Colleges everywhere are back into full swing with packed classes, crowded dining halls, and stressed students “studying” in the library. While the new semester is still fresh and open to optimism, returning students may find themselves in a different mood at the beginning of the spring term than what they felt in the fall. After a cold winter break of doing nothing, coming back in the spring can be even harder than the August start. Granted, three months of summer vacation before can lead to laziness the first week then, as well, but there’s something about the holidays and coldness that make people more prone to not wanting to work when it comes to classes in January. Here are three main differences between the start of the fall semester and the start of the spring semester.

1. Everything feels rushed due to having less time to prepare.

Even though most colleges allow class registration for the spring as soon as November, there’s no guarantee you will be in those classes come January. Hoping to be accepted off of a class waitlist can be a process that occurs until the very last minute. This uncertainty, along with the pressure of exams for the fall semester, can cause the prolonging of preparation for a new semester. During the first week of classes, everyone is searching the Internet high and low for the best book deals that can be shipped within three days. The campus bookstore is packed with students getting last minute orders. It’s chaotic. And don’t even start with all of the emails flooding your inbox that pertain to getting ready for the next school year. There’s always another form that has to be filled out.

2. The “start-of-school” jitters are basically nonexistent.

There isn’t a full-on move-in day. You already know the people you share your hall floor with. There aren’t any long goodbyes, or even a “welcome” week. The only thing that’s changed is your schedule. You might have a new notebook or two from a bin in the back of Target, because school supplies isn’t as advertised and discounted in January as it is in July. If we’re being honest, your notebooks from last semester probably aren’t even half full. The first day of classes in the spring is just another day. All of this leads to the new semester feeling like business as usual rather than a new beginning. At least you can still do icebreaker activities in class and pretend it’s the real first day of school, right?

3. Everyone is ready for the school year to be over with from the first class block.

Spring semester means another college year is almost over and summer is around the corner, which is all anyone can think of. Since the excitement for spring classes doesn’t last long, students are over college each time they get a new syllabus. Some set countdowns on their phone to spring break, others look forward to their final exam day for freedom. Either way, the summer sun is calling college kids everywhere, and they receive the message loud and clear with each “welcome back” they hear.

While there are some cons to the spring semester, it is a time of redemption to end a full school year with strong remarks. Here’s to interesting classes, great professors, and amazing grades these next few weeks. We’re over halfway there to the finish line.