Excerpt fromThe Real World of College: What is Higher Education and What Can Higher Education Do?” by Howard Gardner and Wendy Fishman. Reprinted with permission from MIT Press. Copyright 2022.
Together with our research team, we visited 10 different campuses over 5 years and conducted over 2,000 focused semi-structured interviews. At each campus, we interviewed approximately 50 new students and 50 alumni, as well as a small number of faculty, senior administrators, board members, young graduates, parents, and recruiters. … Nearly half (44%) of all participants cite mental health as the most important issue on campus. In other words, each member group in our survey (freshmen, alumni, faculty, administrators, parents, trustees, young alums) ranked mental health as the number one problem on college campuses. I’m here. This collaboration among students at various stages, on-campus faculty and administrators, and off-campus trustees, young graduates, and parents is noteworthy. In fact, none of the 30+ other questions in our interview protocol apply.
Academic rigor: the most commonly cited cause
The most common explanation for why mental health is the most important issue on campus (52% of all student-reported causes) is academic rigor among all students who participated in our survey. , that is, the “pressure” of academic work. In fact, we found that students described this pressure as “staying up late.” But what exactly is pressure? Is it difficult to learn? Or are you preparing for an exam or writing a thesis? Or do you want a transcript that will help you get a job or go to graduate school?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, at this moment in history, when students discuss academic pressure as a cause of mental health, the most frequent explanation is the attainment of external measures of success, i.e. high grade point averages. , or focus on “doing well” on assignments and challenges. exam (51%). For example, her freshman major in communications explained: Have a good GPA, you must have something with As. So people get really stressed about it. A graduate applying to a graduate program explained the need for performance: [on] Honor Roll…Are you going to graduate? Am I going to graduate with honors? So, see, can I get into a good graduate school? “
Interestingly, and importantly, these concerns about external markers of success are the most common descriptors of academic rigor across all campuses. For example, of the three schools with the most students commenting on external measures of success, two are the highly-selected campuses in the sample (67% and 60%), and the other is the less-selected one of the campuses. Our sample (63%). On the other hand, of the three schools with the fewest students commenting on external measures of success, two are moderately selective campuses (45% and 40%) and one is highly selective. is one of (45%). In other words, student stress about academic rigor pervades all campuses regardless of their selectivity. Therefore, it cannot and should not be assumed that students at the most selective institutions feel more pressure than students at other schools. Students in all schools report stress about “doing well”.
