A student’s freshman year in college is often exciting; a new experience that involves either living away from home or commuting. Students who live on-campus either adjust well to this new atmosphere or don’t feel a fit and end up transferring or dropping out. There are several problems that may arise during a student’s freshman year.

Bad Roommate

Unfortunately, this is one of the problems in this list that is the most likely to occur. When a student attends college for the first time, more often than not they will not know anyone on campus (this is normal). If that happens to be the case, chances are they will probably select the “random roommate option.” This option is when the student elects to be placed with a random roommate. There are cases where a great match could be made here, however that scenario is highly unlikely. Let’s say hypothetically a student receives a bad match for a roommate. What are some of the ways to go about making this scenario much more favorable? A few options are to talk with your residential director to see if you can get a roommate change, become friends with others and move in with them, or have a talk with your roommate about any concerns you have about the living arrangement (in a professional and kind manner). If all of those options don’t work, then stay at the library longer, workout at the gym longer, do something productive and make the best of a bad situation. My sophomore year of college, I had a horrible roommate situation during the first semester and the only way I composed myself in that situation was by studying longer, working out more, and being with my friends who helped me not worry about the situation as much.

Financial Concerns

A bad roommate is never a good problem to have to deal with at school, but it is still not as bad as the financial concerns that many freshman and other college students have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Paying for college is no easy feat and it is certainly not any fun. However, it is a necessity in today’s world and one that often comes with a financial burden (college loans… yuck!). My only brief advice on this matter is to constantly save money for college (even before freshman year arrives), be wise with what you spend your money on, and always (at whatever age) be thinking about your future and how you will plan to pay off any loans that you may graduate with.

Stress, Health, & Time Management

I chose to bundle these three problems together because I feel like many of these go hand-in-hand. Stress is something that not too many students are used to, until they arrive at college. College does bring many positive experiences, but stress isn’t one of them. Stress comes as a result of having to do too much in short periods of time (sometimes stress comes from students who over think certain situations as well). Stress can be fought by taking time during your day to just relax for a bit and do something that interests you (ex. go for a jog, read a book, watch a movie, meditate, etc.). Some stress is even caused by weight gain, which is often inevitable for freshman. This is where the health issue comes into play. It is crucial for freshman and other college students to make exercise and healthy eating (or moderately healthy eating at least) a priority. If students take a little time out of their day to go to the gym for a quick workout; it could certainly help their weight and stress levels. One of the other problems many freshman and practically every student on the planet faces is time management. Time management is often a skill many are born with, since in my opinion there are many people around the world that like to procrastinate (everyone does it every now and then just try not to make a habit of it). However, time management is something that can be taught and when properly utilized could provide big dividends for the person that masters it. By utilizing time management, freshman and other college students will be able to prioritize tasks and get work done more efficiently.

* All of the problems presented in this post are all issues that are addressed by many of EduPlanz’s services.

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