This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Utah chapter.
When we first start our freshman year of college we have stars in our eyes and drive in our hearts (bless our sweet naivety). We begin college at the place we believe will be best for us, we have a major picked out that we think we will stick with, and we have big plans ahead of us. All seems to be going well, then suddenly you’re a college junior who can barely wake yourself up in the mornings to go to class.
If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone. Not only are rates of depression and anxiety at around 40% for college students, but the decrease in drive, mood, and hope for the future is a commonality among nearly every other student I’ve talked to.
But where does this feeling come from? And more importantly, if this is something that has been felt by nearly everyone, why does no one ever talk about it?
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The American higher education system – among its many, many flaws – has cemented the image of a four-year college graduate into our minds. You go, you don’t deviate from the path you started on, and boom in four years you have a degree in hand and cap on your head. However, the reality is a lot messier than anyone would like you to believe. As of 2016, the national average time to complete a bachelor’s degree was actually 5.1 years instead of the traditional 4 years. Huge numbers of students are either transferring schools or beginning at community colleges and then choosing whether or not to attend a 4-year university. This goes without even mentioning the people switching majors, taking a gap before beginning college, or taking time off for any number of personal reasons. The fact of the matter is that college is not a one-size-fits-all process even as we continue to treat it as such.
Within the theoretical timeline perpetuated by stereotypes, most people believe that freshman/sophomore year is when you go to raging parties and only take general education courses, and junior year is when you have to start looking at internships and taking your major requirement classes. Yet, if we hold ourselves to these standards, the time which is meant to be the most difficult – junior year – completely overlaps with the time when the most stressors are put onto us by factors outside of the classroom. When all of this piles up, most of us tend to shut down, causing a decline that most people feel but can’t explain: the junior year slump.
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So, what can we do in order to begin curbing this feeling among students throughout the country? On an individual level, we can realize that the only person that truly dictates the amount of time for you to get a degree is you. If there are certain parameters that we must work around (scholarships, life events, deadlines, etc.), we can better prepare for them to reduce stress later on. On a group level, we need to normalize discussing these types of situations. If we continue to feel embarrassed or ashamed about our struggle rather than embracing it and talking about it, there is no way that we will ever experience a societal shift towards acceptance. On an institutional level, we need to better equip high school educators to give realistic expectations of the difficulties of higher education, and better prepare university advisors to help people deal with this difficult stage. If we know that mental health among college students has worsened, the requirements for entry-level jobs and graduate programs have heightened, and the competitiveness and financial burdens of attending college have increased, there is no way that we can be leaving students to fend for themselves in these situations.
Perhaps widespread systematic change will not happen tomorrow (I mean, we can dream, right?). But, each and every day we need to start accepting and reminding ourselves and each other that not everything has to fall into place exactly the way you planned in order for things to work out in the long run. When we take away the restrictions of traditional schooling, amazing things can happen for ourselves and our society.
Emily is currently a senior studying Marketing with double-minors in Writing & Rhetoric Studies and Political Science. Following her undergraduate studies, she hopes to attend law school. Aside from schoolwork and Her Campus, Emily participates in Greek life, student government, Women in Business, and the American Marketing Association. She is also an avid skier, camp counselor, and a part-time fashion blogger.
