It’s true that upperclassmen tend to look down their noses at freshmen, particularly early in the year when they’re wet behind the ears and stumbling wide-eyed around campus. We’re not laughing at you because you’re lost, though, or because you brought a ridiculously huge couch for your 90-square-foot room. No, sophomores, juniors, seniors, chuckle at, or are continuously annoyed by freshmen, because they try too hard.

The most common insult for a freshmen: “man, that guy is trying too hard.” When coming to a competitive ivy league school, freshmen are immediately aware that the kids around them are some of the best students in the country. They probably were the small-town star of their high school, and now feel desperate to assert themselves, to still be the big fish in the rapidly expanding pond. Thus, while sitting next to a few freshmen chatting in a dining hall the other day, I was sad — sad, but not surprised — when after about 2 minutes, the test score discussions began.

“So what did you get on your SAT’s? I got ___.”

After the test scores, came the trips-to-Europe competition.

“I’ve been to Rome twice.” “Oh yeah, I went too, and Paris, and all over France as well.”

This is the epitome of Trying Too Hard, and you can see why it’s so annoying to upperclassmen. Freshmen exhibit the dreaded Trying Too Hard in every aspect of life, from reading every footnote and side-reference in the reading (and loudly announcing the fact in class), to getting ridiculously drunk because they think that’s the way college life really is. In a big, scary, competitive new school, these over-achieving high schoolers try applying the drive and shameless self-promotion it takes to get into college — to every aspect of life. It’s enough to make an upperclassmen want to avoid the eating clubs and especially any intro-level classes.

We don’t really need to compete with each other in this obnoxious way; there’s room for all of us to shape our personalities while in college, to find our own niches and be interesting people regardless of what test scores we have or how many countries we’ve visited. If only the freshmen would learn this a bit quicker — though I’m sure I went through my Trying Too Hard phase as well. I seem to remember bragging about my family’s trips to France as a Freshman… So we’ve all been there, but we don’t like to remember it.

Please, freshmen — just relax.