How do college students deal with stress? Hear from a current college student on her coping strategies for college life and college classes!
In your opinion, what are the most stressful things as a college student?
- Figuring out the new definition of home. It’s harder than I thought to leave the place I grew up and begin to make a new safe space to exist.
- Classes! Making sure my GPA stays high enough to maintain my scholarship feels like a constant weight on my chest.
- Free time – maybe it’s because I’m an anxiety-driven monster of productivity, but adjusting to this new schedule was very difficult.
What is your personal journey in navigating this stress? Was it hard to navigate at first? How about now?
To be totally transparent, yes it was hard to navigate and sometimes it still is. The first two months were absolutely terrible. I spent a lot of time crying on the phone to my mom and girlfriend about how hard this college adjustment was. However, being proactive, going to eat at the dining hall with new people, and making intentional connections slowly eased me into this new life. Furthermore, I got connected with the Counseling and Wellness Center on campus which has been incredible. They have therapists, support groups and so many other resources that have helped me get to a place where college seems like a manageable shift. These resources help so many college students with stress.
Give your top 5 tips for stress management for college students.
- Get out of your room! It’s so easy to want to hide and not interact with people, but I figured out that some of the loneliness could be eased just by learning to laugh with new friends, uncomfortable as it may be at first.
- Drink water. I’m not kidding. Hydrate!! Taking care of your mind has to happen simultaneously with taking care of your body or it won’t work. I have a sticker that says “When you don’t know what to do – eat, sleep, move hydrate” and I stand behind those suggestions!
- Use a planner! I personally have a small one with plenty of room to write out my classes and homework and I color code these obligations by order of importance. This won’t work for everyone, but staying organized is a huge part of being successful and less stressed!
- Connect with your friends back home. For me, this meant setting up times during the week that I would commit to being in my room and FaceTiming my girlfriend (who lives a whole country away). It’s great to meet new people, but I understand the pain of being far from those you already love. There are certainly an abundance of ways to stay close to them even if that isn’t physical.
- Take breaks! It’s easy to get caught up in the academic and extracurricular bustle of everyone around you, but remember that you deserve rest too. Maybe you just did homework for two hours. Can you take a break and go on a short walk? Or maybe you know that you don’t write the best essays at night. Save those assignments for the daytime and make a commitment to just watch TV, relax, and go to bed earlier. It’s all about finding what works for you, but I promise you can do it!
How did Matriculate help you with coping strategies for college stress?
Maybe this was silly of me, but I totally thought my Advising Fellow was going to abandon me after the application season was over. I was so wrong! She has been the absolute sweetest, checking in almost every month and offering to help if I need it. Knowing someone is there looking out for me has made the stress of it all feel a little lighter.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Selena Schulz
Selena is a High School Fellow Recruitment Ambassador and currently a student at the University of Florida. She is an English major with a minor in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences. She is involved at UF as part of the Equestrian Club’s Western Team, a volunteer at a nearby hospital, and employed at the performing arts center on campus. She plans to apply to graduate schools in the New England area, pursuing a master’s degree in education or social work with a focus on literacy and trauma/resiliency-based approaches.
During her senior year of high school, she went to a small semester school on the coast of Maine where she found a new perspective on outdoor education and conscious classroom strategies. As a part of the Matriculate team, she looks forward to helping students find the educational environments where they will thrive!