I am currently at a college that I don’t like very much. I thought I would love it here but I really don’t at all. I am definitely transferring next semester but I still have to survive one more semester here. I constantly feel so sad because I miss everyone at home and I feel like I have no one here. I feel like my sadness is affecting my school work now too because I have no motivation to do anything anymore. Any advice on how to survive one last semester at a place you dread?
Remember, you have the privilege of being in a place with hundreds, likely thousands of people who are all pursuing roughly the same mission as you. Based on your post you go to school away from home so I’m assuming that you haven’t seen all that the area around your college has to offer. You’re also likely a freshman which means you almost certainly have a meal plan.
How to survive the year:
- Contact club presidents and ask if you can join. Go to the meetings and talk to people.
- Take advantage of all of the intellectual resources your school offers. Go to office hours, lectures put on by visiting speakers, etc.
- Find at least one or two people and go to the surrounding area. Get an uber or Zipcar if you go to school away from a city.
- If your school has an outdoors club, join it. Being outside makes people happy and I’ve found that these organizations do quite a bit to foster community since you basically have to talk to people while on trips.
- Go to study hours. At both of the schools I’ve been to, a number of departments offered study rooms where students could work with professors and/or students who had already taken the course to excel. It essentially forces the struggling student to do work rather than procrastinate.
- Volunteer in the community. Your school almost certainly has multiple organizations devoted to service. If for whatever reason it does not, then just go out and help.
Also, go to the Counseling Center and talk to them. Homesickness or depression? Not sure.