Every year freshmen come to campus in a caravan of loaded SUVs and minivans. Their cars are packed floor-to-ceiling with fragile emotions, precious morsels of wisdom and every possession they could possibly need to commence their lives as college students.
With heavy hearts, they wave goodbye to family and friends; family and friends who have laden them with advice of what to anticipate. But no matter how much advice they've received, a freshman will only understand college once they've experienced it first-hand.
"My first week has been interesting, to say the least," said Luke Sex, a 1st-semester business major.
"It's definitely awesome living with girls upstairs and downstairs," said Sex. "They stop by to say 'hi' and it makes the day go by a little quicker."
He said one of the tougher transitions he's had to make at UConn has been handling assignments. Although he expected a heavy workload, he didn't expect assignments to be so unstructured-especially when posted on online forums like HuskyCT.
UConn's youngest and brightest class will be expected to meet requirements under limited guidance.
According to an article by the Hartford Courant, the average math and verbal SAT scored for the class of 2013 was 1,213, up from 1,200 last year and 1,192 the year before.
The 3,245 freshman who moved to Storrs last Friday will encounter many new challenges within the next few weeks. But some students have already found that the challenges aren't as difficult as they had expected.
"It's been a little different than I expected," said Whitney Dunning, a 1st-semester health care management major. "I thought it would be harder, but I didn't get lost trying to find classes and people are friendlier than I expected. It's a lot more easy-going."
Even moving away from family and friends hasn't been as difficult as Dunning expected.
"I probably miss my family and friends, but I'm not really even home-sick," she said.
Meeting new people and experiencing social life on a college campus is an easy remedy for students who are suffering from a bout of homesickness.
Dunning said she went to UConn's annual Block Party on Fairfield Way her first weekend on campus. Afterward, she and her friends went back to her dorm room to watch movies.
Amanda Blodgett, a 1st-semester undeclared major, said she went to a party at Carriage House Apartments her first weekend.
"I thought it was crazy," said Blodgett. "It was different from any high school party I've ever been to."
Blodgett has also enjoyed her first week at UConn.
"It's been great, I've been happy with all the freedom," she said. "I also have more free time than I thought I would."
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