While previous reports of students feeling higher and higher levels of stress were met with a little bit of resentment from the general population, recent tough times for everyone has made looking upon the student plight with sympathy a little more plausible. A generation expected to earn a post-secondary degree, many students put themselves through the pressure and the stress of applying to college, only to forget that the minute the degree is handed to them, so is a great deal of crippling debt, debt that usually cannot be paid off by the caliber of job that most people fresh out of university are able to land.
More than just a snide joke that those successful business students crack at the expense of clueless liberal arts majors, the pressures of students are more and more real. First, there is the inflated sense of importance of getting into a good school that starts as early as junior high, and usually kicks in particularly strong in high school. Guidance counselors report more and more children under the age of 18 who are, quite simply, freaking out about their futures, even though they are technically still children. The amount of essays, standardized tests, and then additional standardized tests that are required to apply to university are overwhelming and somewhat mind boggling for high school students.
This is not to say that students don\’t require discipline or a look at how much work is required to make it in this world. It\’s that they should save their time worrying for an occasion where worrying is actually warranted. The problem here, many behavioral experts conclude, is that pressures are starting to mount on children when in reality, there is nothing to worry about yet. This can actually be a lot worse later on, when there are real things to worry about.
The biggest thing around the corner: student debt. The minute that most students finish those degrees, the first thing they have to do is start paying back the money that they owe either to banks, the federal government, or even sometimes the university itself.
This time to pay back loans comes right after graduation, for which many students had to do a great deal of work, including preparing a thesis and completing vast loads of coursework. In the rush of all of the final touches of student life, many forget the fact that the real obstacle out there in the real world is getting a job and not getting swallowed up in debt, and that process can start just months into life in the real world.
This sort of life transition is hard enough when there\’s a surplus happening, but in such a dismal economy, every little misstep can lead towards an even more dismal fate. For those who are not going to immediately find work, it can be devastating to learn that a business degree would have helped, but knowing a computer skill would help even more. Add to that the fact that so much of a liberal arts education actually puts a focus on how great it is to overthink everything, and you have overthinking, underqualified 20-somethings running around, screaming in existential terror. Not a pretty picture, indeed.
So after all of the pressures associated with attending school–balancing a job and work, excelling in courses, making sure you actually get the course load you need to complete the degree you want–there is now the added pressure of crippling debt looming right overhead. Students who applied to university three years ago had no idea they would be receiving their degrees amidst one of the worst recessions the world has seen in recent times, and that getting a job would be a lot more difficult than they realized.
While this may be a most unpleasant way for most students to be greeted by the real world, those experts who remember the times after the First World War are saying that it is going to be possible for this generation to bounce back, even though they may have been coddled to a dangerous level. Because after all, once you realize what a struggle it can be to get by, after things settle down a little bit, you realize that you do not have to worry about everything all of the time, once you\’ve lived with actual worry. Who knows if this is going to be the case with students of today or not, but one thing is certain: it\’s never a good time starting fresh with tens of thousands in debt. In fact, it\’s nearly impossible.
Damian Papworth understands from his past, how a college consolidation debt loan can assist alleviate one of colleges pressures, finance. He offers free information on the topic at the College Consolidation Loans website
categories: student pressures,student loans,students,education,debt,loans,money,jobs,careers
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