Stress Periods

For most Farmington students, this is the first time they've lived away from home. It's an exciting, exhilarating, liberating time in their lives. It can also be a stressful, lonely, and anxious time.

Potential Stress Periods
Parents, you can play an important role in helping your daughter or son cope with this transition by being aware of potential -- and pretty typical -- college stress periods.

August/September
  • - Excitement
  • - Homesickness, loneliness
  • - Especially for new students, frequent calls home or visits home
  • - Doubts about choice of school
  • - Tendency to test new limits
  • - Anxiety about roommates and professors
  • - Anxiety about results of early-semester exams and papers
October
  • - Roommate problems begin to arise
  • - Concerns about the campus social climate
  • - Midterm exams/midterm papers time
  • - Students realize college life may not be perfect
  • - Romances from home still going strong — but increasingly difficult to maintain
November
  • - Roommate tensions increase (or decrease)
  • - Academic pressures mount (procrastination? course difficulty? lack of ability? lack of sleep?)
  • - Economic anxiety (funds beginning to run short)
  • - Campus-wide feeling of general homesickness
  • - Anxiety about returning home for Thanksgiving break (wondering, "will I still fit in at home?")
December
  • - Increased social-life demands (parties, concerts, volunteer projects, religious activities)
  • - Increased nervousness as final exams approach and important papers are due
  • - Financial strain caused by holiday gifts and travel costs
  • - Pre-holiday break depression (especially for those who have no home to visit or who prefer not to go home because of family difficulties)
  • - Physical, mental exhaustion (wiped out after busy first semester)
  • - Friction from being under "house rules" after months of relative freedom
January
  • - Post-holiday blues
  • - Loneliness due to romantic relationship at college
  • - Seeing upcoming semester as a time to make a fresh start
  • - Relief at prospect of going back to school
February
  • - Breakup of romance from home
  • - Valentine's Day Blues (everyone has somebody ... except me)
  • - Excitement of first Spring Break (a week in Cancun or a week at home?)
March
  • - Anxiety over midterm exams and papers
  • - Nervousness begins about upcoming summer employment
  • - Concern begins over choosing room and roommate(s) for next fall
April
  • - Nervousness about signing up for fall courses
  • - Excitement of second Spring Break (a week in Miami or a week at home?)
  • - Increased nervousness as final exams speedily approach and important papers are due
May
  • - Anxiety over final exams and final papers
  • - Apprehension about returning home for summer
  • - Sadness over losing touch with new friends and losing contact with romantic relationship
  • - Concern over finding summer employment
  • - Friction from being under "house rules" after months of relative freedom

Remember, we said college is an exciting time — no one said it's an easy time.

Please feel free to contact us, ask questions, and share anything you feel would be helpful to us as we embark on this exciting journey together.

    Celeste Branham
    Vice President for Student and Community Services
    University of Maine at Farmington
    111 South Street
    Farmington, Maine 04938
    tel 207-778-7087 (my direct office phone)
    cbranham@maine.edu