A little over a year ago, one of my brother’s best friends from high school took his own life after struggling with the stress and the effects of his severe stress college had put on him. In high school, Demitri was someone I looked up to; he was a senior when I was a freshman and because the high school we attended was so small I would constantly see him throughout the day. He always had a smile on his face and every single teacher and faculty member loved him. Demitri even got a scholarship to Elon University and the next four years of his life seemed to be all planned out. However, even someone like Demitri, who was idolized by his peers all throughout high school, was not able to handle the stressors college came with. One of the most upsetting things about Demitri’s suicide though, was the fact that not even my brother or any other of Demitri’s close friends knew just how deeply he was struggling with the adjustment to college. This means that Demitri was all alone in struggling with his stress and depression. 

The purpose of sharing the story of Demitri is to show that Demitri is just one of the many students struggling silently. “There are more than one thousand suicides on college campuses per year. Suicide is also the second-leading cause of death among college-aged people” (Emory). Over the last few years, the increase in college stressors, and the possible results of this severe stress: depression and suicide, has increased drastically in college students. “Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems” (Mayo Clinic). Though stress may be inevitable, the way it is handled needs to improve. People need to stop blaming the student for the amount of stress they have developed but rather look at all the pressures college students are faced with: adjustment, academic, social, and financial pressures, and instead blame these sources for the cause of their severe stress. Once people realize it is not the student to blame for the severe stress placed on them, then students will feel more open about getting help and reaching out to people to help reduce their stress; it is then the college’s job to supply the students with places they can go, supplies they can use, and people they can connect with to help college students everywhere relieve the pressures and stress that college ultimately brings.

As students prepare to leave for their first year away at college, fear and anxiety of leaving a place that has been home for eighteen years to uproot oneself and go to a place, for most people, completely new to them is a scary concept. Having to go from seeing the same people and one’s best friends every single day to a place with unknown faces is difficult for everyone. “Everything is different – the food, the people and the living accommodations. Even though most students eventually get used to these new things without a problem, the first few weeks of college can create a stressful environment” (Cohen).  The adjustment to college alone can bring on a high amount of stress in students; it is the time most students experience a lot of firsts. “When students are unable to manage these firsts, they will likely start to struggle. If students do not feel adequate to adjust to the new environment of a college campus, they could easily become susceptible to depression and anxiety” (Tartakovsky). The depression students feel from the stress of not adjusting to their new life is a very serious matter that can cause one to feel very alone in the situation. When people feel like they are the only ones struggling they tend to keep the matter to themselves instead of looking for help, only causing them to get worse. On the other hand, many students sometimes leave for college very optimistic, believing that once they are away from home and their small town, everything will be better. However, these students overestimate how easy the transition into college will be and once they get on campus and see how different everything truly is, they begin to panic and anxiety can set in. Today’s kids are also coddled more than ever by their parents. Therefore, when they get to college they are not used to handling all their problems on their own. Simple tasks such as doing laundry or washing dishes are unknown to some kids and become a stressor when they arrive to school. When a student faces the struggles of not being able to handle these firsts, they are likely to fall behind, leading to even more stress. The adjustment students must face when arriving at college is a very difficult one to handle, unfortunately though, college provides students with more stressors than just making the adjustment.

The academic pressures that college students face are extraordinarily high. “According to the American College Health Association's survey of college students, the one greatest health obstacle to college students' academic performance was academic stress” (Brogaard). For some students, college is the first time they are academically challenged. “Therefore, when they are not getting the results they think they should get or not getting the results they are used to in high school, this can cause a lot of stress” (Cohen). Students feel the pressure of taking a difficult coarse load and are also easily taking more than sixteen credit hours every semester and are still expected to make good grades in all classes. “Researchers state that the most common form of anxiety causing academic stress is achievement anxiety. Achievement anxiety is a fear of failure in an academic setting that is caused by parents and teachers expectations that are higher than what may be possible, thus resulting in extreme amounts of pressure on the student” (Brogaard). The pressure is also on students who have earned a scholarship to the university but are required to maintain a certain GPA to keep that scholarship. Along with all these constant stressors on maintaining good grades, students also need to start looking at career aspirations. College-aged students are expected to figure out their major by sophomore year. After that, students are expected to learn what exactly they want to do with their major and from there start working for it right away by getting things such as internships. This constant academic pressure and stress of the future can cause any student to become anxious.

The social aspect is a very important part of someone’s time at college; however, comes with unique stressors of its very own as well. When arriving to college, students are on their own for the first time; they have the opportunity to make decisions for themselves, without the influences of parents. Many people use the excuse of going away to college as the opportunity to completely remake themselves. As soon as students arrive on to campus, they are hoping to find a good group of friends that will not only be their friend for the next four years but even become lifelong friends. Having a roommate is also a stressor of its own. Though some roommates may become instant friends, others may not and though that is okay, it can cause a lot of stress and anxiety for the two people. Most of college students come from a home where they have never had to share a room with anyone and are always used to having their own personal space. When someone is not used to having a roommate, it could be a hard adjustment. Another big social pressure in college is romantic pressure. As students in college begin to mature and grow older, they find themselves looking for a romantic relationship; and though this may come easy for some people, for others it could be a very big stressor. “Sometimes it’s easy to find a boyfriend, sometimes it takes time. It would seem like all that freedom would lead to romance. But sometimes it leads to social confusion. There are so many kids it’s hard to get to know anyone” (Schneider). Overall, the social side of college is definitely a big part, one is constantly meeting new people every day and that can be stressful. Students are still trying to figure themselves out in college and that is hard enough without having to deal with all the pressures from other people.

One final stressor that is common in many college students is the financial pressures put on a majority of them. The primary money-related stress for many college students is debt. “Students loans have reached to over millions of dollars and there is no stopping this growth. In 2015, around five percent of college-bound students expected to use ten-thousand or more in loans the first year” (Kadlec). It is also very difficult for incoming freshman trying to figure out how to manage their money on their own for the first time; from buying their own groceries to eating in the dining hall. “Freshmen generally experience a shock taking on their first real money management duties and living away from home for the first time” (Kadlec). Many students also try to reduce the amount of students loans they are going to be paying after by getting part time jobs. Though having a job in college is great it will ultimately put a lot of stress on the student. Having to manage between school work and actual work while still trying to find time for fun is not an easy task. Many students may begin to fall behind in their school work which will cause extreme stress and anxiety. Having the stress of worrying about the cost of college is something many college kids are forced to experience not only throughout their four years at college but also many years to come following graduation. 

Many people believe in the concept of eustress; good stress. This concept states that stress is a positive motivator and is something needed to work harder and be more productive. It is also taken one step further with eustress; “claiming that stress positively impacts your well-being and results in overall satisfaction” (Selye). Though it is true in many cases that stress can be a positive influence, in the case of some college students this is not the case. “With some college students, the stressors they are faced with do not cause anxiety by themselves; however, instead stress results from the interaction between stressors and the individual’s perception and reaction to those stressors” (Ross). Therefore, eustress will not be effective to someone who cannot effectively handle their stress. In the case of these college students, feeling the onset of even a little bit of stress can cause one to become uneasy and start to become nervous of what may come of this little bit of stress. So instead of eustress being a motivating factor, it is a factor that may hinder a student to continue on a certain path because of the fear of failure. For students like this, their stress needs to be dealt with effectively. Easy access places should be available on all college campuses where students can go and deal with their stress. “There is also a claim that eustress gives life balance, makes you feel complete, gives you purpose, and provides a context for a lot of circumstances we go through daily" (Selye). Though this statement may be true for some people, it is not an objective statement that could be applied to everyone. For a lot of people, especially college-aged people who are unable to cope with their stress, quite the opposite is true; that instead of giving life balance and a purpose it instead causes life to seem like it is in shambles and purposeless. The feeling of this purposeless then in turn causes students to become depressed which could cause much more severe outcomes. Though stress is necessary in life to provide a meaning and understanding to why people want to meet their goals, I would disagree that eustress works for the college students who cannot effectively handle their stress. Instead of feeling good stress, these students need to have access to places on their campus where they can learn how to control their stress and where they can talk to people if they feel like their stress is getting to a point where it is too severe.

It is also believed that college students are in many ways advantaged, compared to those who do not or are unable to go to college. However, just because some people are able to continue their education through college, does not diminish the extreme amounts of stress college students experience. Therefore, instead of telling college students that they are lucky they even have the opportunity to attend college or telling them that stress is a positive and good thing that can help motivate them, people and colleges everywhere should provide resources for these stressed out college students on the campus where they can go to if they need help with their stress and whatever negative outcomes their stress has caused. 

Here, at the University of South Carolina, the campus offers a Student Success Center and a Writing Center to all students. These two resources are one of the first steps in helping ease the stress that are put on college students and should be offered at all colleges across the globe. “The Student Success center is a comprehensive one-stop-shop for academic support services on campus and all the programs offered here are free to all undergraduate students at the University of South Carolina” (SSC). The Student Success Center offers free tutoring to any class, offers strategic scheduling and planning for upcoming tests, and through the writing center, offers help with grammar and structuring of any paper a student has written. Having easy-access to places like these on a college campus helps students not only diminish their stress but also helps students plan and prepare better for upcoming tests or other stressors that way stress may not even be as big as a problem for them in the future. 

Though students are constantly faced with all these pressures and stressors that comes with college, people still blame the student for their stress or for not handling their stress well enough. It is then wonder why mental illnesses, such as depression, and suicide rates are so high in college-aged people. As soon as parents and educators stop putting the blame for students’ severe stress and depression on the student and instead put the blame on the pressures students are constantly faced with, places and resources can be implemented across campus for students to use to help battle their stress. That way stressors that all students are inevitably going to face, such as adjustment, academic, social, and financial pressures, can help be battled by the on-campus resources every university should be forced to have. College is not an easy and fun-filled experience every second, though it can be at times. Students are going to be experiencing new and difficult things they never had to deal with on their own before. College is typically a four-year experience; however, not every student makes it through those four years. Whether it was because the stress was unbearable and the student decided to drop out or even worse, the stress was too much and resulted in suicide. The inherent stress of college should never escalate to the point where a student believes their only option is suicide. 
