Whether you’re a student, a baseball player, or a musician, you’ve heard of the dreaded sophomore slump. The sequel is never as good as the original, and unfortunately for many college students, their second year doesn’t live up to the first.
Sophomore year can be a time of great growth and excitement as you get deeper into your field of studies and more involved in your campus, but it can also leave you stressed, confused, and burnt out. After the novelty of freshman year wears off, it can be hard to keep up your confidence and motivation throughout your remaining six semesters. You may find yourself questioning if you fit in at your college or if you are in the right major, and may struggle with a heavier courseload with fewer of those first-year supports you had as a freshman.
Sound fun? Not so much. I went through a sophomore slump last fall that could have tanked my GPA and even ended my college experience. Fortunately, as I learned through experience, there are countless ways to get out of any slump. Here are a few of them.
Reevaluate your major
Majors matter. The four years you spend earning your undergraduate degree will, for most, set you in a direction for the rest of your professional life. Feeling unhappy in the classes you are taking is a sure sign that some rethinking is needed. For my entire freshman year, I was a mechanical engineering major. I did well, earning A’s in classes like calculus, engineering foundations, and small-scale graphics. I didn’t hate my major, but I felt no real motivation to work hard in my classes. I made an appointment both with my engineering advisor and with the career center on my campus at the end of my freshman year, and both got me pointed in the right direction. After a long talk with my advisor and an interest survey through the career center, both university employees told me I belonged in the humanities. I changed my major to English during the summer before my sophomore year, and now I look forward to going to class every single day.
Don’t wait until it’s too late to take a look at your course of study. If four years of learning about one thing seems like too long, it isn’t worth suffering through it. Many campuses have resources you can easily access: a career center, online aptitude tests, college advisors, and student ambassadors who may be seniors in the program in which you are interested.
Find a new activity
After the novelty of freshman year wears off, going to class every day can seem like a drag. Naps and Netflix start to sound more fun than guest lectures and extra credit, and going back to your apartment to take a nap after your 2:00 class may start to be your idea of a good time. My days had started to blur together, and it seemed like nothing exciting was ever happening on my campus. Joining a new club or finding another campus activity is key in keeping your sophomore year interesting. It can provide a dependable break from the struggles of organic chemistry, cell bio, or that weird film class you took because you thought it would be easy. For me, my new activity was joining the executive board of my sorority as their secretary. The extra meetings gave me something to look forward to and I had a sense of accomplishment when we achieved something that made our sorority better. I felt like I was doing something with my college experience rather than just going through the routine of classes every day.
Activities can be anything from a club to a volunteering commitment to a fun class at your university rec center. Find something that makes you look forward to getting out of bed in the morning, and you’ll be far less likely to fall into the doldrums of routine.
Spend time on campus
After living in the dorms for eight months, most students are ready to get out and rent a house or apartment with their friends for their sophomore year. And you should! Moving off campus is one of the first steps many college students take toward adult responsibilities. I moved into an apartment with one of my roommates from freshman year and I love having the privacy of my room, a large closet, and a full kitchen. However, I found myself at my apartment more than I found myself at the library the first few weeks of my sophomore year. Unlike the year before, where I would sit in the student center or out on the quad and do homework for a few hours after class, I took the bus straight home after my last class of the day. After a few weeks of the same routine, I challenged myself to stay on campus until 10 p.m. for a few days.
Bringing all my homework to campus with me, I found that I was much more productive than at home, and I felt more connected to my school. It was easier to justify going to guest lectures and club meetings or catching my friends for dinner when I was already on campus! If you choose to move off campus for your sophomore year, don’t let it separate you from the great things happening at your university. If you do remain in the dorms for a second year, use that to your advantage and continue to experience all the exciting things your university offers.
Remember that sophomore slumps are not perpetual ruts. Don’t get discouraged – your academic advisor, your friends, and Her Campus are always there for you.