Fall semester is the beginning of beginnings. Whether it’s the first semester of your college career or a return to the beginning of another year, the fall symbolizes something new. Perhaps it’s this concept of “new” that fills students with hopes of new opportunities, friends and independence.
Following the extended break of the summer, students often feel recharged and motivated to return to their studies and activities. After a period of relaxation, the return to campus in the fall can ignite a renewed sense of urgency and motivation to pursue new and continued relationships and opportunities. After all, there’s no other place that presents as many educational, career and networking opportunities as college.
So why is it that student involvement tends to decline during the spring semester in comparison to the fall semester?
To put it simply, students lose the urgency and motivation for what they expected in the previous semester. Whether it’s because they’ve already achieved their yearly educational goals or because their goals have changed, students don’t enter the two semesters with the same attitude in mind.
While the fall brings a renewed sense of motivation and urgency, the spring semester is met with a sense of continuation. Despite it being a new semester, to students, the spring may feel like a continuation of the fall semester. It can be seen as a period of time to finish goals that were not accomplished previously.
With that being said, the excitement of starting anew no longer persists.
Think about it this way. When people set New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year, people are excited to get started. The urgency and motivation to achieve the set goals are a lot more dominant than later into the year.
For this reason, many individuals give up or change their New Year’s resolutions as the year goes on. In the case that people do consistently keep their resolutions, they no longer exhibit the same desire to pursue them.
This change in attitude can be reflected in the difference of student involvement from the fall semester to the spring semester. The fall semester is when students create their goals for the remaining school year. This includes educational, relational and professional goals.
As we set our goals at the beginning of the fall semester, we feel the excitement to begin our pursuit. This excitement then manifests into urgency and motivation.
However, as the year goes on and the spring semester begins, although our yearly educational goals persist, many students don’t convey the same interest in pursuing them. In many cases, students will leave their goals unfinished or drag them along without putting in as much effort as before.
Whatever the case may be, there are many factors that can play into the reason that student involvement declines in the spring semester. But the change in attitude toward their educational goals is one that cannot be easily ignored.