Starting school at a university that is much larger than any school one has experienced can be intimidating. On top of that, there is a heavier work load, more independence and free time.

Every year, there is new group of “fresh meat” that steps foot onto campus, some coming more prepared than others. However many are not ready for what is to come.

Now that freshmen have the first semester of college under their belt, it is time to reflect and go into the second semester with a little more knowledge and a plan of attack.

“I absolutely loved my first semester! I met so many amazing people, who are helping me shape who I am. School is awesome. The teachers I had love to do what they were doing, which made it easier to be in their class,” Joe Burke said, a freshman studying natural resources at Colorado State University.

During the fall semester, people are strangers to one another, making it all the more terrifying entering college. Once the spring semester rolls around, people walk around campus seeing familiar faces making the atmosphere a little more relaxed.

“There are so many people that go to CSU, I’m bound to find my group, which luckily I think is building up pretty nicely already,” Emily McCormack said, a freshman civil engineer major at CSU.

McCormack, like many other freshmen, want to get more organized for the spring than she was in the fall. She is a student athlete on the club lacrosse team for CSU, motivating her to make sure she gets her school work done on time. “For second semester I bought a planner and I’m really trying to manage my time properly,” McCormack said. “It’s especially important for me now to make sure I keep up with my work so I don’t dig myself a hole.”

Without the rush of finding one’s group of friends, students can increase their focus on their studies and attack second semester differently.

“I regret the amount of procrastinating I did,” Melanie Brooks, a undeclared freshman at CSU, said reflecting on her school work. “I feel like if I had not put everything off to the last minute, then the quality of my work would’ve been higher.”

In the fall, some students learned tactics on how to attack college in a positive way. Burke learned how to control his stress. “I don’t want to stress myself out. I did a good job about stress control last semester, and would like to continue controlling it,” Burke said.

With the help of the all mistakes made in the fall, freshmen can go into the spring semester fully prepared. School can be stressful for many students, but now that second semester has arrived, freshmen are now capable of attacking college in a strong, positive way.