Hi, I am a first year freshman and I have been in school for 3 weeks now. I am just feeling like I want to drop out of college altogether. At home I had lots of friends and was well liked, however I always preferred to stay home rather than go out. And if I did go out, I couldn’t wait to get home and see my mom.
Lately I have been feeling like I can’t do this whole socializing and being away from my family thing everyday. I like my new friends, but I feel like they all have underlying groups they have already formed and the people that are my good friends don’t want to go out much. Neither do I but I don’t want people to think I am lame.
I really felt like I was here for a reason, but now I’m not sure. I just have a feeling deep down that this homesickness and feeling of being tired and out of place won’t leave me, it may get a little bit better, but it will never completely go away.
Everyone always says college is the best time of their life and I just don’t see that happening for me. I feel like I am not normal for feeling like this and all I want more than anything is to go home at any cost, fake an illness, fail all of my classes, ect. Please help! I need advice!
You should make an appointment to talk to someone on the college counseling staff. They want to meet with homesick students. It sounds like you have made a good start on making friends. Maybe you can round them up and do something this weekend.
Nobody actually says this. Wouldn’t that be really sad? You have so many years of life after college. Would you want the remaining decades upon decades to be a letdown after a peak at age 20? That would be awful. I firmly believe that college is not, nor should it be, the best time of your life.
Go see the counseling center before you make any big or rash decisions.
First, please read many of the post titles on this particular forum. You aren’t alone. I am a parent, and there are many kids that feel like you. My own kid (freshman at college) sounds suspiciously like you, and in fact, I am wondering if you are her? 
I am hearing about my friend’s kids, and they are feeling the same. This is very, very common, and it will get better. The kids who are all having a great time, well, in fact, I seriously doubt most of them are. These new friend groups are going to morph and change. You will probably end up hanging out with totally different kids in another month.
So how can you get past this, because you KNOW you can’t do what you are considering. You can’t. You have to be proactive, think logically, and take it a day at a time. You will get through this, because everyone does. Even if they don’t have the exact same scenario, at some point, you have to be an adult.
Go to your counseling center. Get a campus job, it will keep you busy and you will meet people. Go to a bunch of clubs, even if you don’t feel like it. Join study groups. Say hi to a kid you haven’t talked to before. Do it again the next day. And don’t worry about appearing “lame.” It’s okay to want to do nothing and veg out too. Meanwhile, if you really don’t want to be alone for meals and such, just keep on hanging out with this group, becasue new friends will joing, or people will splinter off, etc…and it’s possibly better than eating alone.
Remember this too: this new group of people are not replacement friends. They are totally different people with different interests and personalities. They are not just going to take the place of friends you might have spent several years cultivating friendships with. Accept them as they are, warts and all, for now. This will get better, slowly, day by day. Some days might be bad, and that’s okay too. You will get through this.