When College Freshmen Get Sick

College freshmen, and all other students, get sick — a lot.

“Every year freshmen come into my office and say, ‘I have never been sick like this in my life. There must be something wrong with me,'” said Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, director of medical services at the University of Connecticut student health center. “And I say, ‘Yes, you are a freshman. That is what is wrong.”

But when freshmen are ill, most are dealing with their own health care for the first time, and that can lead to confusion,...