Is College Becoming Too Difficult for Students?
I have been in college for less than a semester, and I have noticed multiple problems that need to be addressed on college campuses. All of the major problems I have encountered relate to mental health in some way. Mental illnesses of all kinds are running rampant through college students, mainly because of stresses about many aspects of life, including:
- difficult classes
- finances
- safety
Any human under that amount of stress without some way of coping with it will develop some sort of mental illness. Colleges are very aware of it, yet, they do not really do much to help. Many colleges offer some sort of counseling for their students (paid for by student fees each semester), but they do not really advertise those services. Because of that, many students do not know about the counseling services, and out of the ones who do know about the services, many still do not know how to access them.
College students begin classes knowing that they are going to have to work for the grade they want. They aslo know that they are going to have teachers who are going to be much more difficult than others. It is what we put ourselves through in order to create a better life for ourselves, so it does not seem like a big deal, right? Well, if we did not have to deal with a lot of other problems, then it would be right. Sadly, that is not the case.
One of the most obvious problems college students have to deal with is balancing finances. Colleges have excessively raised their tuitions to the point where many people feel like they are price gouging students. For the 2016–2017 academic year, students attending an in-state public university (the cheapest option for a four year college degree) paid an average of $9,650 in just tuition and fees for the academic year. At that rate, students with no financial assistance would graduate college with a debt of almost $40,000 because of the tuition and fees, and that is if they graduate in four years. In-state students at MTSU have to pay an average of $8,836 in tuition and fees during the 2017–2018 academic year, and if they live on campus, they are expected to pay another $8,000 for room and board. One study estimates that the price for one year in a public university will cost around $102,900 in 2029. That is, if the price gouging does not cause an economic collapse similar to the housing market collapse that caused the “Great Recession” or the stock market crash that caused the Great Depression.
Another concern that college students have is their safety. How can someone be expected to learn to their full potential while feeling unsafe? Many students worry about the white supremacists and Neo-nazis targeting campuses all across the country. Marginalized people of a race, sexual-orientation, religion, etc. other than what is accepted especially have to worry about their safety due to events such as what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. The young women in college also have to tread lightly because if they are not careful they could end up being assaulted or raped. Typically, these sexual assault cases will be pushed under the rug, especially if there is an athlete involved. As more and more awareness is raised of the issue, more and more horror stories come with it. When a woman enters the age range of 18–24, the possibility of being sexually assaulted triples, so college women have to enter campuses with that knowledge. At MTSU, six accounts of rapes and two accounts of sexual battery were reported during the September and October of 2017. For the first semester of the 2017–2018 academic year, at least 36 accounts of simple, domestic, or aggravated assault occured.
These stressors are just three of the main problems college students face today on top of the stress the typical college lifestyle already creates. Most of these college students start as teenagers who more than likely do not have the skills or abilities to cope with these stressors, which increases their chance for mental illness significantly. The increase in college-related stressors over the past decade or so has caused the number of college students with some form of mental illness to skyrocket.
According to one study, fifty percent of college students felt their mental health was “below average or poor.” Twenty-five percent of college students reported feeling suicidal or having suicidal thoughts. However, colleges are not doing anything about it. Over thirty percent of colleges do not offer any sort of counseling services. However, at the colleges which do offer counseling services, many students either do not know how to access the services or do not know about the services altogether.
If you are a college student who has felt like you needed counseling or assistance with your mental health, then look into whether or not you have counseling services on your campus. There is still a good possibility your school offers them, and they will more than likely be free or included in your student fees. If you are not comfortable with going to counseling, but you still feel like you need to improve your mental health, then there are ways to help the chemicals in your brain balance out and regulate themselves.
There are many ways to accomplish this. Anti-depressants can be very helpful in regulating your brain’s chemicals. According to one study done in 2008, twenty percent of college students did not have any kind of health insurance, which means over 1.7 million college students would have to pay full price for every doctor’s visit and every prescription they need. This is not financially possible for most college students because the college tuition and fees are so expensive, so their only viable treatment for a mental illness is unaffordable. If you are someone who is not comfortable with taking medication, there are other treatments that have been found just as successful if they are done correctly. Getting the right amount of sleep, exercise, sunlight, Omega 3’s, social connection, and anti-ruminative activity (some examples can be found here) in conjunction with one another could replace medication. If you are interested in this path and have enough time for it, then make sure you consult a doctor before deciding which choice is best for you. If you have a loved one who you suspect may have an untreated mental illness, Sara Snoddy has some tips here for starting a conversation with someone who is struggling with their mental health.
At MTSU, the mental health service has a lot of room for improvement. In a college with almost 20,000 undergraduates enrolled, there are only four counselors. This means many students with a chronic mental illness typically get sent to other third-party counselors that the students have to pay for out of pocket. MTSU does not advertise their counseling services very well, so many of the students do not know about them. Students do pay for these counseling services in the student fees included in the tuition. This means students are paying for services they do not know exist. If you are a student at MTSU who feels like you need to see a professional, go here for information on how to set up appointment with the counseling center.
Trying to improve your mental health or heal from depression, anxiety, and other disorders is a very tough journey. The smallest tasks can seem like trying to climb Mt. Everest. When you mix that struggle with young adults trying to live by themselves for the first time, the consequence could be the development or worsening of a mental illness. Colleges need to work on creating a more open environment that promotes mental health. If colleges are responsible for our education, housing, food, and physical wellbeing, then they need to be able to incorporate mental health awareness into the day as well. No college student needs to go through what should be the best time of his or her life with an untreated mental illness.
