Do Penn State freshmen feel they’re emotionally prepared for college?

Earlier this month, a study was released saying that 60 percent of college freshmen were not emotionally prepared for college.

Freshmen spent their last years in high school taking AP Tests and the SATs and applying to colleges all under the scrutiny of the schools they wish to be accepted to and the watchful eye of their parents.

With all of this, students do not learn how to live alone with all of the new things available to them when they get on to campus and how to balance all of it.

The Tab decided to see if this survey also pertained to the freshmen here at Penn State. Overall, there were some mixed reviews.

Jacob, Freshman

Jacob, a freshman living in East dorms with two other roommates, proved to be the most laid back freshman I have had the pleasure of meeting.

“I went to a boarding school that was part of a university, so the transition to Penn State was seriously nothing. I have more freedom here, and I’m taking basically all morning classes, so my biggest worry is time management from, like, 11:00am to 2:00am, when I go to bed.”

Moreover, having started the semester with 5 other roommates, he found the process of making friends to be remarkably smooth.

“We’re tight, we chill, that’s it. It’s cool.”

Unfortunately for the rest of us, Jacob is definitely an exception to the rule that freshmen have to run frantically around campus joining clubs and participating in activities.

 

Danielle, Freshman, Hospitality

Danielle, also a freshman, was eager to share her experiences and positive attitude about her start at Penn State.

Between her Hospitality major, minor in Spanish, and active participation in the Blue Band, she often finds herself rushing from one activity to another.

Regardless of having very little “down time,” she indicated that, while she is stressed about housing, scheduling, and overall “just fitting everything in” before she graduates, she enjoys her new responsibilities as an adult.

When asked if she felt emotionally prepared for college, however, she was not so quick to answer.

“Initially, I thought I was. I guess it just kind of depends on the day.”

“You know. Some days I’m like, ‘this is awesome.’ Otherwise, it’s like ‘Why am I here, this is awful…’ Well, it’s not awful. That’s a poor choice of words. We’ll say overwhelming.”

Gabrielle, Freshman, Business

Gabrielle, a freshman in the Smeal Business School, can also attest that starting at Penn State after years in a small high school was, to say the least, a lot to handle.

“At first, it was really hard to navigate campus, especially living in East dorms. Like, I knew where Point A and B were, it was just the in-between that was unfamiliar,” she replied when prompted about the most difficult aspects of her new life.

She didn’t seem to find the bigger population to be overwhelming, though.

“It was sort of fascinating, you know? Having so many people in one lecture class was a big change, but I didn’t really feel like it messed with my head or anything,” she said.

Although she’s not struggling with any of her classes, she recognized her biggest stress involved gaining as much experience as possible in the years before graduation, much like Danielle mentioned.

“Just setting myself up with and staying with connections. Also, like, making sure I’m doing the right things to make myself the best candidate possible when the time comes.”

Although neither Gabrielle nor Danielle have problems with focusing on their studies, their responses emphasize an important difference between stress and emotional preparedness that I hadn’t thought of before.

While stress is guaranteed to accompany the new environment and set of responsibilities, emotional preparedness is the key to making each mistake a character building experience and is an irreplaceable tool that can make or break your college existence.

This emotional preparedness, while it applies to academics and resume building, can also be useful in adjustment to the new living environment.

Sophia, Freshman, Business and Communications

As a freshman majoring in Business and Communications, Sophia was put into East dorm’s supplemental housing with two other girls because she was “indecisive” about accepting Penn State’s enrollment invitation.

“I really bonded with my one roommate because we figured out that she used to go to my mom’s restaurant in Wilmington. That was really cool. My other roommate? She’s… a tough cookie,” Sophia said warmly.

As she recounted story after story about the squabbles she has had to mediate, I recognize that, although it’s hectic, she seems to be happy where she is and never expressed a desire to switch rooms or otherwise distance herself from her temperamental companions.

“At one point, there was so much tension, I just didn’t want to be in the room, so I literally just left the room and banged out so much busy work in the library because I was so frustrated,”  she replied when prompted about how this tumultuous home life affects her study habits.

It came as a surprise that Sophia reacted so academically to the added stress of fighting roommates, almost as if the chaos helped her focus.

While this perverse reaction indicated a productive way of dealing with her stress, the question still remains to be answered: Are Penn State freshmen emotionally prepared to handle university life?

Javier, Senior, Biology

Javier is a senior at Penn State, majoring in Biology and applying to medical school. As a Teaching Assistant in a freshman biology course, he provided a fresh perspective on attitude changes he sees in students from the beginning to the end of the first semester.

“I mostly think they just put so much pressure on themselves for their parents, especially if they were straight A students in high school. Mostly, I see them struggle to catch up with the life and the workload and then they have to balance everything.”

Sarah, Freshman, Engineering

Sarah, a first year engineering major, would agree with Javier that her life as a Penn State freshman is complicated and difficult to deal with at times.

“High school’s easier. It was easier to focus and to balance my study and social life. There are definitely more distractions here,” she said, right after describing what it’s like to live with 5 other girls in East’s supplemental housing.

“I failed my first chem test, so I’ve had to fix my study environment,” she said, gesturing to the quiet booth we occupy in one of the HUB’s popular pizza places.

While Sarah’s experience supported the idea of the ‘freshman wakeup call,’ Javier’s overarching message was that the most difficult transition involves changing expectations and criticizing less harshly when it came to failure.

“I hear a lot of them say ‘I took AP Bio in high school, I should be fine,’ and then they take the first exam and get a C. I just want to tell them, like, ‘A C is a wake up call, not a failure. Just don’t be so arrogant and you’ll be ok,’” Javier said, further proving his point that the key to success is simply a change of attitude.

Because, after all, you are in college to learn, which is a trial and error endeavor in and of itself.

Dominic, Freshman, Engineering

 

 

Dominic, also an engineering major living in East dorms, actually disagreed with this statement.

“I had a pretty good idea what I was getting myself into before I got into it,” he mentions after discussing his crazy schedule that involves Calculus, Physics and Chemistry.

“You went to convocation, right? Yeah, you saw how many engineering majors there are. It’s just really competitive and they’re trying to get rid of us,” he says. For him, there will be no ‘lowering expectations,’ there is only hard work and focus.

While he said he tries to maintain the good study habits he had in high school, he still tries to eat every meal with someone else and see friends on the weekend, so as not to immerse himself in academics to the point of social isolation.

When I asked him about his general stress levels, considering his high level math and science courses, he described himself as “pretty stoic” and believed he would succeed because he’s really putting his mind to it.

This cool and collected response demonstrated that Dominic was probably the most ‘emotionally prepared’ freshman with whom I had spoken thus far.

Without a false sense of bravado or distracting self doubt, he showed a remarkably optimistic and down to earth outlook on his situation at Penn State.

During his interview, he indicated that he was having fun, but also successfully learning how to handle his relatively newfound freedom through self discipline and focus.

So, there you have it, folks, ‘emotional preparedness’ comes in many forms, and it’s tough to foster it beforehand because you have no idea what to expect.

To my fellow freshmen, writing this article has taught me that emotional preparedness is just another thing I have to learn in this strange, new place.

I think of it as the hardest and most useful homework assignment I’ll ever have to do, building up my  ability to handle stress, because I can see that life will inevitably be ten times worse.

So, go forth and conquer the Penn State plague and the Freshman 15, because these are the best four years of your life, and you know you’re having fun.