It’s no secret that starting college is a difficult transition. For many people, it’s their first time living away from home, and the transition typically comes at a developmental age when brains are highly sensitive to stress.
Though adjusting to college life is difficult, thousands of UNC students successfully manage the transition every year. As the school year begins, some returning UNC students reflect on how they managed the transition, and incoming first-years share their feelings about moving to college.
Olivia Key, a senior geology major, said that she’s still working on prioritizing healthy habits over her schoolwork.
“I’ll be prioritizing sleep and trying to get as much work done during the day as I can," Key said.
Key is good friends with Valeria Orozco, a senior geology and geography major. The two credit their friendship with helping them navigate the college transition.
“We, for example, like working out together," Orozco said. "We are the same major, so we do a lot of homework together, and it’s awesome because you make a friend that you can have all four years."
Keith Johnson, a sophomore biology major, said that sports helped him manage his personal academic transition.
“I just met a lot of cool guys, cool people,” he said. “Then from there, some of them were in my classes, so we made study groups, which helped me propel myself academically.”
Scientific research supports Key, Orozco and Johnson’s experiences where physical activity helped them navigate their college transitions psychologically. Ling Beisecker, a fourth year PhD candidate researching physical activity and mental health as women transition into college, said that coupling exercise and social interaction is helpful to combat loneliness and reap the benefits of exercise during the college transition.
