First-year fears

<p>I am a freshman this year, and I wanted to know from the upperclassmen if these fears are common at the start of freshman year:</p>

<p>1) What if I don't study enough or efficiently?
2) What if a class seems too hard? How will I ever make it through the semester?
3) What if I do poorly in my classes? </p>

<p>I am the type of person to over-think things, so with school just starting a couple days ago, I have had many different things run through my mind. Are these normal fears? Will they go away? </p>

<p>Yes these are normal. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Study how you normally would and then adjust depending on the grade you get on your first test. </p></li>
<li><p>If a class is too hard then you might have to drop it to save your GPA. </p></li>
<li><p>I had two guys in my dorm hall freshmen year that got sent home after one semester because they got poor grades. So that would be the worst case scenario.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I think it’s good to have these fears because it will motivate you to do well. With so many people having degrees now, the job market is tough for those who are graduating now. </p>

<p>Definitely normal.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>HDMADCK is right on the money with this one, although it’s possible you can figure out to adjust just based on if you’re following class discussions or minor quizzes. But yes, the basic idea is to adjust as you go along, and you’ll figure out your own plan.</p></li>
<li><p>If a class seems too hard, talk to the professor or your advisor ASAP about either getting help, or maybe dropping it. Honestly, you can probably do it if you try hard enough, but sometimes it either is really just THAT hard for you, or you have too much else on your plate.</p></li>
<li><p>I mean, if you do poorly you could get kicked out, but you’d have to do pretty darn bad, and the fact that you care means you’ll do better than that. If you start doing poorly with some tests, just go to office hours. Honestly, I waited until the last 5 weeks of school (3 quarters of 10 weeks, not semesters) to go to office hours, and they are SUPER helpful, depending on the teacher.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I’m sure you’ll do fine, because you obviously care. Just utilize existing resources that your school has.</p>