GRADUATE SCHOOL STRESS

Graduate school stress and burnout

Graduate School Burnout

Introduction

There is no shortage of subjective evidence signifying that graduate school is a stressful time of life. People can ask any graduate student or former graduate student about his or her life and everyone would be sure to hear stories of nightmarish academic advisors, absurdly lengthy reading assignments, horrifying experiences, do or die qualifying exams, failed lab experiments, and dissertations that seemingly have no end. All these activities are for a stipend that, depending on one's family size, may or may not exceed the federal government's poverty threshold. Despite this anecdotal evidence, there is little systematic evidence about the life experiences of graduate students. What are they stressed about? Just how stressed are they? What would improve their lives? Which types of students are more stressed than others? How might family support, faculty support or religion alleviate or exacerbate stress for graduate students? There is a need to find the answers to these questions on order to assess the issues related to graduate school burnout and stress. Therefore, in this study an attempt would be made to find solutions related to this problem.

Concerns of Graduate Students

There are many numbers of concerns for graduate students like any American adults may have, but some researchers asked specifically about a number of concerns related to their career, their health, and their relationships. The most pressing concern for graduate students is striking an appropriate school-life balance. The overwhelming academic pressures tend to push out time for social interaction, exercise and entertainment that could be a source of refreshment in the midst of the degree pursuit. Career concerns are also quite salient: more than half of graduate students are worried about their career success, and a majority are also worried about their finances. Stress and health are also on the minds of a large number of graduate students. The least frequently cited concerns for graduate students are relational, even relationships with professors. Among the options provided, graduate students were least likely to indicate that their relationship with God or a higher power was a major concern (along with feeling like an outsider). Fewer than one in four (24%) feel this way. Somewhat surprisingly, there is very little difference between those who are enrolled in a masters-only program and those in a Ph.D. program. There are, however, some rather substantial variations in these concerns among students in different fields (Felton, 1998).

Those pursuing a degree in education are the most likely to cite school-life balance as a major concern, perhaps because these students are often employed fulltime at a school while pursuing their degree, or perhaps because they are also more likely to be women (who are more likely to be concerned about this issue). Arts and humanities students are the least likely to be concerned about this balance. However, along with engineers and computer scientists, they are the most likely to be worried about not being successful in their ...