Mid-college crisis: 'The college student's version of a mid-life crisis'

At the end of this past spring semester, Seton Hall University student Samantha Giedris grappled with a common undergraduate affliction that doesn't arrive with a medical diagnosis or even have a formal name.

Giedris, a 20-year-old junior journalism major from Woodlands, Texas, calls it, simply, "the mid-college crisis."

As she confirms in The Setonian campus newspaper, "I remember the first time it really hit me. Sophomore year was almost officially over and I had one final [exam] left before completely immersing myself in the self-loathing process that is packing up my entire room after living on campus for another year. My mom called me and said something along the lines of 'Just think about it, you’re almost halfway done with college.' Bam. And so began my mid-college crisis."

Harvard University student and Harvard Crimson columnist Dashiell Young-Saver defines this crisis state as "the beginning of the end of the middle of college."

According to Giedris, it's at least somewhat akin to a full-blown mid-life crisis.

As she argues, "The term we so commonly attach to men and women in their 40s and 50s who make frivolous choices seems strangely fitting in this situation."

Yet, in this case, concerns centered on credit hours, extracurricular activities and upcoming commencement ceremonies stand in for fears about wrinkles, retirement savings and pending death.

In the brief Q&A below, Giedris defines the mid-college crisis in greater detail and offers advice for students on making the most of the first and second halves of their college experience. She also outlines her ideas on how to make higher education better overall -- to possibly spare students from entering a crisis state at any point during their undergraduate years.

Q: How do you describe the mid-college crisis, and what makes it such an impacting event for students?

A: I would define the mid-college crisis as the college student’s version of a mid-life crisis. Basically, it’s a realization around the middle of someone’s college experience that their time is almost up. This realization causes them to reflect on missed opportunities and try, possibly too hard, to make up for lost time at any cost. This crisis is such an impacting event for students because our time in college is short and there is constant pressure to do as many things as possible in what are supposed to be “the best four years of our lives.” So when it’s clear that half of that time is done, it’s easy to look back and get stressed out by all the missed opportunities.

Q: For current freshmen still in their first semester, what's your advice on what they should aim to accomplish -- or avoid -- prior to their collegiate midpoint?

A: For freshmen, I would advise deciding what they want to get out of their college experience and take their time in school seriously. That doesn’t necessarily mean only focusing on work or only focusing on having fun. But if you don’t know what you want, you’re more likely to make mistakes along the way. College is intended to be a place where we fall and get to pick ourselves back up, so don’t worry if you fall and don’t worry if you don’t know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life yet. I’m a junior and I change my mind almost daily.

The key is to know what you want to achieve in the time you spend on campus. If you want to have a 4.0 GPA, I commend you and encourage you to study and read for your classes and try to soak up as much wisdom from your books and professors as possible. If you’re in it for a last hoorah or a last few years of freedom before joining the real world, go out, have fun and stay safe, but make sure you take your classes seriously enough to pass them. Or, if you’re like me, and are looking for four years filled with unforgettable memories, lasting friendships and a deeper understanding of your future career path, learn how to manage your time, stay on top of your work and have fun whenever you have a spare minute.

Q: In your Setonian column, you mention part of your own plan for the second half of college is taking more chances. What is motivating you to do that?

A: A fear of missing out is motivating me to take more chances these next two years. I don’t have many regrets in my life and I don’t want to start now. So just from reflecting on my first two years and seeing moments when I decided to play it safe, I've decided to not let fear of the unknown dictate my decision-making anymore. I don’t want to miss out on exciting and adventurous opportunities. I want to take as many chances as possible -- even if they seem like a long shot -- because it can’t hurt to try and you never know what doors will open for you when you knock on every single one.

Q: You also write that you have learned from your mistakes during your freshman and sophomore years. What's an example of a mistake you're now happy you made or were able to learn something from?

A: A mistake I’m happy I made was waiting to write a 15-page paper until the night before it was due. I have a slight tendency to procrastinate, but never before had my procrastination gotten quite that out of hand. When the gravity of the situation hit me -- I’d say it was about 5:30 a.m. in the lobby of my dorm room with at least five pages to go -- I realized I never wanted to feel that way again. I was able to rise to the occasion, finish my paper and actually felt like I had argued my point strongly, so in a way it was a success at the time. But my sleep-deprived self couldn’t really appreciate that accomplishment.

I realized then that while it’s OK to take my time with certain assignments, it’s also important to stay on top of my homework and make sure I put out a good product that I’ve had time to edit and correct. Since that incident, I’ve made an effort to be more proactive with my assignments. That doesn’t mean I don’t procrastinate, but I never let it get that out of hand because I’ve already learned that lesson.

Q: What are some signs a student might be in the midst of a mid-college crisis?

A: I think it would be hard for a parent or professor to spot someone going through a mid-college crisis, simply because most students look sleep-deprived at least two days a week. A roommate is slightly more qualified to notice the subtle differences in appearance, but the student going through a mid-college crisis is likely to look just as exhausted as any other student on campus. Their roommate may notice their excessive studying or extreme partying habits, which would lead to a constant level of exhaustion. But unlike the mid-life crisis, most students experiencing a mid-college crisis will remain unnoticed.

Q: Now that you've helped mid-college-crisis students, let's tackle college in general. If you were put in charge of higher education tomorrow, what would you change about university life or the student experience?

A: There are a lot of things that work well with the current higher education format. Semester breaks always seem to appear at just the right moments and offer the perfect amount of time to recuperate. There’s typically leeway in the amount of classes students can take per semester, which can help with their overall stress levels. And extracurriculars are usually at flexible times and cover a vast spectrum of interests. Still there are two things I would change if given the chance.

First, I would encourage adults to reexamine the way they present the college experience to students. There’s such a heavy emphasis on students to get great grades, make all the right decisions for their future and have the best four years of their lives. This just seems unfair and dishonest. People make mistakes and can recover from a bad grade. And that blemish on their transcript could teach them a valuable lesson about working harder to accomplish something difficult or about what subject matter their career shouldn’t include. It’s also rare to find someone who spent their life in a career exactly within the realm of their college major, so stop telling us we have to have everything figured out right now. The way I see it, there’s still plenty of time to try new things after college. And there’s simply no way that everyone peaks in college. There is so much life left to live post-college and so many new experiences available, so stop putting pressure on students to do everything now when there’s still time later.

Second, there should be less emphasis for students to go to school for four years or straight after high school. Just because a quality education can be gained in three to four years doesn’t mean it has to be. If opportunities to travel or intern or do anything exciting come along, but may delay education by a semester or a year, we shouldn’t feel discouraged to take these opportunities.

Dan Reimold, Ph.D., is a college journalism scholar who has written and presented about the student press throughout the U.S. and in Southeast Asia. He is an assistant professor of journalism at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where he also advises The Hawk student newspaper. He is the author of Journalism of Ideas (Routledge, 2013) and maintains the student journalism industry blog College Media Matters. A complete list of Campus Beat articles is here.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.