The Tartan: During the first-ever Tartan Community Day, students attended a presentation on the results of a multi-year study on personal well-being among the Carnegie Mellon student body, gathering together and enjoying ice cream sandwiches in the Rangos Ballroom. The presentation was given by David Creswell, a professor in Dietrich College’s psychology department and principal investigator for the project they call Life@CMU.
21 comments:
It's really not surprising to hear that students at Carnegie Mellon are going through mental health problems because of school. All the coursework here is super intense for every major. I was surprised that the study found that students spent only an average of 50% of their waking hours on schoolwork, because I feel like we spend more. That is most likely in the school of drama only because we have crew calls and drafting lol. I think it's really important that CMU is taking steps like this to improve wellness, but I feel like the school in general does a lot of talking the talk and not walking the walk. I think a really important step that no department has yet to take is actually giving us less stressful material. This school is pumping out successful alumni in all fields, so I trust the process that they're putting us through, but I wonder if we could be equally successful and still given less anxiety in the process.
It is good to hear that some beneficial information is coming out of these studies that have been going on. It often feels like the university does not really do much more than say they care about their students mental health. I am glad to see that there are actual numbers to back up the so obvious facts that students here can see on a daily basis, so that it will be harder for people to ignore or disregard. This is such a hard challenge to tackle, but it needs to be done. The stress culture at our university and other comparable schools is just crazy. It is a direct result of the amount of work we are expected to do which is really a double edged sword. Because the amount of work we do is also what makes us such an impressive institution. It is hard to cut back on that and still remain as strong as we are as a school, I get that. I just hope there is some way to balance the two out so that it is not so detrimental to the students here.
Not surprised at all but I am really glad that it is being addressed! It is one thing to realize that there is a problem on campus and for the school to actually be aware and willing to understand it and see what we can do to make things better. I mean one article isn’t the only thing that needs to be happening (DUH) but at least the university can’t say that they didn’t know about mental health problems on campus. I must say, when I got to campus during O-week they were stressing mental health and all of that and I was a little skeptical if the university would keep stressing that important information or if it was the campus just checking boxes off the list of ways they won’t be responsible if something happened. I have felt stressed multiple times and I have felt like if I’m not busy I’m doing something wrong, but I’ve luckily had a support team and I have learned how to manage my time so the course load has been manageable (and quite enjoyable even when hectic)
I feel that often times stress in college students is overlooked, because it's almost a given that at a highly prestigious university, students feel pressure to succeed and are often times overloaded with course work. However, I have found that personally in my time at Carnegie Mellon students here are under a ton of pressure, which can become a real issue. One statistic in this article really jumped out at me as being concerning. The study showed that at the beginning of the school year, 8 percent of students showed high-risk stress scores, however by finals week 58 percent of students illustrated these statistics. This can be extremely worrisome when looking into the more extreme statistics of college students who commit suicide. Overall, I am happy to see that Carnegie Mellon is monitoring this, but I feel that there is more that can be done in order for the school to properly support its students.
Not a surprise at all that the study points out that students are stressed out and feel alone in the community. This is a constant feeling I think and is something that the university simply acknowledge but does little to address. Like many others I think that a lot of these numbers seem to be less than what I had initially expected them to be. A lot of this I think is they may not be surveying a lot of people and I really doubt that they survey people in the school of drama or other of the really crazy programs that would inflate these numbers exponentially. I also wonder in this survey if they could calculate how much more students are working on average than what the university is expecting of them. There is a lot of times when I load classes in on my SIO and I use my chrome plug-in for accurate FCEs and the hours associated there are 3-6 hours maybe even more than that.
There is no surprise that the stress levels among students are high. This isn't just a Carnegie Mellon problem- this is the story of college students world wide. I'm in no way negating the possibility of the stress levels of CMU students being higher (especially because of the amount of pressure students may be feeling to be great, or measure up to their peers), nor ignoring the fact that this is something that we must be aware of. It's just that it is bigger than CMU so we must take a broader look at how this can be remedied. No doubt, though, we have to start here. The same goes for mental illnesses and depression. With that being said, I think that the loneliness aspect of things is something that may stem from CMU's environment. A lot of the students here are away from home, some a long way from home, so that plays a big role. But when I think back to my undergraduate years, the school itself had a decent balance of academic life as well as social life. That goes for greek life, athletic events, occasional concerts, etc. Even if I walk towards the University of Pittsburgh, I can feel the transition into an environment that has more of a "social life," for lack of a better term. I do believe in working hard, but I think we also need to find a balance in being able to step away and do other social activities, and I think that is something that can help with the loneliness.
Stress at CMU? People who don’t attend here know that there is stress at CMU. It is highly competitive to get into and once in it is a higher level of competition. Students are often pitted against each other to see who outperforms and who falls behind. It’s nice that the did a survey but how much of that will change the actual culture of the campus? Wanna reduce stress? Start by a total reevaluation of the curriculum at all levels. Tell professors to stop making it a competition between students. This is supposed to be an education environment but I feel that it is in name only. Yes, college is supposed to be tough, it is supposed to be at a higher level of academia than high school, but it doesn’t have to be a blood sport. That is what it feels like sometimes. That if you don’t do certain things or perform a certain standard you somehow are less than. That is where the stress comes. This is where the change needs to happen. We are here to learn and be better at what we do. If I wanted competition, I would have gone into sports.
So I'm sitting here at a coffee shop writing this and the guy at the table next to me is talking about loneliness, and he just touched on the topic of loneliness in a university setting. He is saying that it is a major reason why people drop out. People who feel that they don't have a support system lose hope in not only themselves, but their future as well. I just think that the fact that I am reading this article while overhearing a conversation between two people, who are basically saying the same things, proves that the results of this study are common and widely experienced. And that is disheartening, yet personally reassuring (as someone who has absolutely experienced, and still experiences, the results of this study.
I want to talk on the question “How is it that students could be carrying these depression burdens, particularly as you ramp up over the course of the semester, but also say that I have gratitude and purpose in life?”. I've found that on the days that I feel lonely or insentient, I have to look at my future and environment from a broader glance. I am at a university that is saturated with talent and innovation, and instead of using that fact to belittle the work I'm doing and the ideas I have, I remind myself that I have to use it as support. Knowing that a lot of us feel this way implies that we are all looking for support, which is something that is seldom given in only one direction.
The title of this article made me laugh- not like hysterically laugh, but a slight chuckle with a sigh. As a junior at this school, I've been here for almost 3 years and I can say that I am in fact stressed all the time. I don't think it's just a CMU issue, or a drama issue even- I think that at any sort of higher institution, there is an aspect of moving on to the next thing- We work on one assignment, finish it, then wake up and get the ball rolling on the next one- it feels like we don't have a break necessarily. Most all of this is in my head and I am able to eventually get the work done- but it always feel like its at some other meta cost. I would say that the culture is created simply by the schedule- when all your classes have big assignments due on the same day or the same week even- it spikes the stress because it starts feeling hopeless, but that's just a part of academia. What really needs to happen in order to create a less stressful environment- is for students and professors to work together and create those breaks and work with us to achieve as much as we can while also maintaining a semblance of a healthy lifestyle.
The conclusions that they came to with this study are certainly no surprise to me or any other CMU student. We are all stressed and under immense pressure to be the perfect CMU drama student. There is a level of success that we all have to try to live up to because we see what graduates of our program are doing out in the industry today. When we feel this stress we isolate ourselves and overall makes for really toxic mental health among the university. I think, as a whole, the university is doing a good job at trying to combat the problems we face with mental health at our school, but ultimately there is a lot more to be done. Events like community day are a great start, but I also think that the free access to Headspace and CAPS are two great resources that are often overlooked. Yes CMU is trying, but there is still room for improvement.
Wow! Shocking! Not to discredit this study, but I could have told you this. Yes, data is an important step to understanding this issue, but data didn't need to tell us this. Why are we focusing on whether or not we're stressed (we are) when we could focus on solving this very serious issue. The stress culture at CMU is very present and everyone who spends any time on campus knows that. So, let's focus on solutions rather than trying to apply unnecessary data to this very intricate and personal issue. I truly cannot understand why people are so proud to be stressed and exhausted all of the time. Students here literally BRAG about not sleeping. Like, why? We should be bragging about how we finished our work in a timely manner and got eight hours of sleep. I hate when I talk to people and they're like "I only got FOUR hours of sleep last night!" and then the next person has to one-up them by saying "Oh yeah? I only got TWO hours!" You really shouldn't be proud of that at all. I think in the past few years the school has really tried to give us resources to help us. CAPS is a great program and we have the mindfulness room and the Headspace app for free. I think that's all so great and we should really keep things like that up and truly try to live a healthier lifestyle rather than bragging about being sad and unhealthy.
I am curious if anyone was surprised to hear Carnegie Mellon students are stressed. This is such a rigorous school and we all want to succeed. With being in this "stressed environment" and as a "stressed student" I am still happy to be at this school. I wouldn't want to have gone to a school where I wouldn't be stressed at all. I feel like stress is natural and beneficial when it comes to challenging yourself and doing a lot at a time. What is different from this is the unnatural stress. I understand that course loads at Carnegie Mellon can get really intense. I hope no one is in a situation where they are not functional because of how stressed they are. Going into this school, I know I would be stressed out for long periods of time. Being in a stressed induced environment we just need to understand ourselves and learn when to take the day off or take care of ourselves. When this is happening, I also hope our faculty will understand our situation and be able to support us as students, that is what I hope this article/study will achieve for CMU.
-Pablo Anton
I loved how much of this article was factual versus anecdotal. I loved how much data the article gave. I found one of the most interesting parts of the article is how the data could predict which students were more likely to experience “end of semester” depression. I wonder if there is a way to either help prevent this or ensure that those students get help if needed. This article talks about how we need to keep the current context for growing mental health problems in society as a whole without diminishing the way CMU impacts students in a very nuanced way. One question I had after reading the article is how the sample of students the data was collected from was picked. Were most of the people volunteers or randomly sampled students? Were they mainly from a specific college or have a specific degree? I’d be curious to see if and how different schools and departments changed the data. Overall, I found this article really interesting and well crafted.
When first reading the title of this article, I thought to myself "well duh, who wouldn't be stressed here". I was afraid that it was just another article pointing out the fact that the stresses placed on students cause mental health issues; an article that someone would read, agree with, then go on with their lives without changing a thing. I found it pleasing to know that the school does take these facts into account. I'm glad that this study is being done with this University specifically in order to get results that can fairly be applied to campus life at CMU as opposed to a study done on Universities as a whole. This way, it hits closer to home for those who really do care about the students. Hopefully, the data found in this study is a "call to action" and does result in better ways for students to get help dealing with their stress and mental health.
I am not at all surprised at these findings. Even when I was here as a prospective, everyone said that there was not only stress but a stress culture. Susan Tsu herself, when asked, was basically like “LOL yeah everyone’s stressed” (please note that this is not a direct quote). Especially being at a highly prestigious university, I feel like stress and stress culture is often overlooked because it is what is expected - the “norm”. I’m excited that this report has some traction in terms of an institutional reform, though, because - especially in our day and age when mental health is more of a public concern - we must constantly remind ourselves that just because something is “normal” does not mean that it is also good. It’s wonderful that CMU already offers services such as CAPS and wellness weeks and free access to Headspace, but there is always room for improvement in terms of both personal mental health and mental health care.
It’s not a secret that Carnegie Mellon attracts hard workers, maybe even people who *sometimes* overwork themselves. We worked hard to get here, and we’re still working hard once we’re here. However, it’s a fine line. CMU wants people to work hard so their smart and resilient when they enter the workforce and uphold the name of Carnegie Mellon. That’s good and it should be a challenge, after all, we’re at college for a reason. I wonder how the school looks at how much work is being assigned and how much time they are spending on it. The other question is which came first? Does Carnegie Mellon just attract the type of people that are prone to be depressed and work hard? Or does the culture create that type of person from just above-average intelligent people. It also made me feel better about the amount of sleep that average students get, being higher than I expected.
I think that the research that was done in this specific area is so very important for the CMU community to see, but also would encourage Crewswell (if he hasn't already) to publish these findings to the national collegiate community. I am not surprised to hear that depression levels drop drastically as the semesters go on, especially in Sophomore year. From everything I have seen as a graduate student here, if I had come here for undergrad in theatre, I would not have gone to grad school. Part of it would have been that I feel the undergrads here are getting a grad level of learning, but also I see how hard they work the undergrads and how stressed out they are, and I believe I might not have even pursued theatre anymore after graduating had I gone here. I think the depression can be attributed to a number of things, one of them being seasonal depression. I have seen many students who may not be from colder climates be really thrown by the winters we have here, and that affects their emotional health a great deal. Feelings of loneliness are a common factor among our entire generation, I think, and it doesn't surprise me that these scores are relatively similar across the board at other schools. We are living in a world that is technically more connected than any other one before, and yet we are usually separated from each other by some sort of screen or mediated barrier. This gives us the mind-boggling feeling of simultaneously having everyone as our best friends, and being completely alone at the end of the day. Additionally, I think that the overall life satisfaction scores are interesting to note, particularly at CMU. I don't know what it is about this school that makes it this way, or if those in charge could even define the exact reason for it, but there is a closeness and a support for one another among the students that I've never felt anywhere else. It's why I decided to come here, and why I am sad to be leaving. I think that the next steps, as Creswell says, are for the faculty and University leaders to use this data to figure out how to better support their students, perhaps taking a page from the books of the students themselves.
I’m really glad to see that CMU is actively working to find out how it’s students are doing. Carnegie Mellon University is a very challenging school as far as the coursework. And that goes for ALL majors. Every time I talk to people her and I ask them how they are they usually talk about how they are stressed about some school related thing. This study revealed that 34 percent of Phase I participants had been scored at high risk for major depression diagnosis at the beginning of the semester and by finals week they were at 58 percent for high risk of depression. However, Creswell who conducted this study believes that our stress culture is not very different from other colleges, but he and his team are still very worried. He also found that students here typically get around 7 hours of sleep per night and typically go to sleep at 2:23am.
This is an article that I would probably find surprising before coming to this school, but after being a student here for a few months, I feel like I understand these results. We, like all students at CMU, are all in a very demanding program. So, it is no surprise that there is data that explains that CMU students are having a difficult time managing themselves and their studies. It is good that there are resources on campus that allow students to get help if they need it, but it feels like maybe there is something missing. It is good, however, that the issues present are being addressed and talked about. It seems like there is a good collection of data that is representative of the issue at hand. Hopefully the presence of this data will lead to more talks in the future about ways to improve mental health across the campus.
I don’t think I needed an article to tell me that Carnegie Mellon is a community that feeds off of stress culture and self-deprecation, which inherently leads to more stress culture, but it is important to put statistics with the issue so we can both see just how bad it is and then take steps to actually address the issue. There is no reason that this should be a norm in our society, and it’s actually sad that it is. Creswell stated that this can spark a conversation about what the CMU experience is actually like and what contributes to the environment and culture in campus, which is a great start, but the next step needs to be focused on how we can change it. Carnegie Mellon can be isolating and stressful if you are not already in a good place coming into it, that in part is why my first two years at CMU were some of the most difficult I have ever dealt with in terms of mental health. It took a summer where I was able to balance myself and get realigned with my own personal wellbeing to actually change my perspective on CMU, the stress culture surrounding it, and also life in general. These statistics are a good step on the right direction, and obviously changing campus culture takes time, but we definitely need to act on these facts to do better for our student body as a whole.
Are we shocked? Are we surprised? Is this a groundbreaking discovery? I think that a lot of people know about CMU's stress culture, and not just the people who attend the school. I think it's great that these higher-ups are at least acknowledging this, but I hope this "call to action" they keep mentioning is taken seriously and really worked on. CMU has an incredible reputation, and it's because of its rigorous coursework. Rigorous coursework = stress, and I don't think that our school would be our school without that. Stress isn't necessarily a bad thing in that regard, but I think that there's way more of it than there needs to be. The amount of friends, neighbors from across the hall, friends of neighbors from across the hall, etc. that I have seen having awful breakdowns day after day is heartbreaking. Everyone, especially college students, have bad days, but I think I've seen way more of it here than is normal. I'm not sure what can be done, but I really hope there is something.
Headspace is a good push, this new annual community day is a great start. I am glad small steps are being made. I hope it makes a worthwhile change.
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