Causes and Effects of Stress in the Life of a College Student If one were to ask an adult about their college experience it is likely than the majority will say it was the best time of their life. They had fun, enjoyed the full college experience, etc. If you ask students currently in college to describe their experience, it may still be the best time of their life but it will likely also be described as stressful and filled with a variety of pressures. The average college student will likely change his/her major at least once, seek for clubs or fraternities/sororities to fit in with, work to have some spending money or to pay their way through school, deal with being away from home for extended periods of time for the first time, and other things that will increase anxiety levels. So what is a major cause initially? According to Emily Driscoll from foxbusiness.com, the competitive nature of college and new expenses are major factors that bring extra anxiety to new students. Many students are not just looking to go to the nearby home university; some have aspirations to get into the Ivy League or top medical schools and law schools which present extreme competition to simply get in the door (Driscoll, E.) Excelling in high school socially and academically is easy compared to college so the challenges of what to expect will have students feeling the stress just anticipating it. The process of leaving home includes leaving that social support of the family being there in house, adding personal responsibilities that involve changes to daily routines. There are so many more distractions in college that make it harder to focus and have priorities in the proper order (Driscoll, E.) Elizabeth Scott from stress.about.com notes how with... ... middle of paper ... ... is a means for a successful college experience. Works Cited Driscoll, Emily. “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it.” Online posting. 31 Mar. 2011. http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/03/31/stress-college-causes-combat/. http://www.counseling.ufl.edu/cwc/stress-and-college-students.aspx http://www.collegeparents.org/members/resources/articles/your-college-student-stressed- probably. Hardy, Marcelina. “Statistics on College Student Stress.” Online posting. http://stress.lovetoknow.com/Statistics_on_College_Student_Stress. Kerr, Michael. “Depression and College Students.” Online Posting. 29 Mar. 2012. http://www.healthline.com/health/depression/college-students#2. Scott, Elizabeth. “Stress In College: Common Causes of Stress In College.” Online posting. 24 Sept. 2012. http://stress.about.com/od/studentstress/a/stress_college.htm.
Life is never easy, no matter how hard we try to short cut and escape the inevitable difficulties. After college is when life sets in, when work becomes a necessity and we all begin to find a place to settle down. People respond differently to different situations. Some of us embrace the freedom and the ability to earn money and spend money indiscriminately. Others crumple under the social pressures placed on us.
Everyone has experienced some type of stress in their life. Whether it has been from work, school, or trouble at home, stress is stress. If anyone had played sports in high school, you know the challenge of balancing school and sports. Imagine that stress, then multiply it exponentially. Everyone knows that college is a much more rigorous version of high school.
College takes a serious toll on people, some are able to strive through and come out on top and some suffer from outside family issues, can’t financially keep up with school or just lack the skills that are needed for higher education. College sometimes just isn’t for everyone; and students can’t handle it all like I couldn’t myself.
4 Giancola, J.K., Grawitch, M.J., and Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A
Someone who is willing to take on all the responsibilities and do their best knowing the struggle that college brings should be praised for their enthusiasm and dedication. On the other hand, a good number of students are pushed by their parents, family, and high school administration like teacher to go to college, when they really do not want to. The people pushing act as if there is no other way to be successful in life unless you attend a university. The young adults that are pushed and are not willing to go to college are more likely to believe they will not do well and in doing so will not pass their classes resulting in wasting their time and money. The stress of college, if they are not prepared for it and are not ready to handle their new found responsibilities they will crack under the pressure. To not be ready and spend the money to go can be a disappointment in and of itself, but when you could wait and continue with your schooling when you are ready and have the money to do so then go forth to gain new knowledge. In Julie Scelfo article Suicide on campuses and the pressure of perfection she tells the story of a girl with so much presser on her to be perfect because everyone else is that it gets to he and she takes her life. She was not ready for college and was not prepared for what college was all
These first experiences may include living on your own without parent’s, being away from home, and having 100% freedom. All of these experiences correlate and essentially determine whether the student will succeed throughout their first year of college. Depending on some student’s background, they are better prepared for college rather than others. If a college bound student has siblings or parents that have went to college, it makes for a smoother transition than siblings or parents who did not go to college. This is because the parents or sibling can give insight and tips that helped them to succeed while they were at college. This helps prepare a student because they have an idea of what to expect. Freshman year in college is a critical year because it is when the college student faces the most adversity. In an article in the Huffington Post written by Brian Harke, I came across what he called the “Freshman Myth”. The freshman myth is when the student is overly confident about their abilities in school and college didn’t live up to what they expected. In the article Harke states, “According to the U.S. Census and American College Testing Program, an estimated 18 million students enrolled in college in 2008; nearly 34% dropped out in the first year because they were over confident, under-prepared and lacked realistic expectations about college.” (Harke). This statistic goes to show that
Family pressure and lack of family support are a few of the many causes of college student to stress about their financial standing needed to attend college. A peer in my class, Alex, is the youngest child; he is being pressured by his father to attend college because he is the last of his siblings to have a chance at working towards a well paying job. Alex also faces family pressures to attain a high grade point average in hope of earning benefits towards insurance and other expenses. Yet, he still lacks financial support towards his college education. Even if Alex were to get financial help from his family, he would still feel the pressure to attain a job to reduce the stress about making financial ends meet. I also face similar challenges as Alex, in my situation I have had a lack of support. My mother is a single parent with a high school diploma being her highest degree of education. With the lack of financial income that comes with only having to rely on my mother income, she wanted me to start working to help her pay bills and other pending expenses. She understands why I am pursuing a college education, but also knows that with me working full time can help ease our financial stress, which if attending college will only increase our current expenses. Putnam states in the book Our Kids, “To be sure, less educated parents, with narrower cultural horizons and less familiarity with advance education,
Since, college students tend to have a lot on their hands with balancing finals, family, and working; might be too much to handle. It can build up stress which can also build up anxiety. Students in poverty can relate to the stress because the affordability of college can put pressure onto themselves and family members trying to save extra cash so their children can earn a degree and a better education that they wish they had in their young adult life.
In June of a students senior year they are filled with a sense of accomplishment while getting there diploma and graduating after working for the past four years to get to this situation, but they don’t realize the challenges ahead of them in college life. In an article written by Dr. Brian Harke he explains that students “…are overly optimistic and confident in their ability to manage the challenges they will encounter at college. This is referred to as the freshman myth. The freshman myth results in disenchantment when new college students ' academic, social, and personal expectations are not met after arriving at college. As a result, many students will leave college or flunk out within the first year.” From personal experience I know that young adults always think they are right and they know what there doing. But little do they know they have a lot to learn about life after high school. Students may think they are ready for this transition and they get told what they need to do over and over again but its weather or not they take the
Bills, stress, responsibility, no free time, and possibly living paycheck to paycheck. Doesn’t sound ideal to a young adult who is fresh out of high school ready to start their new life and contemplating college. Priorities will change, you have to learn to adapt to the new workload. Completing all of it in a timely manner will be difficult. That said, all the opportunities and new skills you will receive after college will make you grateful for attending and sticking through all the negatives.
College students face strenuous workloads daily, causing them to feel more pressure about their schoolwork and academics and resulting in anxiousness. About 50% of college students today are suffering from depression, a larger number than most believe, but not all reveal that they have a depressive issue (Deroma, Leach, Leverett 325). Researchers suggest that academic stress plays a big role in a college student’s depression. Most people know that college is a lot harder than high school ...
Everyone deals with stress at some point in his or her life. Most people deal with it daily. As defined in the book called Principles and Labs for Fitness and Wellness, stress is, “The mental, emotional, and physiological response of the body to any situation that is new, threatening, frightening, or exciting” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). This stress is caused by a stressor, which is also known as “a stress-causing event” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). Stressors can take all different forms, from moving to a new town, having a baby, or even writing a paper (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). One major stressor in life can be going to college. If not coped with properly, these stressors can leave a person with too much stress that could end up harming them mentally and physically, such as developing an illness (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). There are several ways to cope with stress. Some healthy ways to cope with stress would be practicing emotion-focused coping, building time-management techniques, and practicing meditation.
Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.
Stress is an ongoing dilemma that occurs in each and everyone’s life. It is a factor that is undoubtedly a part of daily living. Due to the trivial problems that occur in people’s daily lives massive amounts of stress can arise. People perceive and manage stress in many different ways. The causes and effects of stress are numerous and one’s ability to manage stress is vital in maintaining healthy living.
For college students anxiety has become more common due to them ranging from the ages of eighteen to nineteen as a freshman, some of them have left friends and family behind but mostly their home, coming from miles or even states away, moving in or off school campus and started working for the first time in a town they barely know. This makes it twice stressful for a new student since for once they have been left alone to raise themselves. Having to take care of expenses like paying their own phone bill, car insurance even having to buy their own groceries to cooking for themselves. Then another major cause can be money wise worrying how they will be able to pay certain items, they are over stressing about money balances. The entire transition from high school to college can be overwhelming for several leading to