to run out rather quickly when you are at college, and this strikes up a fear that you may not be able to finish your year. Money issues can be conquered.
If you cannot borrow money from a parent, take out a student loan (be very careful with these), or a bank loan. Your education is very important.
6) Get the course outlines ahead of time, so that you can better grasp what the classes will be like once you are in there.
You may even choose to read ahead, so that you can better listen to the lecture, and have a clearer understanding of the course.
Go and sit it on a lecture at a college before you attend, so as to get a feel for the atmosphere. You may also want to practice taking notes in a lecture, perfecting your technique prior to beginning college.
7) Speak with recent graduates, or any people that you know that are currently attending college.
Find out what is expected, how much the workload is different from high school, and what activities and events to make sure to attend. These steps can help you to relieve some of your worries and panics.
If the workload is seemingly too much to handle, prepare yourself a time-frame, budgeting your time wisely between academic, work, social life, and time to relax. Once a person has moved out of high school, and suddenly become a small fish in a large sea, that can be a tough situation to handle.
It also offers forth a chance to re-invent oneself, and in doing such, you can eliminate any fears and anxieties that you don’t feel that you deserve.
8) Loneliness is a major fear in many college freshmen, and they feel as though they do not have any friends.
There are many people in the same boat, and the only thing that you can do is to embrace this feeling, and do something proactive. Go to the library and strike up a conversation with someone, go to the pub and mingle, or talk to the person sitting next to you in class.
Once you have struck a relationship, try to turn it into something bigger. Ask the person to go for a drink, and maybe they will have a friend or two, or a roommate, someone that will tag along, and all of a sudden, your loneliness will have subsided.
It does not matter what the fears are, as long as they are felt.
Once you can pinpoint what they are, you can more easily deal with them. If you need to seek help, visit the guidance department, and speak to a counselor.
With so many sports teams, clubs, and extra-curricular activities in college, you are bound to be able to do something that can take your mind off of your worries for a little while until you can appropriately deal with them.