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By exploring the phenomenon of how high-achieving students experience resiliency in their first year of college, it is possible to develop a greater understanding of how these students persist in spite of the obstacles that they face. In analyzing the three research questions for this study, more can be learned about the students’ lived experiences with regard to how they describe stressful times, how they describe coping, and how they describe their learning as a result of those experiences. In addition, the data also revealed conceptualizations of resiliency and failure in a way that reveal students’ attitudes around failure as being a part of their learning process. From this analysis, it is possible to determine a few key findings, implications for practice, as well as limitations and recommendations for future research. The key findings below are organized in response to the three major research question that guided this study.

5.1.1 High-achieving students experience a variety of stressful experiences

Research question one asked: How do high-achieving students describe stressful experiences from their first year of college? Findings from this study suggest that high-achieving students describe experiencing many types of stress and challenges in their first year. Educators may often mistakenly assume that high-achieving students do not face difficulties in college because

they typically excel academically (Dougherty, 2007). However, all of the high-achieving students in this study’s sample indicated that they struggled with several aspects of their first year transition to college. The participants in this study faced a variety of challenges including academic challenges, social challenges, challenges with deciding on an academic plan of study, health challenges, and pressure to succeed during their first year in college. Though academic setbacks did not necessarily derail their overall academic plan of study or ruin their GPA, their resiliency was tested in many ways. The experiences that they faced were the source of much stress, anxiety, frustration, and worry during their first year, especially for those students who were facing an academic or social challenge for the first time in their lives. Findings from this study were consistent with previous research which suggests high levels of anxiety often result from high-achieving students’ academic pursuits as they strive to meet high standards and compete with their peers (Dougherty, 2007). As they struggled with academic challenges, several students also cited feelings of disbelief as they realized a disconnection between their own perception of their abilities and the new reality in which they were underperforming. When these students faced an obstacle, it challenged their own fundamental assumptions about themselves and their abilities.

Though first year student challenges have been the focus of much research in higher education (Upcraft, Gardner, & Barefoot, 2005) the phenomenological approach to this study has been especially useful illuminating the individual stories of challenge that are not often heard from high-achieving students specifically in the way that these students perceive themselves and their challenges. The detailed recollections provided in this study show the complexity of students’ experiences and conceptualizations of resiliency. The individual stories that are

highlighted in this study provide a level of depth to this phenomenon that could not otherwise have been gathered through survey data or other quantitative methods.

The findings from this study suggests that these high-achieving students perceive themselves as having unique challenges that cause them to experience stress differently than their average or low-achieving counterparts. For instance, because they perceive themselves as seeking a higher academic standard than their peers, high-achieving students may experience academic difficulties that do not even appear on the radar of a faculty member or academic advisor. One example that illustrates this point is Trevor’s academic struggle. Trevor earned a D grade on one exam but overall earned a B grade in his class. From Trevor’s perspective, earning that D grade was one of the most stressful experiences of his first year in college and it profoundly challenged his own perception of his academic abilities. However, it is likely that his professor or advisor did not even notice this as having been a problematic semester for Trevor because of his overall positive outcome. The critical point here is that Trevor’s success in this instance was not an accident. Although Trevor figured out how to change his strategies and expectations to work through the challenge, it is dangerous to assume that all high-achieving students can navigate through their challenges independently as not all high-achieving students have the skills to be able to manage this. High-achieving student stress and challenges may be undetected by those who may be in a position to offer help or resources. This suggests a need for educators to listen more carefully to the specific ways that high-achieving students describe experiencing challenges and to also be aware that high-achieving students may perceive their own struggle differently than their peers.

5.1.2 Coping with stressful experiences

Research question two asked: How do high-achieving students describe coping with stressful experiences in their first year of college? The participants in this study provided many examples of coping strategies that they used to help address the challenges they experienced in their first year. Though most strategies were considered to be positive or healthy strategies, there were a few that were described by the students as maladaptive, or in other words, strategies that were unhealthy or inappropriate for navigating the challenge. Among the positive strategies, resilient self-talk was commonly used by participants as a way to reassure, remind, and motive themselves. There is evidence that self-talk is a technique that can be useful in promoting resiliency in college students (Meyer, Licklider, & Wiersema, 2009). However, the findings from this current study build upon prior research in this area by demonstrating that the participants depended upon positive resilient self-talk (positive statements rather than negative statements) for the purpose of encouraging themselves to be resilient throughout the challenge they experienced.

In addition, students described both independent and dependent coping strategies as being useful but indicated a preference for using independent strategies. Prior research suggests that personal coping skills as well as supportive relationships and environments are important for resiliency in difficult times (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005). However, the high-achieving students in this study were more inclined to use independent coping strategies, suggesting that they were more likely to first try to solve a problem themselves than to seek outside resources such as advising, campus services, or support from their relationships. This finding is significant because it indicates that the high-achieving students in this study know about the support and

on their expectation that they should be independent and able to handle the issues themselves. This attitude reinforces previous research that suggests students who experience an academic challenge may recognize a need to improve their own attitudes and behaviors in order to combat underachievement (Balduf, 2009). Given the expectations that come along with their status as high-achieving students, they do not feel as though they are the type of students who need to ask for assistance.

One example that highlights this phenomenon is Lynn’s story and her challenges with her mental health during her first year. Though she was well aware of the counseling services that the university provided, she did not feel as though she was the type of person who should be accessing these resources and therefore did not seek help. The high expectations to succeed may prevent high-achieving students from accessing existing campus resources and therefore prevent them from using the dependent coping strategies that may be useful to their resiliency.

5.1.3 Learning from stressful experiences

Research question three asked: How do high achieving students describe their learning from stressful experiences in their first year of college? The high-achieving students in this study described many lessons that they have learned from their challenging experiences. By reflecting on their challenging experiences, they recognized how they had changed or grown as a result of navigating through that experience and how it will help them handle similar situations in the future. The students were also able to recognize how difficult experiences sometimes helped to produce positive outcomes and so their experiences helped them to realize that embracing some stress can be helpful. In addition, students said that they realized that they would face challenging times again in the future and so they believed that they would be better prepared for

those future experiences given their resiliency in their first year. Students also valued the opportunity to share stories of resilience with others and recognized the power of learning from others’ experiences. Storytelling can serve as a way for students to check for their own understanding of the situation and also as a way to measure their growth (Meyer, Licklider, & Wiersema, 2009). Throughout their interviews, the students also made it clear that they perceived their experiences to be unique. Upon later reflection of the experiences, however, they were more aware of how their experiences were similar to others.

Though the students described learning many lessons, a key finding was in the way that students perceive their mistakes or setbacks as learning opportunities rather than as failures. This attitude was prevalent among the participants. This finding is significant because it suggests that high-achieving students may have an aversion to the concept of failure. They have reframed their past challenges as learning opportunities and thus have reimagined a world in which they cannot fail. Instead, failure and learning co-exist as one process where one cannot exist without the other.