COPING WITH FIRST YEAR IN THE UNIVERSITY

For many first-year Students also know as Freshers, the University may be their first experience living away from home for an extended period of time. It is a definite break from home. The individual's usual sources of support are no longer present to facilitate adjustment to the unfamiliar environment. Here are tips for students which may provide realistic expectations concerning living arrangements and social life on campus.

* The first few weeks on campus can be a lonely period. There may be concerns about making friends. When new students look around, it may seem that everyone else is self-confident and socially successful. The reality is that everyone is having the same concerns but staying or visiting friends you knew from home on campus may be very helpful in this time of loneness until you are able to make good friends around your hostel according to Samuel Ogaga Egbo, a graduate from the Institute of Science Laboratory Technology, Delta State University, Abraka.

* If they allow sufficient time, students usually find peers in the university to provide structure and a valuable support system in the new environment. The important thing for the new student to remember in meeting new people is to be oneself, without Pride, just being natural as if you are at home, However students should avoid parasitic mode of friendship; fellow students or course mates who incessantly ask for favours in form of money or food as friendship should be mutual.

* Meaningful, new relationships should not be expected to develop overnight. It took a great deal of time to develop intimacy in high school friendships; the same will be true of intimacy in university friendships.
* Increased personal freedom can feel both wonderful and frightening. New Students/Freshers can come and go as they choose with no one to "hassle" them. At the same time, things are no longer predictable. The strange environment with new kinds of procedures and new people can create the sense of being on an emotional roller-coaster. This is normal and to be expected.

* Living with roommates can present special, sometimes intense, problems. Negotiating respect of personal property, personal space, sleep, and relaxation needs can be a complex task. The complexity increases when a roommate is older than you as a fresher or as been in the university before you as the fresher, when roommates are of different ethnic/cultural backgrounds with very different values but communicating one's legitimate needs calmly, listening with respect to a roommate's concerns, and being willing to compromise to meet each other's most important needs can promote resolution of issues.

* It is unrealistic to expect that roommates will be best friends. Roommates may work out mutually satisfying living arrangements, but the reality is that each may tend to have his or her own circle of friends and when this happens, you as a fresher should try as much as possible to be acquainted to your roommates friends but maintaining your morals and integrity inculcated into from home.

* University classes are a great deal more difficult than secondary school class. There are more reading assignments, and the exams and papers cover a greater amount of material. Lecturers expect students to do more work outside the classroom. In order to survive, the student must take responsibility for his or her actions. This means the student needs to follow the course outlines and keep us with the readings. The student must do the initiating. If a class is missed, it is up to the student to borrow lecture notes from someone who was present. If the student is having difficulty with course work, he or she needs to ask for help for his/her predecessors--ask to do extra work, request an appointment with an academic advisor, or sign up for tutoring or other academic-skills training.

*A new student/fresher must be focused and always remember the reason why he/she is in the campus, never to forget where he/she is from (family background) and keep in mind the goal he/she has set. Every human is born with the potentials to succeed irrespective of where he/she came from  –Tope A.  Banjo.

*A New student/Fresher finding it hard to cope with his/her new environment two weeks before the first semester examination is advised to seek the services of a counselor in the Counseling Services office of their respective institutions.

Edited and Published by Publicfact with contribution from Delta state university Facebook page.