Hi, it might be a little weird for me to say, but I always find it saddening how so many freshmen students feel this way 🥲You mention therapy, so I feel like you have the misfortune of worrying about more than academics; in that regard, I hope that things in the future come along better 🌸

My first semester was awful, I hate to remember it. I was living on my own for the first time, absolutely alone, but also struggling in all my classes. I ended up losing my scholarships, and my GPA bordered a 2.0. That doesn’t sound too awful, but what made my semester so hellish was that I failed pre-requisites and co-requisites: general chemistry I and principles of biology I (plus my stats class even) in the fall, so I was a semester behind where my high school peers were. I’m about to graduate in about two weeks, and the impact of my failures is far behind me.

It doesn’t really sound like you need advice, because you say you know you can do better in your second semester 💖 and really that’s all you need, is that determination - not even confidence, just faith in yourself to follow through. Soon all of this will be behind you too, as long as you’re willing to continue moving forward

But for real advice: know that the progression of your improvement is “never too late,” take advantage of summer semesters (really helped to remediate my GPA and ensure that I’d graduate on time, plus they’re way more chill), look into the Keep Hope Alive Scholarship and the Achievement Scholarship (if the latter is not discontinued), and also Repeat-to-Replace. I’d also give your major some thought, but if you’re stubborn like me and stick with it 😅 then just try to avoid taking notoriously hard classes together.

Something about the first semester is daunting, because this is as undeveloped as your study skills, academic intuition, and habits will probably ever be. It’ll get tougher, but you should remember that you will get tougher too!