College is a full-time job. The average student is taking 12 to 15 credit hours per semester, which is usually 4 to 6 classes.
Students are required to go to class, complete assignments, do homework, study for tests, work on group projects, and sometimes go to tutoring in order to learn and fully understand whatever they need to know. On top of that, many students also work part time and full-time jobs in order to pay for school.
Some students are also involved on campus and they dedicate time every day to their organizations. Also, for students on scholarship, there is a community service requirement for each semester, and the expectation to maintain good grades and a high GPA in order to stay on scholarship.
With all the different things going on around campus and off campus, students are constantly on the go and trying to manage their time while trying to be successful in college.
As a result of what students endure on a daily basis, some suffer from stress which can sometimes lead to sleep deprivation, acne, anxiety and depression. For some students, there is no easy way to deal with the stress that comes with being a college student.
Naysa Smith, a freshman education major at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, is still adapting to the stress that college brings to some students.
“School is stressful because I am trying to maintain a good grade point average while adjusting to the change from high school to college,” Smith said.
“Classes here require more than what was expected in high school and I also have to be responsible for myself instead of relying on my parents to take care of everything,” Smith added. “Stress from school causes me to eat and sleep a lot. The sleeping helps me to not think about my stress so much and I also take extra showers throughout the day to calm myself down.”
For some students, other things in school stress them out. Hadiyyah Barnum, a student at Tallahassee Community College, is indirectly stressed out by school. “Assignments and actual work from school don’t really stress me out, it is more so the expectations to make my parents proud that stresses me out.”
Barnum added that, “I don’t want my parents to feel like they’ve wasted money sending me to school and I don’t want to feel like I am wasting my time. The pressures to be successful are stressful.”
For students dealing with stress, there are resources available to help. On FAMU’s campus the Counseling Services Center (open during the week by appointment) is located at 636 Gamble St. across from FAMU Village. To set up an appointment the office phone number is (850) 599-3145.