Above all, I doubt the reliability of the quantitative summary, "During their freshman year, many students worry about whether other people at [school name] accept them." Also, I am wondering why he conducts such an experiment.
From the beginning of this experiment, there is no dialogic conversation between him and the freshman students. He subconsciously imposes the susceptible summary from the upperclassman onto the freshman. Let the freshman students believe they should be anxiety in the first year and, in order to get rid of the anxiousness, they can take a course, like One-Hour Exercise. Reflecting on the Paulo Freire's comment, the "Banking Concept Education" reveals that the leading beings of any group or society try to indoctrinate the other ordinary people that they need to be educated so as to become "normal". Then the leader beings exalt themselves as the perfect existence and try to domesticate the "abnormal" instead of having dialogues with them. Through compare and contrast, I am wondering that besides the goal of helping the freshman to adapt the college lives well, there might be some invisible goals behind the curtain.
In terms of my first year experience, I have two freshman years. One was in China and one was in the United States. As the author said, during both of these first years, I was not comfortable with the surrounding environment. When I was in China where I spent my first 20 years, I still worried about others’ opinions on me. And as I said in my post “This I believe”, I was completely unable to get used to the new life in a strange country. After initial struggling, I gradually adapted to the new environment from second semester or second year. However, this is not a unique psychological change which only happens to the students. When I came to this country or when I took a first job in this country, there was no exception that I always felt uncomfortable during the first few months. I was carefully observing others’ attitudes towards me and tried to let myself be welcome to them. After so many times of struggling, I found myself not to worry about others’ sights anymore. (Revised) I, step by step, get rid of the struggles, and get used to the new environments.
(Thank for Courtney's link. I have to more be more critical when researching materials.)
So my own experience tells me that it is a normal reaction for people, including the students, to “worry about whether other people at [school name] accept them.” And as times fly, people naturally have abilities to adapt to the new environment. Psychologically, it is good to know what I think and how I react in front of new things. But I choose not to be educated for something that I can handle by my own ability.