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Record stress levels are being experienced by first year students show a recent study. This is a direct result of the academic and financial pressure on the young who eagerly enter universities. Financial pressure could be directly related to the amount of student loan they had to take out in order to join college and the related anxiety on whether they will be able to successfully find a job after completion of the course that could take care of their loans.

Academic pressure could be due to their level of high school education that may not have prepared them enough for the rigors of college studies. At least 200,000 students were surveyed by the ULCA or University of California Los Angeles. All of them were entering American campuses last year as freshmen. This study showed that above average students with good emotional health constituted only about 52%.

It was way back in 1985 that the first ever self rating surveys were done on students. The present figure is a huge decline from results of the study done way back then. From 2009 results, this figure is a decline of 3.4%. 

As compared to male peers, female freshmen are found to feel more stressed. UCLA researchers who conducted the study said that 59 percent of male students said their emotional health was good as compared to 46 percent female students. This shows that as high school seniors, women are more stressed with regard to how they are going to do all they have to do in their first college year as compared to men.

Lead author of the report John Pryor said that while dealing with college students, one of the major concerns is stress. Stressed students who arrive in college have very low emotional health. This in turn leads to stress consequences such as alcohol consumption, poor time management and poor judgment and lesser academic motivation.

The study shows that stress in students in multiplied also due to the economic crisis faced by our country. This is evident from the fact that in our country, at least 53% of students pay for college through student loans. Three quarters of students opt for scholarships and grants which is at an all time high.

According the report’s co-author Sylvia Hurtado, today’s students find the escalating higher education costs a huge barrier preventing many from accessing college. Students and their families must now pay for college through creative and strategic means for which they are forced to be more resourceful.

A record high number of students also said that their father was out of work. Students with parents who are unemployed face a larger issue. Unemployment rate in mothers is at a record high of nine percent and is rising.

There is a significant change in the political view of students due to the economic concerns. One of the most common things at least two thirds of students felt was that more taxes must be paid by wealthy citizens of our country.  This number is double of what students said in the 2002 survey.