Navigating the High-School to College Transition
Purdue has many resources to support students in all walks of their college lives, not just Freshman. There are mental health resources, organizational seminars, advisors, and more that can help students in their college career. One thing that really helped me adjust was the department I was a student of, Purdue Agronomy. The Agronomy program feels like a family within Purdue. The classes are smaller, where students know each other, and professors remember your name. I found my home at college in the Purdue Agronomy program. Every student at Purdue can find their ‘family’ at college, whether that be clubs, departments, friends, intramurals, or more. You just have to use the resources around you to navigate your college journey at Purdue.
I graduated from a small, rural high school that was K-12 in one building. Out of the ~75 people I graduated with, there were <10 classmates that I hadn’t started Kindergarten with 13 years prior. A few short months after graduating, I packed up and drove the 35 minutes north to move into a freshman dorm. When classes at Purdue started, I was just one freshman in a sea of 8,056 freshman incoming to Purdue.
For someone like me, Purdue was overwhelming in the first few weeks. I went from classes of 20 peers I had known my entire life, to classes with hundreds of students in a lecture hall and familiar faces. I know that many students feel this same feeling when coming to Purdue. This can make freshman from small hometowns and high schools feel stressed, overwhelmed, and lost. Even students from backgrounds with high schools similar to the numbers at Purdue can feel overwhelmed with the changes that college brings about in their lives.
“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle”
Christian D. Larson