Stress - Cause and Effect on College Studends

Stress is a factor that everyone has experienced at one point or another in their lives, so they all know what it is. In today’s society the most stress seems to fall on our college students. Most students have a huge workload and have many things to get done at one. They have very little time to squeeze their busy schedules all into one day. Many find themselves stressing over simple things like needing to study for the night or going out to party with their friends. Others stress over more important things like getting enough sleep or filling out scholarship applications. No matter what it is, stress is stress and students have a lot of it. Two major causes of stress on college students is financial and time management. Money is always a leading factor in stress and finding time to do everything you want to do is not far behind it. For a college student, both causes affect the economy and its people.

The first major cause of stress for a college student is the financial burden of it all. Whether they go for a two or four-year degree or a technical certificate; the object of money is always present. The cost of secondary education has been consistently rising every year and as the world of education evolves; more items are being tacked on an “education costs.” In 1981-82; the average cost in all institutions, private or public/two-year or four-year was $8,438. That was for one full academic year based on undergraduate tuition, room and board. In 2006-07, that price almost doubled and in 2011-12 the average price for one year of secondary schooling was $19,339 (Tuition Cost, n.d.). That is room, board and tuition only. A student today, whether studying online or on-campus, would be paying for items like tuition, textbooks to study from, a computer, software needed to complete homework assignments, gas if they have to travel to their campus, and more. There are a lot more things students have to fork money out for then there were back in 1981 and with that growing financial burden; the stress grows as well. How are they supposed to pay for their education and manage to focus on passing their classes and graduating? There are many options out there for college students to take advantage of to help lift their financial burden but even those can cause stress. All students are urged to file for any grants that the state and/or country offer. While useful; they can still be a stress factor. Some students will not qualify for state money for many reasons. Among them are the student and/or parent make too much money or they are not of legal age to sign their own subsidized loans and cannot obtain a co-signer or maybe they missed the deadline and cannot apply again till next year. It stresses the students out to go through the motions of finding all the right documentations to fill out these forms just to see if they can get some assistance in paying for their schooling. They are also encouraged to apply for any scholarships that may pertain to them. Scholarships are helpful as well but still stressful. Scholarships are usually based on certain criteria such as sports, majors, ethnicity, etc. Some students will search for scholarships and come up empty handed because nothing applies to them specifically. Or for example; if they find one that is based on grades; now they have to worry about keeping an ‘A’ in every class to qualify. No matter how you look at it; there will always be financial stress on a college student. Even with the help of administrators, the students will always be stressed over money and how they are going to pay for their education while during school or after.

As a result of financial stress on college students, the economy is going to see less money put into the system from graduates. The average student graduated with $35,200 in school loans in 2013 (Student Loan Resource, n.d.). Because these recent graduates have loan payments to make; the economy is not seeing their money being used to start-up small businesses or to buy houses. They are spending what money they have on their debt payments and their cost of living; not putting it into other loans or debts. When school debt amounts to buying a small house or new car; students are not apt to put their money into anything but getting out of debt. So not only will they have financial stress as students but they will continue with that stress well into their adult lives.

Financial stress on students can also result in a decrease in college attendees and dropouts. Students who decide they want to go to school may see the financial burden as too much and can then decide to not attend at all. The school loses out on the money they would have spent on tuition and the state is not gaining any interest on loans that they may have incurred. In another aspect, the students may drop out halfway through their education because they cannot afford it anymore and now they are unemployed or are working minimum wage jobs and are having trouble paying back the loans (Korkki, P. 2014). So now the government is receiving bare minimum payments or nothing at all and the unemployment rate is going up because non-graduate students cannot find jobs. So the financial stress of a college student is similar to a ripple effect. The stress starts with the student and moves on to becoming their family’s stress and then, if not paid, turning into the stress of the government.

Another cause of stress on a college student is time management. Like finances, time management