Starting Winter Semester or Quarter

With the holiday season kicking off it's also time for quite a few students to start getting ready to go to college, much like in August.

An entire new crop of students starts in January, and faces a different set of challenges than their September (or fall) counterparts. For one, their fellow students who started three months ago have had that time to bond, make friends and generally get to know each other. Starting in January is a little bit like being the new kid in school- you have to break into cliques that have already formed. Hopefully most students have at least one class with other January starting students in it, so there are other people in the same situation.

This isn't to say that if one starts in January you'll never meet anyone or get to know your classmates- from what I have seen (and experienced) there is simply a longer adjustment/acceptance period for these students. I've often deemed the first three weeks as crucial to a student's success (I wish I still had access to students to study this phenomenon) and if a student feels like s/he is not included or an outsider on campus it can be frustrating and discouraging for that student.

Students/Student services folks, what have you experienced with starting at a college in January?