Recently, many first-year college students face to stress. Stress is come from different ways. From The Associated Press and MTV conducted a survey of college students , 74% of students feel stress about grades,67% of students feel stress about financial worries, 54% of students feel stress about their families and 53% of students feel stress about relationships(The Associated Press and MTV,2009).
In the following, I would like to discuss what cause, effect and prevention of college stress. The cause of stress is divided to three parts. They are academic performance pressure, financial problem and family.
The most important cause is academic performance pressure. In your college life, you have many works, such as attending classes, completing the readings, writing papers, managing projects and preparing for exam. For freshman, it may constitute stress. In addition, some freshman don’t know what happen when starting college, some students don’t know how to distribute their time to finish their project or assignment. Moreover, so many test and exam need to do revision, students who study all through the night because they worry they can’t get a content marks.
Also, students who want get higher score and GPA to get scholarship, so the competition for earning top marks can be very fierce (White, 2010).
“College life has become a lot more competitive, it’s much harder to get into schools, it is gotten a lot more expensive. ” Say Elizabeth Scott, stress management expert. If you are college graduated, you can find a great job easily that you can have a good future. Owing to society is overvalue to college graduate, because it can prove your educational background to show your boss you can handle this job.
Base on upward academic performance reason, it may bring out stress. Secondly, financial problem may comprise stress too. Because you need to pay fee about your room and board also your tuition. The high cost of tuition also adds extra stress to student’s live. Some students cannot pay fully tuition, so they choose borrow student loans. But students loans will make tuition cost be higher, because students need to pay interest, so some students worry that they cannot pay off the tuition after they graduated. Thirdly, family will bring stress to college students.
Because many students feel obligate to please their parents, they study the subject maybe is not they feel interest, just satisfied their family. If they fail the subject or not get higher marks, their parents will be disappointed. Also, parents maybe a bit over protect and care student because this is student first time leave home for a long time to study, they live in college dorm. All of this added pressure can put a great weight on the student’s shoulders (Rodriguez, 2008).
If you are the first person from your family to attend college, the stress is even greater (Hansen, 2009).
Next, I will discuss the prevention of college stress. In fact, we can prevent this stress. First, you must have a good time management, for example create a schedule, be sure you allow yourself the time you need to study and get work done. Also, you may stay connect to home, because being away from home can be difficult at times, so if you feel unhappy or difficulties, you can use phone or email to chat with your family or best friend. Then, do more exercise when your free is one of the reduce college stress’s method, you can try yoga it providing excellent relaxation and total health benefits (Scott, 2009).
Also, you can do exercise with your friends, it can keep your relationship and reduce your stress, it is one of social activity. “The effects of socializing and exercise may be important” says to Alexander S. Strauss, MD, a spokesperson for the American Psychiatric Association and a psychiatrist in private practice in Marlton, NJ. (Strauss, 2013) . Finally, get enough sleep also can reduce stress too, because sleep can replenish your energy to study and keep your mind clearly.
Gave enough time to your brain get rest it can reduce stress. Furthermore, it can keep your health. Because insufficient sleep can put you at risk for serious illnesses, such as diabetes, obesity and depression (Forbes, 2010).
About finance stress, you must stay away from credit cards, because there are always situations when they will get carried away and they will feel the necessity to pay for the dinner, new clothes or some other non-emergency purchase which will be paid from nowhere else than our credit card limit (Malgi,2009).
Also, design a budget plan and hold on to it, don’t buy luxury product. In addition, start thinking and spending rationally, you can use all the discounts available, start buying more carefully and compare the prices, because it can reduce your budget, can save more money. In conclusion, college stress is come from academic performance pressure, financial problem and family. So students should learn how to reduce stress. Too much stress is affect students health. Therefore students can create a schedule to handle your study and rest time.
Also, do more exercise will friends is a reduce pressure method. But student get enough sleep also important, because sleep can reduce stress and keep your health. In addition, keep contact to home if you meet difficulty because your family will listen to you. Furthermore, design a budget plan allot to your money and stay away from credit cards to prevent college stress and enjoy college life. Reference Alexander S. Strauss, MD, (September 4, 2013).
Exercising with others helps students.
Retrieved December 12, 2013 fromhttp://medicalxpress. com/news/2013-09-college-students-stress. html Elizabeth Scott, M. S. (April 20, 2009).
College Life – How to reduce stress in college life. Retrieved December 10, 2013 fromhttp://stress. about. com/od/studentstress/ss/college_stress_2. htm J. David Forbes, MD, (March17, 2010) College life: 10 ways to reduce stress Retrieved December 10, 2013 fromhttp://www. everydayhealth. com/college-health/college-life-10-ways-to-reduce-stress. aspx Mary Gormandy White.
(2010).
Stress causes of college students Retrieved December 11, 2013 fromhttp://stress. lovetoknow. com/Stress_Causes_of_College_Students Misty Rodriguez. (2008).
What are the causes of college stress? Retrieved December 12, 2013 fromhttp://www. ehow. com/about_5385329_causes-college-stress. html#ixzz2nHQZDvNR Randall S. Hansen,Ph. D. , (2009).
Top college stressors that affect academic performance Retrieved December 12, 2013 fromhttp://www. mycollegesuccessstory. com/academic-success-tools/top-college-s.