Hey guys!

For this week's article I wanted to do something different and focus on how my peers and I are experiencing/have experienced college, so I took to Instagram story polls to ask a few questions. I received many answers with stories coming from colleges all across the world.

***Answers have been edited for grammatical reasons.

What kinds of pressure did you feel going into college?

"To make friends and have fun immediately"

"That if I didn't learn it in high school, I would be too far behind to catch up"

"Being a 1st generation student"

"Getting involved and being forced to go to parties"

"Pressure to transfer immediately, not sure of what I want to be yet, grades, and friends"

"Pressure to succeed and commit to my major"

"I felt pressure to choose a school that other people would approve of"

"All of my neighbors who went dropped and came home so I was scared I wouldn't like it"

"I felt pressure after everyone ELSE went to college because I didn't"

"Huge pressure to do well in athletics and to be more social"

"If I struggled it meant I was a failure"

"I had no choice"

"To not fail out"

"Pressure to go to the best college and live up to everyone's expectations of me"

"The pressure to be perfect in every aspect of life because I'm an adult now"

"Pressure to look cute and get good grades and attend every class"

"Worried people wouldn't like me"

"Not letting my parents down"

"The idea of almost complete independence"

"Pressure to join clubs and get more involved"

"Money!"

"Am I going to be able to connect with the environment, school, and peers"

"Getting into a good one"

"Personal? None. Parental? Literally felt like the world would end if I ever got below a 90"

"Pressure to maintain good enough grades to keep my scholarship"

"EVERYTHING"

Did you feel forced to choose your major? Or was it your own choice?

"It was my own choice, but I also sort of chose it because it's $$ and I can pay my parents back"

"I felt like it was my own choice but I was still unsure"

"My own choice, I've always known what I wanted to major in"

"I feel like I would have been judged if I had chosen a non-STEM major"

"Not really forced but not really my choice either. I just feel like it was the best option for me"

"My own choice, but with consideration of changing I've been told to stick with it"

"Forced, everyone in my family works in healthcare. I wanted to work in media production"

"Just chose something because my brother told me to"

"This one was actually all me! I love(d) chemistry but now it's getting very hard and stressing me out"

"My own choice. Never regretted it"

"My major was my choice but I felt forced to choose one ASAP even though people say 'you have time'"

"It was always my own choice but in order to go to ASU I couldn't be undeclared"

"It was my choice but I followed in my mom's footsteps of wanting to be a teacher"

"My own choice, but a lot of pressure because I wasn't sure if I was making a good or bad decision"

"I felt so rushed and forced to have it figured out, 'undecided' was always given such a negative connotation"

"A little bit of both. I felt forced by the system and how I had to pick a major but it was my own decision and not my family's"

"Kinda both. I would have preferred something else but I'm okay with mine and I like it"

What kinds of anxieties or stresses have you experienced in college?

"Time management and realizing high school academics were a joke"

"Test anxiety, worrying all day about a project I need to start on, finding good friends"

"DEADLINES"

"Making friends"

"I almost died"

"That feeling at 11:00 pm and you still haven't finished the assignment due at 11:59"

"Everything imaginable"

"Financial and relational"

"Deadlines, making time for work and friends"

"I have experienced a good amount of social anxiety, the FOMO is real sometimes"

"Making sure to maintain GPA for scholarships and get good grades on tests"

"Just feeling a bit overwhelmed with things to do, but I always finish what I need to"

"Many, but they've all been unrelated to college workload itself (i.e. friends and athletics)"

"Social anxiety, academic stress"

"Just adjusting overall to everything"

"Feeling overwhelmed, fear of failure"

"Overwhelming courses and professors who boast that most students fail the course"

"Midterms and my career path"

"Find the right people, do the best in all my classes, try new things, too many expectations"

"Keeping grades up and somewhat snowballing due to lack of sleep"

"Bad time management, no sleep, scared of not being where the seniors are in experience"

"Financial and time management"

"Professors prioritizing assignments more than your wellbeing/family emergencies"

"If I don't get an A, I will fail and never become a nurse"

"A lot of stress about classes and anxiety about schedules"

"Just trying to make new friends and put myself out there... also having to keep a 3.5 GPA"

"TIME MANAGEMENT: wanting to do everything but not having enough time or energy for it"

"Health issues, general anxiety, homesickness, loneliness, big time management problems"

"Almost failing coding"

"Being sick 24/7, figuring out how to live alone, being away from family, feeling emo 24/7"

"Not knowing what major I want anymore"

"Lack of sleep"

"Struggling to keep up"

"Stress for having enough time for everything"

"School/success before happiness"

"Honestly just deadlines (22 credit semesters suck) and stressing about that 4.0 GPA. Also stressing about how much I gotta add since I apparently have too much free time"

"STUDYING! I feel like since I'm more on my own I don't do enough and that drives me nuts"

"Making friends, grades, balancing fun with classes"

"I go to a community college and everyone that I know and love moved away and I just feel so alone"

How has society affected your perception of college?

"The idea that if you don't go to a big-name one it's worth less when really that's not true"

"It gave me the message that if I didn't get a degree, I wouldn't be successful in life"

"They have made it seem like it's the end of the world if you don't have a degree and you'll never get a job"

"Society tells you that you are a failure if you aren't college-educated"

"I'm supposed to party everyday"

"From my experience, society showed me that college is where you feel independent"

"They try and convince you it will be impossible and that you will spend all your time studying"

"I feel like I have to be having the time of my life in college all the time"

"I think I've changed my perception of society more than it changing me since college"

"I feel like those who say college is a waste of time haven't fully given it a chance"

"Feel pressured to go to college, feel stupid if you fail a class, feel pressured to pick a major that makes money"

"Literally the only reason I transferred... people only see certain schools as good enough and I didn't want that to bite me in the future"

"It makes me more motivated to get a degree"

"Made me feel like I would be farther along in my freshman year than I really am"

"Makes me think that college and what major you choose is your end-all-be-all life choice"

"It's much harder than it looks!"

"They make it seem like it is only fun times then classes when it's the opposite"

"I thought it would be easier since everyone says it's 'the time of your life'"

"It made it seem a lot more scary than it actually is"

"It's made me think that college is the only way to be successful"

"Made it seem a lot more fun than it actually is"

"Society makes it seem like you have to know exactly what you want to do"

"It's a joke for a piece of paper, but if you don't have that piece of paper you're f*cked for finding a job"

The colleges and universities these stories are from include: Arizona State University, Biola University, Brigham Young University, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado State University, Concordia University Irvine, Grand Canyon University, Northern Arizona University, Northwestern, Saddleback College, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, Texas A&M, TU Munich, University of Alaska Anchorage, University of California Irvine, UCLA, University of California Riverside, University of the Cumberlands, University of Missouri, University of Southern California, University of Utah, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State, and Washington State University.

It's true that college is, and will continue to be, unlike any other experience in your life. Newfound freedoms, friends, and experiences are all exciting and should be celebrated! But, it's imperative to acknowledge the negative, darker parts of the college experience.

As for me, I was terrified of applying to colleges - I was scared that I wouldn't get accepted anywhere. I felt as though the few B's on my transcript were detrimental in me getting into the programs I wanted to get into at the colleges I applied to.

For most of my high school experience, my friend group consisted of brainiacs who boasted their good grades at any opportunity they could. Don't get me wrong, it's okay to feel proud of yourself and take pride in that. But this was taken to a different level, almost to the extreme. It was hard for me feeling judged as though my 94% in a class was worth so much less than my peer's 98%, even though at my high school, an A- is still counted as an A+ and is worth the same grade point average (4.0 for unweighted classes, 5.0 for weighted classes).

As it turns out, my grade point average was considered more than fine, and I was accepted at (and am now attending) my dream school, pursuing the career I'm passionate about.

Overall, it doesn't matter about what your high school GPA was or the prestige of the college you chose to attend, we all experience stress in similar ways. Whether it's from initial pressures, choosing a major, anxieties or stressors, or how society has made us view higher education, we can agree on one thing: college is difficult.