College Dropout Rates

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When you look around it is hard to determine who finished college and who did not. Sometimes it may be obvious who did and who did not but most of the time it cannot be determined just by looking at them. College dropout rates have been rising at a steady pace since the 1990s for many reasons including but not limited to; prices of getting a college education has increased nearly 6x the amount it was in 1985 (Waldon), the stress of juggling class, work and family life, lack of interest in the degree choice or choices of available degrees, or just an overall lack of interest in pursuing anything higher than a high school diploma. Of the reasons why students drop out of college, the two biggest ones seem to be the financial struggles and stress …show more content…
Everyone will face some hard times in their life, and the way I look at it is that brighter days are ahead. To be able to get through the hard times I found that what works for me is to sometimes just completely get away from anything related to school and spend time with my friends and family for a day or two before focusing back on the tasks that need to be done. There is a laundry list of things other than finances that can cause a student to feel stressed. A little stress is not all that harmful but if it keeps building and gets worse, it can begin to take a toll on the student physically and mentally. Not being able to focus, increased irritability, mood swings, difficulty sleeping or staying asleep, headaches, depression, anxiety and anger are all caused by stress (“Chapter 4. Emotional Stress in the College Student”). For students in college, any one of those mentioned symptoms makes getting the work done that much harder and can lead to them dropping out because they cannot take it anymore. One could almost describe it as a never-ending cycle of a stress-related symptom making it hard to concentrate which could then lead to more stress, leading to it being hard to concentrate again. In a recent study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) over 30% of all college freshman state they feel overwhelmed with stress a majority of the time. Too much stress can lead to depression. Nearly 19 million adults in the US are affected by depression, with 10% of them being college students (“Chapter 4.”). Anxiety is another disorder often caused by too much stress. 7% of all college students in 2000 said they had experienced anxiety-related problems since enrolling in classes (“Chapter 4.”). 7.8% of men and 12.3% of women ages 28-24 report frequent bouts of mental distress, according

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