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Bella Zhan

Professor

UWRT-1103-013

9 October 2019

Word count: 625

Inquiry proposal

Ever since I completed the AP Calculus course in high school, I’ve always been

wondering about whether higher education actually worth its costs. That being said, I suffered a

lot while taking Calculus: confusing concepts which we don’t need in daily life, fast moving

curriculums which still remain unclear to me up to today, challenging assignments which

usually take 5 hours to complete and endless assessments while still being confused to the unit.

Due to all mentioned, I was extremely stressed during my Junior year (this is a yearlong class) of

high school (I even developed anxiety and gastrointestinal dysfunction). But all my hardwork

and enduring didn’t send me into my dream college. College added even more stress and

additional financial problems on my plate. Therefore, I wanted to know and further research on

the impact of stress that higher education brings.

“​In 2016, nearly two-thirds of college students reported “overwhelming anxiety,” up from

50 percent just five years earlier, according to the National College Health Assessment​.​” “​It is

estimated that around 20% of the world's adolescents have mental health and behavioural

problems .” All mentioned above demonstrated the significant impacts of stress on students in

recent generations. As more colleges are becoming more competitive, students strive harder in

order to not disappoint themselves and their parents. After entering college, pressures of
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becoming independent and the development of more academic challenges increase the stress

amount as students are struggling more to become the best among others in order to gain better

job opportunities. Therefore, the stress cycle continues between the desire of achieving and

achieve more.

Before I research on the topic, I already learned the impact of negative emotions and

stress of students from education in this generation from self experiences. As a college freshman,

I also have experience in the transition phase between college and highschool and therefore

having the benefit of holding the first-hand, primary understandings of the impact of stress in

higher education.

Some keywords I related to my inquiry are: “consequences of stress”, “causes of stress”,

“stress coping methods” and “the correlation between stress and health (mentally and

physically)”.

As I dive deeper into my inquiry question, I will focus more on how different types of

stress may affect the human body in different ways and how non-stressers become non-stressed.

I will limit my data within the U.S. because if enlarging the data, the topic would be too

broad to cover and if decrease the data size, the population is too small to be credible.

As I began to think about my question and the actual writing process, I wonder how

many crucial diseases and disorders can be caused by stress and how short-term stress may

actually be helpful in some ways.

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My inquiry question is important to my classmates and the larger UNCC community

because it helps us to understand the pros and cons of being high-achievers, always struggling to

become the best, while bringing harmful side-affects to our health. In the end, my paper may also

help other stressers to find a more appropriate way of receiving education.

Mishra, N., & Rath, P. K. (2015). Impact of intervention on perceived stress of college students.

Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 6​(9), 859-864. Retrieved from

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1759300032?account

id=14605

This journal focused on the amount of stresses college students receive and the root of

stresses.

Flannery, Mary Ellen. “The Epidemic of Anxiety Among Today's Students.” ​NEA Today​, 18

June 2019, neatoday.org/2018/03/28/the-epidemic-of-student-anxiety/.

This article explains most of the common stress factors that recent generation students

encounter and how academic stress is leading many students to have mental health problems.