College
College, one of the main branches in a persons life that helps determines what they do for the rest of their life. A place where students are meant to explore their career options without the pressure of life. A place of growth to build skills and prepare for the future. That doesnt seem to be the case in today or at least based on what ive seen. Instead of clarity, college creates this unnecessary complication that piles stress unto students who are already drained.
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Lets get into the basics, registering for classes, accessing financial aid, applying for housing, or even finding mental health resources. Why do most of them feel like youre solving a riddle to access most of them. From countless emails to officeses that bounce you back and forth makes even a simple task exhausting. It’s even worse when it comes to switching classes with most of them being full. Colleges try to frame these as “Becoming Independent” but in reality they come at a cost of our mental healths. Most students got their own personal struggles their dealing with and most even juggle more like family responsibilities, jobs to help their family and academics in general. All of these wears students down heavily. Schools constantly promote balance, wellness and self-care but its not reflected in their values. Accessing counseling can take days which makes you question how students are suppose to prioritze well-being when the institutions make it so hard. Colleges could invest the money theyre resources to help make all of these processes easier and by listening to students feedback. Though there’s been a lot of strong people who survived and have many success stories, that’s not always the case. Students come to college to grow and learn, not drain themselves in administrative stress. If these institutions truly cared about students values and wellbeing, they would start making things simple and create systems to support their student bodies.
