How do we best help students navigate the ups and downs of college life?
Alexis Redding, faculty co-chair of Higher Education and Lecturer on education at Harvard University, examines the W-curve to find out.
Alexis Redding is a developmental psychologist whose who specializes in supporting young adults during the college years and the transition to the workforce. She is the Faculty Co-Chair of the Higher Education Concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) where she also teaches courses in student development, student affairs, and research methods for higher education. In 2024, she also became Faculty Chair of a new Professional Education course at HGSE: Mental Health in Higher Education: A Theory-to-Practice Approach for Student Well-Being and is the editor of a forthcoming book, Mental Health in College: What Research Tells Us about Supporting Students (Harvard Education Press).
Navigating the W-Curve of College Life
The cultural narrative about college is that it’s the best four years of your life. The reality is far more complex. There are fantastic highs, but there are also lows—and when we don’t prepare students for these challenges, we leave them at a disadvantage.
There’s a well-known student affairs framework known as the W-Curve of Transition that helps us understand what’s going on. Students typically start in a honeymoon phase, filled with enthusiasm about this new chapter of their lives. Early on, though, the curve dips. Homesickness, academic stress, and the time it takes to build a new social network can leave students questioning whether they belong. Most rebound as they form new routines and connections. But another dip often occurs after their first visit home, when students realize that they have changed. Eventually, the curve rises again, as students integrate these realities and adapt.
In my research on the college experience, drawing from hundreds of interviews with first-year students across dozens of campuses, I’ve seen how consistent this W pattern is. The dips are both normal and predictable. And yet, almost every student I’ve interviewed perceives their struggle as unique. Peers aren’t always candid about these difficulties. And if we don’t talk openly about the challenges, students can feel even more isolated.
This is where understanding the W-Curve is especially valuable. Teaching students about these predictable patterns helps them understand what to expect. And by recognizing the W-curve ourselves, families and educators can better respond when students are struggling. It helps us distinguish between the *expected* turbulence of adjustment and deeper struggles that may signal mental health concerns. Feeling homesick or stressed during the first year is common. But when difficulties persist, get worse, or interfere with daily life, that’s the moment to encourage students to seek additional support.
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