First semester of college is hard. You have just spent 4 years of your life in high school trying to get into college, 4 years of getting your life together and figuring out what you want in life.
College is a lot of fun and I love GW a lot, unfortunately it is all the stress that comes with it that I am not a fan of.
The stages of college are: Excitement, Motivation, Exhaustion, Shock, Hopelessness, and (sometimes) Survival.
1. Excitement
There is nothing more exciting than packing up your life and taking it to a new city.
The journey to college is filled with even more excitement and a lot of "Are we there yet?"'s.
And when your parents leave you, you feel like a real adult.
2. Motivation
You actually look forward to your first week of classes. You get to meet new friends and get a fresh start to your academic career. 
You begin college thinking you are going to get perfect grades.
You join every club; you sign up for everything you can during the org fair.
You talk to so many people; however, it becomes a problem when you can hardly remember anyone's name.
Every weekend has to be filled with things to do.
3.Exhaustion
But then midterms come around sooner than you were prepared for. And when you realize they are worth 15% of your grade, catching up on sleep is the highest priority during the weekends. 
You study three times harder than you did for high school, but you still barely pass.
Power napping between classes become a daily must.
Then parent's weekend roles around and you try to pull it together so your parents don't worry.
But really, you have to catch up on 90 hours of studying, write 3 research papers, take a shower, do laundry, feed yourself, go to 6 different meetings, try to have a social life AND stress about all of this for 30 hours.
It is a miracle if you don't accidentally fall asleep during you 8 am class... or your 11 am... or your 3 pm.
But it is okay, because all of your friends are in the same situation. That is how you guys bond anyways.
Even more, you call your parents constantly because you miss them so much.
4. Shock
You are shocked when you realize that everything you thought you could do, you actually really cannot.
The only reason you do laundry anymore is because of the fear you will one day wake up without clean underwear.
But all you can do is look back at the good times when you were in high school.
And soon you realize that finals are only 3 weeks away and you need a 112% to get that A you were sure you could get in August.
5. Hopelessness
And for some reason, every muscle is sore and you have been "under the weather" for 3 months.
However, you still feel the need to study something.
Because if you don't, then you become convinced you will fail out of college 
Even though, when it comes time to take your finals, you are probably not going to even recognize the material. But it is okay because neither will the rest of your classmates. So all you can do is hope for a good curve.
6. Survival
Don't worry, because somehow you will survive and make it through to Winter Break.
But it is not long until you realize you have 7 more semesters to get through.....
