It has been over a month since GC’s class of 2026 moved into Milledgeville. The new freshmen were easily identifiable for the first few weeks. They were the students getting lost in Herty Hall, trying to figure out the Max hours, and walking around looking generally confused. But with September coming to an end, the freshman have worked hard to integrate themselves into college life. 

One of the biggest hurdles many freshmen have to overcome is making new friends. For an incoming freshman knowing no one, trying to make the strangers in your dorm become your new best friends seems impossible. One way many students meet their friends is by joining campus organizations. These include Greek life, sports teams, religious groups and other clubs.  

Savannah Evans, freshman nursing major, lives at West Campus. She went through the rush process this fall. 

“I’m in Kappa Delta, so that’s been really good,” Evans said. “I’ve made a lot of friends through that. All the girls on my floor were in the same Pi Chi group so we’re all really good friends and we hang out a lot.” 

Abigail Hardt, freshman accounting major, joined a club sport team to make friends. 

“I’m involved in rugby, which is crazy because I never thought I would do something like that,” Hardt said. “But then I was like ‘Yup, I’m going to do that’ and the friends I’ve made through it are really cool.”  

Another big part of freshman year is dorm life. Learning to live in a small space with another person is always a challenge, and one of the best ways to offset any discomfort is by decorating together.  

Kaylin O’Riordan, freshman special education major, lives in Adams Hall. She decorated with her suitemates to make their living space ideal for everyone to spend time together. 

“Me and my roommate, we lofted our beds,” O’Riordan said. “Under my bed is a big TV and then under hers is a futon, so that’s like our hangout room. Our suitemates go in there, and we all hang out.” 

Evans and her roommates took time to decorate their apartment at West Campus as well. 

“I literally brought so much stuff,” Evans said. “I was so embarrassed on move-in day. All of my roommates, we knew each other coming in, and so we have a lot of cute pictures of us together and stuff like that.” 

Hardt, who also lives in Adams Hall, decorated her dorm room with photos to remember all of her friends as well.  

“One of my walls is like completely covered in a hundred pictures that I just found on the Internet, or I had of me and my friends,” Hardt said. “And then me and my roommate have matching comforters and I’ve got this amazing mix of a beanbag and a mattress, and I love it. It’s called Crash, and it’s one of my favorite things in the world.” 

Overall, the freshmen seem happy with their college experience so far. Changing from a high school class schedule to a college load is always an adjustment. 

“It’s definitely a lot of work but thankfully I don’t have like any 8 am or 9 am classes which is nice,” O’Riordan said.  

Evans has a heavy class load, so she’s had to work harder to maintain her grades.  

“I’m in anatomy, and I have psychology and statistics and stuff like that this year, so it’s been pretty hard learning how to balance everything,” Evans said. 

Starting out freshman year in anatomy is impressive. Some students consider it one of the more difficult classes taught on campus because of the intense memorization required and the frequent quizzes. Evans also appreciates the smaller class sizes here at GC so that she can get to know her professors better. 

“I like how there’s not a lot of students in all the classrooms,” Evans said. “You know your professors and everything. Milledgeville is like really big compared to where I came from.” 

However, this isn’t the case for all students. Hardt came from a larger high school where the transition to GC was not radically different to her. 

“My high school had like over 3,000 kids and there’s 5,000 here so it kind of just feels like the same number of people,” Hardt said. “But in other ways, it feels different because I didn’t have to move between buildings in high school and I have a lot more work now.”  

The majority of freshmen seem to be transitioning into college life just as smoothly as the classes of ’23, ’24, and ’25 did before them.