Freshmen Timeline
This timeline was compiled by the Dean of Students Office at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to outline the perspectives of first-year
students, their parents, and faculty throughout the first semester of college. Though some events mentioned are specific to UW-Eau Claire, the
overall experiences and issues that these groups face are quite common.
We offer this Freshmen Timeline so that you might see what many students experience at various stages of the semester.
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Week
1
Student Perspective
Parent Perspective
Faculty Perspective
~ Saying “goodbye” to parents, siblings,
friends, pets
~ Enthusiasm
~ CUBE Fest—(Creating the Ultimate
Blugold Experience—Traditional
Welcome Week)
~ All new faces
~ Getting used to and along with roommates
~ Learning to live with someone’s habits,
his/her friends and relationships, his/her
tastes and preferences
~ Getting lost
~ Fear of the unknown (“Can I be
successful personally and academically?”)
~ Homesickness and letting go
~ Long distance boyfriends/girlfriends
~ Discovering house parties
~ Saying “goodbye” to student
~ Dependent/independent behavior by student
~ Excitement for their son/daughter
~ Hopes that the experiences of the student will
be good ones
~ Feeling concerned because the reality of
student leaving really hits
~ Feeling sad about the separation
~ Fear of the unknown
~ Struggling to keep the perspective that this is
just one more milestone among many, not an
end in itself
~ Looking forward to teaching again
~ Looking forward to new students
~ Updating course syllabi and course content
~ Receiving class lists
~ Placing material on reserve in the library
~ Excitement about the quality of students this
fall
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Week
2
3
Student Perspective
Parent Perspective
~ CUBE Fest is over—What do I do now?
~ Do I join a fraternity or sorority or other
student organization?
~ Following the crowd for weekend
activities
~ Experimenting with alcohol
~ Homesickness continues
~ Adjusting to lectures
~ Finding a place to hang out while down
“the hill” during the day
~ Waiting for the mail
~ Care packages from home
~ Time management—study or have fun?
~ Doing my own laundry or finding a way
to get Mom to still do it
~ Being sick alone for the first time—no
one to take my temperature or make soup
for me!
~ Figuring out health services
~ Homesickness!!!
~ Test preparation and finding a systematic
way of studying
~ Not hearing from friends from home
~ Remembering why I’m here
~ Wondering “Do my parents love me even
though they’re not taking care of me
anymore?”
~ Re-evaluation of parent/student relationship
~ Show interest in what is going on at school
~ Reality of the student’s departure is confirmed
by new quiet in the house
~ Availability of the phone increases tenfold
~ The family car is in the garage
~ Parents struggle with when, how, and how
often to contact their student
~ Beginning to identify students personally
~ Pace and intensity of faculty/student
interaction picks up
~ Concern about student being sick
~ One parent wants to go to Eau Claire to take
care of the student, the other one suggests that
the child take advantage of the health service
~ Begins to spend more time answering
questions about course requirements
~ Reminded by behavior and responses that
they are dealing with new students who are
making the adjustment from high school to
college for the first time
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Faculty Perspective
Week
4
5
6
through
8
Student Perspective
Parent Perspective
Faculty Perspective
~ Exam #1
~ Feeling overwhelmed
~ First reality check on level of academic
performance
~ New boyfriend/girlfriend
~ Roommate problems because the initial
politeness wears off
~ Getting used to fire drills
~ Computer problems
~ Exposure to e-mail
~ By now, first visit home has occurred—
“My parents treated me like a kid”
~ Concern that professors don’t know
my name
~ Now see the need for time management
related to sleep, work, social activities and
sports
~ “I don’t understand—I got A’s and B’s in
High School!”
~ Seemingly unsympathetic professors
~ Some feelings of discouragement
~ Parents are analyzing first visit home and
beginning to recognize, if not understand, the
changes that are occurring
~ Mails relevant clippings from local
newspaper, such as high school football
stories
~ Students are asking for some form of
evaluation; instructors are saying grades are
not that important this early in the semester
just stay with the learning process
~ Develops first impressions of students’
individual and group capabilities
~ Tries to control response to student who
was not in class and asked if he “missed
anything important”
~ Request for more money to meet “special
needs”
~ Siblings want to visit dorms to see how
student lives
~ Adapting to student being gone
~ Wonders if student is studying hard enough
~ Would appreciate a real letter from the student
~ Would like to lecture the English professor
who gave Sue a “D”
~ Parents are comparing reports of progress
with other parents of college freshmen
~ Other people give very positive spin on their
student’s progress (no one wants to admit
their
student is having trouble adjusting)
~ Thoughts about planning a visit for parent’s
weekend
~ “I really wish we knew how John was doing
academically”
~ Outline mid-semester expectations such as
assignments or tests
~ Hands back first major paper/test results
~ Prepares for complaints and appeals
~ Administers “first aid” to the academically
wounded
~ Papers are due
~ Group projects are assigned
~ Friendships have been established and
will continue to change
~ Learning the campus culture
~ Deliberate experiments with personal
identity
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~ Starts to force more integration in the
learning process, including writing style
and content
~ Expectations are more clearly articulated,
such as spelling and grammar, scope and
rigor of work expected
Week
9
10
through
13
14
Student Perspective
Parent Perspective
Faculty Perspective
~ Mid-semester goals
~ Second reality check as more work is
evaluated and returned
~ “Maybe I need to rethink my major”
~ Frustration that my instructor knows my
face, but STILL doesn’t know my name
~ Planning for Spring Semester registration
with advisor
~ I need to take some time for myself
~ Busy with academics
~ Thanksgiving break—time to touch base
with high school friends
~ Many of my friends are already looking
for off-campus housing
~ Learn of new boyfriend/girlfriend and are
very interested in what kind of relationship
their son/daughter is involved in… “What
religion?”
~ Is my son/daughter making ethical and moral
decisions
~ Enthusiasm over meeting new students has
tempered substantially by the challenges
students present
~ “Why didn’t they learn this in high school?”
~ Student spending too much money, the
summer savings is running out
~ Student wants to go skiing over winter break
~ Student needs car repairs
~ Student needs money for cultural and social
events
~ “I wonder if my child needs me for anything
besides money. Other people have become so
important in their lives.”
~ Hopes social life isn’t out of control
~ “Does he/she party too much?”
~ “I want my student to stay in the dorms
another year, but she really wants out.”
~ “Must he have a car?”
~ Recognize only a week and a half left of
class and a lot of material left to cover
~ Negotiation with students to alter syllabi
~ Advisors help with schedules for second
semester
~ Frustration about class selection for
second semester since new students
register after upper-class students
~ Excited to see friends again at
Thanksgiving
~ Crunch time begins
~ Pressure from home regarding grades
~ Students realize they have changed and
high school now seems in the past
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~ First time to breathe easy since start of
semester (Thanksgiving)
~ Time to get un-graded papers back
~ Make sure essential material in course
covered
Week
15
16
Winter
Break
Student Perspective
~ Everything is due
~ “All-nighters” are pulled
~ Dead hours (24-hour quiet hours) begin in
the residence halls
~ Even the library isn’t quiet
~ First serious love relationship crashes
~ Finals week
~ Packing to go home
~ Holiday stress
~ No money for gifts
~ Final semester grades sent home
~ Adjusting to living at home
~ Changing relationships with family
members
~ Seeing how friends from home have
changed
~ Missing school friends
~ Long distance relationships and
introductions to family
~ Relaxation
~ Working in hometown
~ Anticipation of going back to a place
where the student now feels familiar
Parent Perspective
Faculty Perspective
~ Stressed out student calls home
~ Parents wonder how to deal with student’s
love relationship ending
~ Parent tries to express love and support
~ Preparation for finals
~ Conferences with individual students
~ Reminder that students should have read the
syllabus
~ Great time for big care package
~ Early holiday present/gift certificate to
restaurant
~ Giving finals
~ Grading finals
~ Finishing up semester
~ Student being home is not like it used to be
~ “It’s different—we just got used to living this
way.”
~ “I don’t believe it! He wants to major in
Philosophy.”
~ Preparation for the upcoming semester
~ Catch up on reading, writing, and/or
researching
~ Write grants
~ Travel to conferences
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Freshmen Timeline was compiled by Robert Shaw, Dean of Students Office
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
In collaboration with students
January Boten, Matt Ludt, and Kristin Kleinsteiber
Appearing in the Instructor’s Manual for Higher Learning: Reading and Writing About College
Eds. Patti See and Bruce Taylor © Prentice Hall, 2001
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