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Transition to College: Here'S What  Students Say About It 

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What did CollegeData students find most challenging about their freshman year of college, and what helped them adapt to college life? Here are the results of CollegeData’s Transition to College Survey 2026!

Making the shift from high school to college isn’t easy for everyone. Many students face not only academic challenges but also social, emotional, and financial challenges. If you’re going through this transition now or will be soon, we think it could be helpful to hear from students who have first-hand experience making this important life-stage adjustment.

In June 2026, we surveyed registered users of CollegeData who had just completed their freshman year of college.* Read on to find out what surprised them most about college life and what helped them adjust.

When asked "What aspect of college were you least prepared for,” the responses fell into four main areas: academics (46%), financial issues (17%), social issues (20%), and life balance (15%). Below is more detail on how students responded within each category.

 Students Said They Were Not Prepared For College Academics

Some students have trouble acclimating to the pace and rigor of college-level work. In CollegeData’s survey, 46 percent of respondents said they felt least prepared for the academic side of college. This is the same percentage reported in last year’s survey.

Of the respondents who said they felt least prepared for college academics, a little more than 18 percent said they were not prepared for how difficult their classes were.

• “My high school curriculum was easy in comparison”
• “College classes are much harder than high school. I assumed that I didn’t have to study very hard. Big assumption.”
• “It took me a while to adjust to how much more challenging the work was.”

Eighteen percent of survey respondents said they weren’t prepared for the academic workload, while six percent said they had the most trouble studying effectively for college exams.

• “The difficulty of exams and workload greatly increased, and I was not used to such long study sessions for cumulative exams.”
  
  

 Some Students Found It Hard to Make Friends

In last year’s 2025 survey, just nine percent of survey respondents said they had trouble adjusting to some social aspects of college, specifically, living away from home, meeting new people, and living with roommates. In 2026, a little more than 20 percent of respondents reported that they felt least prepared for one of these factors.

Eight percent felt living away from home was the toughest adjustment. “I never really spent a lot of time away from home, so it was a jarring experience not being able to go home every weekend,” said one student.

The largest percentage (11 percent) said building a social circle was the most challenging aspect of college.

• “Making new friends requires free time that isn’t in abundance.”
• “Friends (good ones) are definitely hard to come by.”
• I made no new friends in college, so I had no help from peers in classes or in general.

Yet others found making friends easy. When asked in a separate question what surprised them most about college, almost eight percent of survey respondents said they were surprised by how easy it was to make friends and meet people.

 Homesickness Happens 

In a separate question, we asked survey respondents about whether and how often they experienced homesickness during the first part of freshman year. Twenty-six percent of students surveyed said they felt homesick “occasionally” (feeling homesick from four to eight times during the semester/quarter). Just under 11 percent said they felt homesick often (more than nine times), which is an increase of five percent from last year, when only six percent of students said they often felt homesick.

• “I am very close with my family. Living away was a hard thing.”

More than half of the students surveyed (63 percent), however, said that they rarely experienced homesickness or didn’t experience it at all. This is down from last year’s survey, in which 74% of students said they rarely or never felt homesick.

• “I adjusted very well. I love living on my own and I’m very independent.”

For students who did experience homesickness, they cited a variety of ways they coped with it including forming new friendships, working on campus, and calling or visiting home. Others said on-campus resources were helpful, such as residential life activities, first generation student programs, Greek life, and faith communities.

 It’s Tough to Find Life Balance

While college can present many exciting social and academic opportunities, all of this can be hard to juggle, especially for incoming freshmen. Add a part-time job, family responsibilities, participation in clubs or sports, and you have a lot of balls in the air.

A little over 15 percent of respondents said that they found it difficult to find a school/life balance during their freshman year. This is down five percent from last year’s survey.

• “Sometimes it is hard to prioritize studying when people are trying to go out and do things every single day.”
• It was hard to make a lot of friends and join clubs when I was taking 18 credits a quarter. “
• “I had to learn that maintaining a good grade meant dropping [my] social life a bit.”
• “I didn’t really have time to do anything else except for schoolwork or study for a test.”
  
  

 College Costs And Managing Money Were Another Challenge

Seventeen percent of the students we surveyed said they were unprepared for the financial aspects of college. Of this group, 8 percent said they were least prepared for managing their own money and 9 percent said they were unprepared for some college expenses.

• “College tuition is really expensive. It’s hard to keep up with loans and keep them organized.
• “I didn’t know how expensive college is and what other expenses — outside of tuition — come with it. Before coming to school, I imagined that the amount I had saved for miscellaneous expenses … would be more than enough. I realized within the first few months that it was going to take a lot more than I had.”

Students enter college with varying levels of financial literacy and experience managing money. These skills are important, whether students receive spending money from their parents, work to cover expenses, or rely on student loans to pay for college. When asked what they wished they knew about money before starting college, nearly 50 percent of survey respondents said money-saving strategies, while another 35 percent said they wished they had known how to create a budget. Other money topics students mentioned included using credit cards responsibly, understanding interest rates, and managing financial aid.

 More Than Half of Freshmen Said They Used A Budget

Having a budget can help students keep track of their spending. This year, 52 percent of respondents said they used a budget at some point during freshman year.

However, even when students use a budget, they are sometimes thrown by the indirect costs of college, which include transportation, school supplies, entertainment and other non-tuition costs. Since students do not typically pay for these costs directly to their college and because they can fluctuate, they aren’t always easy to track. One study involving interviews with 150 college students found that 80 percent had encountered an unexpected indirect expense at least once during college.

Colleges usually include some indirect expenses in their Cost of Attendance estimates, but indirect or hidden costs can vary depending on your school, major, and lifestyle.

Survey respondents said they experienced several types of unexpected costs, including textbooks and course materials (60%), ride sharing services and transportation (38%), and personal-care products (32%).

 26 Percent Said They Ran Out Of Money

We asked students whether, at any point during their freshman year, they ran out of money or did not have enough money to pay for a necessary expense. 

Twenty-six percent of respondents said they faced this situation.

• “I needed certain materials for an exam, but I’d already burned through my savings, so I had to wing the class without [them]. I had to really ration my personal care items [and] food.”
• “I didn’t have enough money for my rent as I spent it all on my monthly expenses; therefore, I had to take out a private loan.”
• “I ran out of money for food on the weekends”
• “I shopped for food outside of my meal plan too much.”
• “I didn’t have enough money to eat most days. I lost 20 pounds.”

Some students who ran out of money or did not have enough money to pay for a necessary expense during their freshman year said that they used a credit card. Many college students, once they turn 18 or 19, are generally eligible to get a credit card in their own name. Credit cards offered to students typically have low credit limits and are meant to help students develop responsible spending habits and start building credit.

Sixty percent of the students surveyed said they used a credit card during their college freshman year – up from 35% in 2025, primarily to pay for groceries, dining out, and gas.

 What Helped Students Prepare For The Transition From High School To College?

We asked our survey respondents to look back at the summer between high school and college and tell us the one thing they did during that time that helped prepare them for college life. Two answers stood out: attending freshman orientation and working over the summer.

Twenty-nine percent of the students surveyed found freshman orientation to be most helpful in preparing them for college because it provided them with the opportunity to get familiar with their campus, understand academic expectations, and meet other students.

However, 37 percent said working over the summer – either full- or part-time – helped them prepare for the demands of being a college student, improved their time management and organizational skills, and gave them insight into a prospective career.

  What On-Campus Resources Did Freshmen Use And Find Helpful?

Most colleges offer a variety of resources to support students and ease their transition to college. These include mental health services, career centers and writing support, just to name a few.

Which services did students take advantage of most freshman year? Just under half of respondents (46 percent) said they used professors’ office hours the most. The financial aid office followed with 35 percent. In third place was tutoring and academic support services with 32 percent. Respondents were able to select more than one service.

When it came to which campus resource freshmen found most helpful, 31 percent said professors’ office hours, with academic support services and study groups tied for second place, each with 12 percent. 

  What Life Skills Do You Need To Succeed Freshman Year?

College is often a student’s first step into adulthood and first experience living away from their parents or guardians. Even for those students living at home, college requires a higher level of organization, communication, and accountability than high school. When we asked students what life skill they used most or wish they had mastered prior to freshman year, the winners were time management (72 percent), stress management and self-care (52 percent), and maintaining a clean living space (also 52 percent).

 It’s Normal To Have Some Doubts About Your College Choice

Some students enter college with outsized expectations and soon realize that their “dream” college isn’t so dreamy after all. 

If you end up feeling this way, you’re not alone. A little more than 32 percent of students in our survey said they felt disappointed or dissatisfied with their college “occasionally” or “often.” It’s common to discover things about your college that are disappointing or different from what you expected. On the flipside, almost 68 percent of the students we surveyed reported “never” or “seldom” feeling disappointed or dissatisfied. This is down 16 percent from last year’s survey, but the data still suggests that most students are happy with their college choice.

 Be Patient: It Can Take Time to Adjust to College

It can take students an entire year (or more) to feel comfortable living away from home, acclimate to college classes, make friends, and adjust to the new independence that college brings. 

Whether you’re feeling anxious about starting college soon or you’re in the process of acclimating to college life now, we hope you’ll keep these survey results and student experiences in mind, so you know that whatever you might be going through, you’re probably not alone.

*Methodology: Survey results presented in this article were generated from an email survey of CollegeData registered users sent to college freshmen and students attending college in 2025-2026. A total of 65 CollegeData registrants completed the survey. Responses were provided anonymously. Data presented in all figures has been rounded to the nearest whole number. Percentages may not always amount to 100 percent.