Pittsburgh is the huge city with so many Universities and colleges. Students all over the world fly here to study in the field of medical and robotics. Because of many students coming here from different states their tuition increase almost twice much more than the students from here. These students have to take a tremendous amount of loan to pay off their tuition debt.
Taking lots of loans make students suffer for the rest of their life after they graduate because some get the job they wanted, but some students keep searching for jobs to pay off their loans.There are many reasons which relate to students depression. Colleges and universities should organize programs for their students’ problems and try to prevent them from suffering. These organizations should support students with their personal and financial problems side by side, so they will be relieved from their stress.
Students face many problems like family separation, friends, work, transportation, children and so on. Even though students manage their time to attend classes, their mind will go beyond their classes. Some classes give a lot of homework or assign lots of class assignments which affects working hour for those students with children or without.
Not only that but also, these students end up not having a proper transportation to reach class and work on time. Riding public buses to college and work are not normal because there is always traffic jams on streets. Being late often does not help students to do better in their classes because teachers have to mark them absent. Even though they manage their time for college and work, some still have to take care of their kids.
The authors of “The Impact of Parental Divorce on Emerging Adults’ Self-Esteem” said: “extending to the 16 million college students in the United States, more than four million college students have parents who are either divorced or separated (Knox et al., 2004)”.
Some parents even blame on their children are the issues of getting a divorce. Many students are runners and staying by themselves and working full/part time and attending full/part-time classes because of their family situations. Jacque Little, the author of an article “The Collision: College Students, Family Problems, and University Life” said: “Different avenues exist for student affairs professionals when working with students who come from dysfunctional or divorced families”.
Having divorced parents affects education because most students are under pressure of having a dysfunctional family. These students who experience divorce are more likely to develop mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, engage in criminal acts, and exhibit higher unemployment rates than other students who had their family support from the beginning.
Some students have to manage their time for their girl/boyfriends too because they need at least one person who could listen to their problems and support them. However, if they lose that support than they might feel like they are worthless and might commit suicide or be depressed for life.
Similarly, students who live in dorms or by themselves have a high chance of getting depressed because they will not have their close once with them when they needed. These students often find themselves alone, lonely, bored and busy. Their lifestyle changes every day because of not having their close friends there to spend time with.
Everyday universities or colleges starts getting harder and harder. As much classes get harder they feel like dropping the classes because they can’t perform well. A high school graduate who is away from home and have to support themselves, or from family, and friends would feel a certain amount of stress and anxiety in the competitive atmosphere of college.
As Craig Rodgers, a doctor of psychology who’s been working as a Bureau of Study Counselor at Harvard University for over a decade explains, “The shift from high school to college itself can cause students to be stressed out, to feel anxious, and to have trouble focusing. Those are natural stresses, but they can be very real.”
Furthermore, Each individual students have their own vastly different problems. One of the common conflict students have faced are financials. University of Pittsburgh in-state tuition and fees are $19,080 (2017-18); out-of-state tuition and fees are $30,642 (2017-18). Carnegie Mellon University in-state tuition and fees are $59,750+ -$70,094+ (2017-2018). Carlow University in-state tuition and fees are $26,832 (2017-18).
College students can easily feel anxious trying to balance school, work, friends, and family while also trying to figure out the rest of their lives. Few students are lucky because their parents pay their colleges and universities tuition and fees. But, some students have either poor or divorced parents who are unable to help their children to pay their student loans or tuitions money because they have to look after their utility bills and rent and current family situations.
Students may have to take on more financial loans when their parents are divorced and the impacts can be very difficult to handle. Students from rich family get much more support and attention from their family members. However, those students with dysfunctional family don’t get much attention or support from their separated parents because students have to schedule how many days or week they should live with one parent and when to move to another.
Besides that, Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health problems on college campuses in Pittsburgh. Students with children, no transportations, or those who live in dorms are more often feel anxiety disorders. Many students take loans to study, but they do not know how much money is increasing in their loans every year.
Some students commit suicide because they cannot pay off their loans and some students find themselves unemployed or worthless because they cannot find a better job. Students with children develop anxiety disorders faster than students without children because they have to manage their time on various activities like work, college, time of their children, Homework, transportations, shopping, and other in-house activities.
Of course, when anxiety gets worse students often feel Insomnia or other sleep-related issues, Changes in appetite, headaches or muscle stiffness, and Low energy or fatigue. Students go to pubs and bars to get drunk and forget their stress but they know they are just making it worse.
Some students even experience feelings of panic, obsessive thoughts, or nightmares because of having lots of work and less time to complete it. These students have high chances of involving in drug selling or using it because of anxiety and stress of college.
Students who struggle with class work because of their work or too much homework and money issues. Penn State University psychologist Ben Locke, PhD, who directs the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) said, “30 percent of students who seek services for mental health issues report that they have seriously considered attempting suicide at some point in their lives, up from about 24 percent in 2010.”
Moreover, There should be an organization which helps those students who need scholarships or other grants because everything out there for students right now is not enough. They will not be able to pay off their student loans or tuition by themselves. If students got at least one-third of their tuition fees paid off by any organizations or local support group than those students will be relieved and tension free also be able to function well in their lives and in classes.
As the students are suffering from only one problem and there is only one way to solve it and it’s up to colleges or universities because their tuition fees are so high which makes students to take a huge amount of loan in some interests and it’s not so easy to pay it back. There are many organizations which help students and bring the depression rate down and increase students’ success in every aspect because students suffer mainly from financial problems.
There are many organizations for students and some free grants are available which students don’t have to pay it back, but are not aware of those organizations. It is not easy to get those grants because there are so many students enrolling every year and this organization might not be able to provide grants to each individual. Some of the organizations are made by Federal and State Governments, Colleges and Universities, Public and Private Organizations, Professional Associations and some private companies.
These organizations support the limited amount of students every semester because of the high amount of high school students graduating each year. Most of these organizations require a high amount of GPA and those who don’t reach their requirement were left to suffer in tuitions loan.
Therefore, Colleges/universities should organize a group which offers a support for those students who needed such kinds of help. Some transportation ticket could save hundreds of dollars for students and small help on paying off at least one-third of to their student loan could make a student stress free because they find hope in their life. Colleges are there to give students hope not give them stress and depression. Money isn’t more important than a student’s life because money isn’t everything.
