College Stress

College  Stress

  According to Jeffrey S. Nevid, stress is defined as “pressures or demands placed upon an organism to adjust or adapt to its environment”.（Neevid as cited in nuttall, 2006) If stress is not relieved, it can increase to the point at which it becomes distress or “an internal state of physical or mental pain or suffering” (Zamir )  Going through college is stressful to everyone. Academic, financial and personal stresses are the three main factors that contribute to the issue that most of college students suffer  with heavy stress.

  Academic problem is undoubtedly the most common source of stress among the students.

  First, grades are the top priorities on the list of academic problems that make one feel stressful. Because students in college have to work much harder than high school to gain good grades and compete with each other more fiercely. Students will face much heavy work to deal with, massive assignments, difficult tests, papers, group projects and so on... One after another in rapid succession. The difficulty and amount of new knowledge will be increased suddenly. It is really hard for students to digest in a very short time, especially for students without good foundation. And, the fierce competition will bring to students much stress. The academic backgrounds of new students are always not same. For example, in computer science class, some students do have programming experience before college, they can solve a problem easily within one day; but, some students they do not, they need to learn from scratch, spend one week to solve the same problem and face more stress and competition.

  In addition to academic pressure, students often feel the financial pressure in tuition fee. The tuition is quite higher in college than ever before. The private college is even more expensive. If students do not work hard and  fail, they will pay thousands more for retaking the courses and it will also cost them more time.

  Along with academic and financial worries, the students will also face much personal stress, such as having a boyfriend or girlfriend, finding an ideal job and and so on. For example, many students prefer to do a job that is high paid and light. It is common consensus that the process of applying for competitive position, worried about failing to achieve the goal set by families and the hard and long preparation period make students feel stressful.

  In conclusion, facing academic, financial and personal problems, college students live and study under great pressure. It’s obvious that life is stressful for these young people in college.