As a prospective college student, or a parent of a prospective college student, there are numerous, nearly universal challenges that new college students experience, including adjusting to a new environment (often having left home for the first time), dealing with homesickness, making friends and building new support networks, establishing routines (often with less structure than in high school), and being responsible for things like healthcare use, sleep, and personal finances, all on top of heightened academic standards and mounting concerns over debt and the cost of higher education. This is far from an exhaustive list of the challenges new students encounter, and of course, there are distinct stressors based on students’ backgrounds and identities (e.g., for international students, there is immersion into new cultures).
College is also a time when mental health problems often begin or intensify. For depression, the average “age of onset” (or time when symptoms first appear) is in the mid-20s, which coincides with the traditional college years. In fact, 75% of lifetime mental health problems will onset by about age 25. With roughly half of all adolescents and young adults in the U.S. enrolled in postsecondary education, mental health in college student populations is increasingly recognized as a public health priority.
This practice brief by Dr. Sarah Ketchen Lipson helps high school students (prospective college students) and parents think about the many opportunities to prepare for holistic success in college by prioritizing mental health and wellbeing at each stage of the process.