Welcome to the New Semester! In Three Words or Less, What Best Describes How You Are Feeling?

 

On August 20, 2020, we asked the 491 registered student contacts:

Welcome to the new semester! In three words or less, what best describes how you are feeling?

We received 267 responses (54% response rate), yielding 487 data points (some students responded with three individual words, others with a multi-word phrase). This word cloud represents the frequency of responses that appeared a minimum of two times. The top three emotions shared were Excited, Anxious, and Nervous.

The Climate Group also sorted responses according to the Plutchik Wheel of Emotions, one of the models of primary human emotions used in psychology. Each dot represents a response data point, placed to display where it falls in the spectrum of standardized emotional categories. View an interactive version of the data display.

• Anger: 5% of responses and 9% of respondents stated a word that fell within the anger category.  Some of the responses included frustrated, annoyed, insulted, complicit, and angry.
• Anticipation: 15% of responses and 27% of respondents stated a word that fell within the anticipation category.  Some of the responses included excited, anticipatory, let’s do this, curious, and want to return.
• Disgust: 7% of responses and 12% of respondents stated a word that fell within the disgust category.  Some of the responses included disappointed, cautious, skeptical, complacent, unsafe, and negative.
• Fear: 28% of responses and 52% of respondents stated a word that fell within the fear category.  Some of the responses included nervous, stressed, worried, anxious, scared, and concerned.
• Joy: 12% of responses and 22% of respondents stated a word that fell within the joy category.  Some of the responses included happy, hopeful, optimistic, good, and all right.
• Sadness: 15% of responses and 27% of respondents stated a word that fell within the sadness category.  Some of the responses included lonely, depressed, sad, pessimistic, and disconnected.
• Surprise: 15% of responses and 27% of respondents stated a word that fell within the surprise category.  Some of the responses included apprehensive, overwhelmed, confused, uncertain, and eager.
• Trust: 3% of responses and 6% of respondents stated a word that fell within the trust category.  Some of the responses included ready, determined, supported, appreciative, and prepared.