Every year, UCLA's Higher Education Research Center does a national study of college freshmen, some 200,000 in all. This year, the big news is emotional health — or lack thereof. Nearly half of the students surveyed — and more than half of the young women — ranked their emotional health as "below average," the highest numbers since the survey began 25 years ago.
What gives? You don't have to be a college counselor to know some of the sources of the stress. The economy is surely No. 1. These are young people who are starting college and in many cases taking on massive debt, without any assurance of a well-paying (or any) job at the other end. They are part of a generation that, everyone keeps telling them, cannot hope to live as well as their parents. And their parents, or many of them, are not living as well as they used to.
The only thing worse for a student than worrying about their own potential unemployment is worrying about their parents' current unemployment — and the impact of college costs (even with all those loans) on families that are in economic trouble. This year's study found paternal unemployment at the highest levels since the study began. And it found increasing numbers of students making the decision about where to go to school based not on the school's rankings or their own dreams, but on who gives them money.
Obviously, the study points to the need for more mental health services on campus. Freshmen who come in stressed are likely to get even more stressed in an environment where making the grades and making the connections may well spell the difference between having a job — or entree to grad school — at the end of four years, and not. It points to the need for professors like me (I teach freshmen, as well as law students.) to pay even more careful attention to how our students are doing, to take note of repeated absences or work that suddenly falls below standards, and to reach out to those students to offer help, not threats.
But we who are parents also need to help our children find some balance, some comfort in their situations, some hope that not every decision they make now will determine their fate forever.
I went to the college that gave me the most money. It was not my first choice, or any choice. It just was. To be honest, at the time, it just seemed obvious that I would go to the school that gave me money even if now, when I meet young people who do the same thing, it seems like a painful choice.
Forget it. My last choice turned out to be a great choice. College is what you make of it. Wherever you are can be the right place for you — or the wrong place — not because of how it's ranked on some national survey, but because of how you approach it.
When I was in college, I used to despair when people told me these were the best years of my life. They weren't. The years when I had my children and they were still small (and lived at home and wanted nothing more than to be with their mother) were the best. My college years were hard (I was always afraid that I wouldn't be able to handle the work, not having attended some fancy public or private high school) and often lonely (I used to joke that months passed where the only guy who came to our dorm was the janitor.). My parents split up, my world fell apart, I had no place to live, no money, I had to leave early to work - boohoo and all that.
Some people love college. Some people are not lonely, scared or financially on a precipice. Those people can use this column to wrap tomorrow's fish.
As for the rest of us, children and parents, it's worth taking a minute to remind ourselves that, like so much in life, it's not the hand you're dealt but how you play it. College, in the end, is not a competition, but a time to learn, grow and develop the values you will live by. It is a beginning and not an end, an opportunity and not a burden, a time for growth and not gut-wrenching stress.
I was as stressed as anyone in college, which might be why I did so well. But guess what: Plenty of people who didn't do as well as me and didn't attend as fancy a school have bigger jobs, more success, richer husbands — whatever it is that today's students are so stressed about finding at the other end.
So much for stress. It doesn't even work.
To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
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"Need for more health services on campus". Phooey!
If I remember right from my college days, there is little personal relationship between student and professor. If I needed medical attention it was available.
As for "stress", just get vote out the liberals and let the private sector jobs flow. Problem solved.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Early
Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:38 AM
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“I went to the college that gave me the most money.”
I find this interesting. Being a white male, I NEVER had a college “give” me anything. I was simply glad to make it through the day without those in power spiting on me or my heritage.
My parents gave me everything they could but there is no way they could afford a college education. My father grew up in a house without power or an indoor bathroom. I spent my first two years of life in the same house. As a result, if I was going to obtain a 4 year degree I would be responsible for paying 100% the costs. So I went to a Community College for the first two years after high school as the costs were very much reduced and I could live at home and work while attending classes.
I graduated from such Community College with a 3.8/4.0 average and transferred to a very good engineer school. I received my first 4 year degree in Electrical Engineering. When it came to money, they offered me nothing but loans. Indeed, the admissions office made it clear that I was lucky they let me attend their college at all. I transferred with enough credits to take me halfway through my sophomore year. In my first semester, I took 18 credit hours and achieved a perfect 4.0/4.0 average. The University gave me nothing, but a bill, however, I was able to obtain a co-op position at IBM that would last through college. As a result, I was able to pay for 100% of my college expenses with only $7,000 in debt.
Of course, when I was able (had time) to walk around campus, a significant amount of the activates were minorities complaining about how racist America was, how evil white people were, how angelic their race was, and how something needed to be done. Of course, these minorities were on full scholarships and a periderm for spending money; which, ironically, gave them more time to walk around complaining about how racist America was and how whitey was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and given everything. Then they would trot off to their “Cultural Center” newly constructed just for them so that they would have a place to meet and celebrate their race (heritage) and help each other overcome all the racist obstacles placed in their path.
I graduated with honors and took a position with NCR Corporation for $32,000 per year. Best I could do as I could just not locate all those racists white people/corporations just itching to give me a high paying job just because I am white (the good grades should have just been icing on the cake).
I had a great career for 10 years as an engineer and then decided to go to law school (to eventually become a patent attorney). I took the LSAT and scored in the top 98 percentile. Woo hoo, I thought and sent in my college application outlining my 10 years of impeccable engineering experience from IBM, NCR, and AT&T, my top 98 percentile LSAT score, and my engineering degree with honors and waited for all those acceptance letters from those top 10 law schools. Right -- Nothing but rejection. Darn, I thought, where are all those racist white people in Law school just itching to give undeserved opportunities and money (the good credentials should have simply been icing on the cake)? But eventually I did receive an acceptance from a top 100 law school, so off to law school I went.
I searched the list of scholarships for “free money” to help pay for my law school degree. That is when I notice something interesting. There were scholarships that were black male specific, black female specific, black specific, Hispanic specific, female specific, etc. but there were no white, and certainly no white male specific, scholarships. Indeed, I suspect most horrible sight a liberal can image seeing is a white male getting a scholarship. When W.C. Fields tried to start a White only scholarship foundation in his name, such was held unconstitutional (for the school/state to honor) and the scholarship was opened to all people.
No scholarships for me. Darn, where are all those white people just itching to give me money ???? So I took out student loans and started Studying, every moment of every day, reading, reading, reading, and more reading. At the end of the first semester I was ranked 15 out of 313 students. Woo hoo, I thought, that should get me a nice internship. Those grades did allow me to grade onto the school's law review and I did get many job interviews, but I received ZERO offers for employment as an intern. Notably, after the first semester, I was able to meet and make new friends and I did move into a house close to campus with a fellow student, a black male. He and his friends partied all the time but were able to make ok grades. All of them received internships.
As with engineering school, all of the minorities had their “special groups”, Black Law Students Association, Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, Hispanic Law Students Association, black law student society, Hispanic Law Student studies, Women Law Students Assocaition, etc. But not a “White anything”, that would just be too racists.
Darn, I though, where are all those white people just itching to give me money and opportunity just because I am white?
I was unable to get a job during law school. After the second year, I had to work full time as an engineering consult and take a full load at law school. My grades suffered a little but I still graduated with a 3.6/4.0 gpa. Not great but better than most. I received zero job offers after graduation. Of course I was able to hear about all my minority friends getting great jobs. Boy, I thought, if I could have only have been born with black skin, or white skin in Mexico, I would be set for life.
So I started my own patent law firm and have been working for myself ever sense.
I read the other day that a school in la cost $578 million. I bet a significant number of those students will be minorities. In contrast, my kid goes to the same old high school I attended. I also bet when these minority kids apply for college, they will be given preferences of my kid because those poor minority kids just did not have the breaks my kids did. Welcome to “Liberal” fairness.
Comment: #2
Posted by: SusansMirror
Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 PM
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