I found college exceedingly stressful.
new room - with a roommate - that changed five times in one year.
new daily schedule
new city
new food
new noises
lots of noises
new people, faces
lots of people
lots of people moving & talking. loudly.
new environments like labs & auditorium classrooms...with a different seat each day.
It felt like I had no control over anything, and nothing was constant. I was overstimulated internally and out. I got through only by simplifying my environment as much as possible, as often as possible. And making notes, maps, schedules and taping them in obvious places for each need (desktop, wall, notepad cover, etc). I reduced my world to the desk in my room, "my" kiosk-desk in the library (on a mostly unused floor) and the classrooms I needed to visit. After a while, I was able to slowly expand that world, one or two new things at a time, as I felt comfortable. By the time I was done, I knew the campus, it's rhythms and patterns and procedures as good as the home I was raised in.
_________________
“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
―Carl Sagan