Perceived Stress among Engineering Students

Previous surveys of students in Cornell's College of Engineering suggest that, over the past 2 decades, students perceived the workload required in the College, the competition among students, the difficulty of the curriculum, and the prevalence of curved grading systems as stressful to the point of detracting from the quality of their educational experience.Intending to expand on these findings, the College's Committee on Evaluation of the Student Experience identified stress and sense of unhealthy competition as a focus for a Spring 2005 Student Experience Survey.The survey centered on four major areas: 1) stressors and experiences as an engineering student, especially those related to workload, competition, rigor of the curriculum, and curved grading; 2) how students allocate their time; 3) knowledge and/or participation in programs or organizations, and use of other resources in the College; and 4) perceived quality of faculty instruction and TA interaction.A strong and representative student response was obtained, with 938 completed surveys, representing 35.5% of the total student population.Responses identified the top sources of stress for engineering students as: 1) heavy workload in Engineering courses; 2) high level of rigor of Engineering curriculum; 3) large amounts of time required to get assignments done; 4) not getting enough sleep; 5) competition with classmates for grades; and 6) inflexibility of Engineering curriculum.Findings indicate that perceived stress is often inversely related to academic performance (indicated by GPA).However, even when controlling for GPA differences, students' perceived stress levels varied significantly by gender and by ethnicity, as did various student perceptions, experiences, and concerns related to being an engineering student.The value to students of existing support resources and extracurricular programs was also explored.Based on survey findings, the Committee made several recommendations aimed at alleviating student stress.