Alexandra Perez | Staff Writer
There is a strange expiration date on being taken care of in college: Freshman year. This first year comes with a guidebook, but the years that follow often feel like all they can offer is a degree audit and a “figure it out”. Freshman year, everyone wants to know how you’re doing. But sophomore year and on, you’re expected to already know.
At FIU, the transition into college comes with orientations, welcome events, student organizations, and countless reminders about how to find your footing. But once students have made it through this infamous first year, much of that attention changes. It’s not that these things go away, but rather that the exploration aspect dissipates as the expectations shift.
This shift comes at an interesting moment. In 2025 alone, FIU welcomed nearly 6,000 freshmen, its largest incoming class in university history. Thousands of those students who once received intensive “first-year attention” became sophomores… and what happens then?
Let’s delve into why this may be. First year retention is an important institutional metric, meaning that universities have a high incentive to make sure freshmen return. Historically, this first year is highly structured and involved. By sophomore year, some of those structures disappear and students are expected to become independent. EAB identifies this as a problem in higher education, noting that students can lose support after their first year even while continuing to face significant academic, financial, and social challenges, also reporting that more than half or student attrition occurs in the second year or later.
Now to be clear, my premise is not that sophomores and on aren’t being taken care of anymore.
Frankly, that offers a rather unsophisticated argument, and I believe the issue goes deeper than that. I am focusing on institutional attention, not hand holding. Becoming an upperclassman is supposed to mean evolving into a more independent and self-sufficient being. A sophomore, junior, and especially a senior should not need FIU to remind them how to register for classes or where to find the advising office. Part of college is learning to navigate life without someone holding your hand.
The question is what happens when the nature of students needs changes? Freshman needs may look something like: How do I register? Where is my class? How do I get involved? While upperclassmen needs become: Am I on track to graduate? Is this the right major for me? How do I find research or internship opportunities?
FIU does not need to answer those questions for students, but needs to make sure students know where and how to pursue the answers. All of this is necessary, because independence shouldn’t become invisibility.
The transition from freshman to sophomore and on isn’t necessarily about resources disappearing, but more so about how visible and intentional those resources are. For example, advising. It’s very reasonable for a sophomore to make their own advising appointment, but does FIU give them a reason to make one? Does anyone say, “This is a good time as you enter your second year to evaluate your degree progress and career direction”?
And the same question can be applied beyond advising. A freshman may be introduced to FIU’s career resources simply because they are new to campus. But by sophomore year when questions about internships, research, and careers begin to carry more weight, the responsibility increasingly falls on the student to know those resources exist and seek them out.
For many students, this increased independence isn’t necessarily a flaw in the system. It’s one of the reasons they came in the first place. The challenge is making sure independence doesn’t mean students are left to discover every opportunity or resource fully on their own.
Some universities have begun responding to this gap with Second-Year Experience programs, shifting their focus from helping students adjust to college toward helping them find direction within it. FIU does not need to hold students’ hands through all four years. Students should become increasingly independent, but that independence should come with intentional support that evolves alongside them.
FIU has proven it knows how to welcome students. As its freshman class continues to grow, the next challenge is making sure those students don’t become less visible simply because they have become more independent.
There should be an expiration date on being taken care of. There shouldn’t be one on being considered.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented on this page do not represent the views of the PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect the perspectives of contributing writers and/or university community members.
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