If you ask any student about college, you will get an array of responses; one being that college is too expensive. This claim is not really something most would argue with, seeing as it’s thousands upon thousands of dollars just to attend a university and more often than not, people need to take out loans just to pay tuition. However, what a lot of students don’t outwardly realize is that college might be costing more than just cash.
Mental Health
It seems almost obvious, but the strain of schoolwork can affect your mental health. This can happen in a plethora of ways. It could be that your coursework is strenuous or that you have too much of it, or perhaps it’s a horrid combination of the two. There’s also the possibility that the sudden change of environment and social groups has applied an alarming amount of stress and anxiety upon you, forcing you out of a healthy state of being. If these things start to take their toll on you, it is wise to seek out help and support through counseling centers. Your mental health is far more important than your grades.
Social Life
Another aspect of life that school can affect you negatively is the way you socialize. As you continue farther into a semester, classes tend to buckle down and become more difficult. Course content gets harder and the workload typically increases. With this happening, it’s likely students will start devoting more time to their classes and studying, which is not a bad thing. However, because of heavy workloads, it limits the amount of time you spend with other people, especially your friends. It’s important to fit in social time in your schedule because it will be a refreshing change from spending hours reading from textbooks.
Family Interactions
Just as it messes with your socializing, college often affects the way you interact with your family. If you’re in a similar boat as me, you live three to four hours away from your parents and are unable to visit every weekend, or even all that often. Due to the cost of travel and the amount of things you may have to do for classes before Monday comes around, it becomes really difficult to leave campus for a relaxing weekend back home. Because of this exact situation, I will only see my family twice before the semester ends and resort to a phone call a week just to stay in touch.
Sleep Habits
If there’s one thing most college students can agree on, it’s that our sleep schedules are way out of whack. Perhaps it’s because your roommate snores, or because you have a test the next morning, or enough homework to keep you occupied until you just can’t keep your eyes open. Maybe it’s because you spent your whole day studying so you unwind with video games until the wee hours of the night. Whatever it is, we can all agree that the weekends are our saving grace because they allow us to get just a few more hours of sleep.
All in all, college can drain more than just your bank account. School is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding and the more we focus on it, the more we can really damage ourselves. I do not advise forgetting about school altogether, but I recommend taking more time for yourself. Plan your homework out, schedule in breaks and times for friends, or just times for yourself to take a breath. Take a nap, talk to people, go out for a walk. College will undeniably cost you money, but don’t let your mental health be collateral damage.
