The Infamous Sophomore Slump

Freshman year of college comes with an exciting sense of novelty and freedom, one that keeps “the spark” of entering a new era of life alive despite the challenges that come with major adjustment. The first year of college feels like a reward from all of the hard work put in through high school, and life begins to feel rife with opportunity. 

But by the time sophomore year rolls around, the circumstances have changed. One academic year has gone by, and all of the freshman-oriented college programming and community-building activities are now serving the new class. In a sense, all of the hand-holding stops, and sophomores are left to assess and attack problems on their own. 

Going into college, I never considered this ‘sophomore slump’ to be an issue for me; after all, I never experienced anything of that nature in high school, and I had been a sophomore then, too! But my fall quarter at Stanford this year has been less than ideal in many unpredictable ways. At first, I considered the idea that I was experiencing personal growing pains, and that I would just have to ride out the discomfort. That was only partially true–while I would have to let time heal the aches, they weren’t exclusive to me. The sophomore slump is a real phenomenon that the majority of my peers experienced as well, and although it impacted us in many different ways, there are a few common attributes that I noted:

Flakiness

This was by far the most prominent (and annoying!) symptom of the sophomore slump that I faced. No matter how hard I tried to reconnect with and meet up with people I had been close with in freshman year, there never seemed to be a time that worked. And if, miraculously, a time did work, either me or my friend would end up canceling for one reason or another. This mutual flakiness was pretty hard to deal with—it made me feel like I was losing my friends, and it contributed to the great feeling of loneliness that sophomore year induces. Sophomores are just not as inclined to channel effort into social endeavors as freshmen, and this is understandable, given the increased academic rigor of year two classes.  Still, as the fall quarter progressed, I felt immensely relieved once the flakiness of my interactions began to subside and I was able to spend quality time with those I cared about.

Academic Pressure 

Sophomore year is not the end-all-be-all deadline for deciding the rest of your life. Not by any means. And yet, as soon as the graduation from freshman year occurs, the silent pressure of needing to decide your major and career path slowly begins to creep up on you. At the start of the quarter, I began to feel like I was lost at sea because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my life; I was treating myself like a graduating senior who had no time left to decide their academic path! Looking back, that kind of mindset is definitely not warranted by sophomore year, but me and a lot of my friends had it anyway. Exploration is so much more valuable to me as a sophomore than overeagerness and over-planning, and I’m grateful to have learned that now. But…it would’ve been nice if I didn’t have to maniacally dig through major/minor pathways at 3am in order to get there.

FOMO

I think the fear of missing out is an issue that affects all people; I’m sure everyone has periods where they feel they may be robbed of a life-changing opportunity by skipping some event or trip or activity. But as a sophomore, this feeling seemed amplified x10. Every party I was too tired to attend and weekend trip I missed out on felt like a major, irreparable gap in my life. My thoughts would begin to spiral when I pondered what had gone on during those events. What if that was the best party of the whole year? What if they saw Shawn Mendes on that trip? What if I don’t get invited to the next one? The irrational line of thinking was not doing me any favors, but I kept it up for the majority of the quarter anyway. Now, looking back, I feel like overcoming FOMO had a lot to do with shedding the idea that my life ‘had’ to be a certain way. The beauty of surviving the sophomore slump comes with the realization that your life can be whatever you want it to be, and that you should live it on your own terms. 

I’m so eternally grateful that fall quarter is over, and that I’m more aware of the challenges that come with year two of college. I just hope the winter and spring quarters are less bumpy, but if not…stick around for sophomore slump, the sequel!