1 in 5 undergrads is constantly stressed | Hacker News Reader

1 in 5 undergrads is constantly stressed

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3 pointsedw5196 comments

I agree with this article. I find that it's hard to manage college courses, a part-time (~10hrs/wk) job, stay active (weight lifting), a social life, and staying up to date with tech and hacking on my own side projects. It's ridiculously hard to stay in a good mental state of mind while trying to balance it all let alone judge whether you have too much on your plate.

And to be completely honest it is tempting and helpful to sometimes turn to drugs. I find myself taking sleeping pills because I can't sleep at night. Adderoll to stay focused and be productive and maryjane to relax on my freetime. I know this all can be fixed with proper lifestyle... but it's nearly impossible to dig out of said hole...

... and the other 4 were too busy to answer.

I don't get it.

My time in college was the easiest time in my life. I carried a full course load, did extra activites (math club, sports, fraternity), and worked part time (full time during breaks). We were independent for the first time, partied, made friends for life, ran a small business, oh, and even went to class. I graduated, got a job, and paid my bills.

Stressed in college? Wait until you have to be at work on time every day, put up with who knows what at work, pay your bills, pay your mortgage, get along with your spouse, spend time with your kids, take care of your health, and smile the whole time. Did I mention going to work and paying your bills? Oh yea.

I'd like to have empathy for those with hardships, but this just doesn't compute for me. Why not just do what you're supposed to do in college: grow up and get on with it.

Different kind of stress than real life. College was a lot more work than my real life has been, but it was just a lot of work. In real life, there are real consequences and the stakes are a lot higher for everything. It's a lot harder to do the equivalent of taking a B or dropping a class in real life.

A lot of factors would contribute to this. If I'm not mistaken, the US has been seeing record levels of college application / enrollment due to all the boomers' kids being at that age, which leads to increased competition. Another thing that I've heard from previous generations is that academic success more often now is measured as 'doing better than the other students' rather than actually learning the material well. I know I've had classes where I really didn't know where I stood until the end of the semester when the professor sat down and worked out his curve.

Not saying that college was previously a walk in the park, but, especially with all the talk about the declining worth of an undergraduate degree, I'm sure many of us are concerned that merely having a degree with a decent GPA isn't enough anymore.

Stress is really a function of whether you care about the outcome, not how much work it is. In my first full-time job, I didn't give a damn about whether the company failed or succeeded since I was gone in a year anyway, and it was one of the least stressful periods of my life. When I first went to college, I figured I'd coast and forget about grades, and had a blast. When I started flunking out and I realized I didn't want to throw away 4 years without a degree, it got stressful. When it became virtually certain that I'd flunk out, my stress level just evaporated, despite the fact that I was working harder than ever (I ended up getting that degree after all). Then my second full-time job was very stressful because I actually cared how the company did and yet big factors in the outcome were outside of my control.

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