Stress is defined as a state of emotional or mental strain or pressure caused by adverse or demanding circumstances. Every person undergoes stress at a particular time of his or her life but mostly stress affect people during their college life. In these college years one experience a lot of new things, meet different people as well as learning a lot at one time. With the many good stories around there are also some challenges present in the university. These challenges make students to have stress trying to manage them. This paper therefore discusses Causes of stress on international students in the college which include academic success maintenance, building new friendships, dealing with homesickness and management of financial burden.
Firstly, international students in the college experience pressure when trying to keep a healthy GPA through his or her learning period. Student performance can affect graduate school acceptance and the possibility of getting a job. Again, if the student’s performance lowers there are chances of losing a scholarship or being suspended from the college for some time. This ignites a high tension on every exam or term paper that the student faces. Secondly, International students face a challenge when trying to make new friends (Leong, 467). A Chinese student explains how American students discriminate a new international students when he says, “I think Americans, they…when you are not friends, they treat you like an asshole, but once you become friend you understand. So It’s like every American, when you are not friend they may not talk to you…” (Leong, 469). Moreover, the student might be afraid of starting a conversation with the other students hence becoming more stressed.
Thirdly, when dealing with homesickness international students may experience a lot of stress. The students can become consumed by thoughts of friends back home and family as they try to imagine how long they will stay away from home. If this feeling continues without checking can result in bad performance, depression and at times dropping out of college. Fourthly, International students who are not fully sponsored experience stress when managing financial burdens (Akhtar, Mubeen, and Birgit, 810). College life becomes expensive when it comes to paying tuition fee, buying books, paying for accommodation among others. Some students choose to work while in school to clear some of the costs, therefore, balancing between classes and work becomes hard. They can even fail to sleep looking to adequate time to do all of these.
In summary, these stressors can be managed by the students visiting the academic advisors, counselors, and professors for help. However, being hard-working, prepared, courageous and open-minded as an international student in the college can make your life in the college easy.
Works Cited
Akhtar, Mubeen, and Birgit Kröner-Herwig. "Acculturative stress among international students in context of socio-demographic variables and coping styles." Current psychology34.4 (2015): 803-815.
Leong, Pamela. "Coming to America: Assessing the patterns of acculturation, friendship formation, and the academic experiences of international students at a US college." Journal of International Students 5.4 (2015): 459-474.
