Leaving home for the first time and going away to school can be a very difficult adjustment for some students. Many students get homesick and want to isolate themselves. New college students must navigate through classes in a new format while living away from all the comforts of home including supervision from parents. A college student’s life usually consists of attending classes, long hours of studying, perhaps working at a job, extracurricular activities and having a social life. It is a constant struggle and all students want to be successful. A Stanford University study states that the struggle consists of demands on time, financial pressures, parental pressure and conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, managing freedom, peer and academic pressure, and the transition period to a new environment (4). All these factors define academic stress. Academic stress can be reduced through self-care, time management, and transitioning.

The first solution for college students to handle stress would be to take time for self-care. Self-care is any necessary human regulatory function which is under individual control, deliberate and self-initiated (health and Canadian society). Self-care is a very important tool for everyone. It is a way to re-collect and get back on track. College students need to practice all aspects of self-care, especially sleep. There are times when college students get asleep deprived because they worry about many things, such as taking an exam the next day or not simply doing what they expect out of themselves. In addition, self-care includes a healthy diet. An example would be that Dean College offers a salad bar and an ice cream bar, and most of the college students choose to eat the ice cream because it is a special treat. Finally, students need to stay away from harmful substances. Examples of harmful habits are smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. Both things can give the college the students serious results of illness or especially with drinking alcohol under the age of 21, or drinking while driving, can cause a DUI and their driver’s license could be taken away. Using the self-care method is highly recommended for all college students to keep them in the best shape during their college experience.

The second solution for reducing academic stress is time management. Most colleges require full-time students to take four-five classes. These classes can require writing, reading, comprehension, out of class assignments, peer reviews, and exams. All these can be overwhelming and should be broken down into manageable steps. Students need to remain current with their classes because that is when they can snowball. To help students with time management, colleges offer writing centers and tutoring labs. Here, college students can get the help needed to improve in creating a study guide or learning how to outline or get some help to study better for that science exam. If all else fails, get a planner or an academic coach to help with time management.

The third solution would be to lower expectations or goals that students want to attain. This will help with time management. Lowering expectations is not slacking off on assignments. It simply means that something now can only be reached in baby steps. College students are often told to make goals more achievable. Academics takes time, patience, and hard work. For example, instead of setting a goal to earn all A’s in your classes, which sounds nice, try a goal that sounds more realistic. Just simply being satisfied with your performance when you know you giving it your all, and do not see the grades that is desired. Just realize that every professor has a different way of evaluating at an assignment, so be patient and keep up the progress with great work ethic.

The chart below is created to show the transitioning effects that college students face, particularly first year college students. The list of challenges for college freshmen is remarkably long. To name just a few, in their first year at college students must negotiate into a new level of life and various kinds of academic demands. For example, larger lecture classes, larger projects rather than daily assignments, becoming familiar with new surroundings and with people of varied backgrounds and beliefs, selecting and managing new extracurricular activities, developing new friendships, and managing one’s time. New college students must negotiate all of these challenges while they are coming to terms with moving away from former friends, high school boyfriends or girlfriends, and, especially, their families.

There are many factors that can cause stress and influence a student’s academic performance and therefore affect their overall GPA. The factors include self-care, sleep, time management, and transitioning. A college student may find him or herself in a difficult balancing position, taking care of job responsibilities, and simultaneously trying to do their best at their college career. All of these factors can affect the marks of students, which in due course affects the rest of their lives.

External changes Potential effects Strategies
Environment 
Location Homesickness, depression, anxiety, isolation Develop new supportive relationship
Cultural shock Fear of being ignored Adjustment, adaption
Financial 
Loan (family, friends, bank) Stress, worry of future debt Seek institutional support, monitor expenditure
Employment (part or full-time)  Stress on establishing priorities time commitments and responsibilities  Good time management

Social 
New friends Anxiety Be open and flexible