Students: what are the three main challenges you face as a student?

[Agota]

Hello, guys!

I'm doing some research for my freelancing, this time for a blog oriented towards students.

Could you please do me a favor and answer these two questions:

1. What are the three main challenges that you face as a student?

..too much work, too little time; no balance between studies and social life, financial problems, etc.

2. In your opinion, what information or skills would help you to overcome those challenges?

..time management techniques, productivity techniques, accelerated learning techniques, etc.

Thank you very much!

Agota

P.S. ex-students are welcome as well

[Matthew Cluff]

I think that financial problems are the biggest at the start (for me).

Being a foreign student, you're dependent on others for money and there's no way to physically work in a foreign country (difficult to get).

I think having exact steps to build an online business based out of your home country would be a good way to overcome this problem.

Second, would, in a sense, be social difficulties.

Not staying at dorms poses as a potential social cut-off from others and just the good feeling about being "in the loop."

[Clint Cora]

Interesting that we are seeing the financial strains with students. When I was speaking at a university in Pennsylvannia last year, I had dinner with a few of the student leaders who organized my talk.

I asked them what the average expenditures were each year and they told me something like $15 K to $20 K. I almost fell out of my seat!

Times have surely changed since my days on campus. My own MBA tuition believe it or not, was only $1200 per year.

No wonder why so many grads are in so much debt. This of course, suggests that personal finance skills are very essential to learn.

[aelle]

It wasn't so long ago that I was a student...

My biggest challenge was impostor syndrome (feeling that, in a way or another, I didn't suffer enough for my achievements, that all my brilliant results were somehow a mistake or pure luck and that someday someone would find out) and the people (professors, students, employers) who preyed on it.
Solution: 1. deconstruct what, in my environment, was feeding this belief (as not only a grad student, but a female grad student in a very male oriented and competitive field, let me tell you it was a handful)
2. Step away from who and what was feeding this belief
3. Replace it with a more empowering belief.

I know tons of people who still haven't dealt with it years after graduation, and their career and quality of life suffer from it.

[mariazeyn]

For me, the toughie is to strike a balance between my studies and extra-curricular activities. I keep hearing how important it is to participate in university affairs but when I start to do that, my studies suffer. When I come home, I am usually too tired to do any work apart from the bare minimum. I guess time management help more geared towards students would help.

[Brutha]

It's hard to separate challenge that I face "as a student" from challenges that I simply face.

[Agota]

Thank you very much for you responses!

It's sad that many students (especially foreign) face such financial difficulties. I didn't think much about this issue, so thank you for sharing.

Aelle, it's really interesting, in your opinion, is it common for students to feel this way?

Also, what are the actual effects on studies/career/life in general when you suffer from this syndrome?

[aelle]

Originally Posted by Agota

Aelle, it's really interesting, in your opinion, is it common for students to feel this way?

Extremely common, especially among top students and women. "Imposter syndrome" is not a phrase I made up, it's widely used in grad schools around the world.

Originally Posted by Agota

Also, what are the actual effects on studies/career/life in general when you suffer from this syndrome

The consequences of believing, in a nutshell, that you're not good enough despite every evidence of the contrary, are that you constantly shoot yourself in the foot. Examples:

- for one thing, you live with a constant nagging feeling of guilt (for not suffering enough) and dread (of being found as an imposter). That's not pleasant.

- you could spend unnecessary all nighters preparing for an exam even though you mastered the material in a couple of hours, because you can't believe that the course could be that simple.

- you could feel guilty about "stealing" better grades or a more selective position from a "more deserving" friend

- you could even tell yourself "no" by not applying for selective positions just because you believe you wouldn't have a chance to get in anyway.

- you feel bad about flaunting your achievements because you feel that they aren't for real. You may even feel guilty about saying you have a degree at all (or a Master's or a PhD) and you're tempted to downplay them ("well yeah technically I have a master's but it was from this really unselective school and my dissertation jury must have been drunk or something...") As a result you are terrible at selling yourself on the job market and don't go for what you could achieve. Or if you do talk yourself into it, you feel awful throughout the entire process as it's just one more achievement won by imposture on your list.

- The worst, I find, is people who take advantage of this belief.
Professors will give menial tasks to their grad students for low or no pay, such as grading papers, cleaning labs, entering data or filing documents, and the student almost feels grateful for it ("at least that I know I can do"). Actually, entire colleges are built on this system and would collapse without the imposter syndrome.
Employers who realize you feel like an imposter can get more work out of you for lower pay (because you don't think you deserve it) and even get you to spontaneously renounce your right ("given my true achievements at work this year, do I deserve to take my vacation?... I guess not")

[irfan]

Originally Posted by aelle

My biggest challenge was impostor syndrome (feeling that, in a way or another, I didn't suffer enough for my achievements, that all my brilliant results were somehow a mistake or pure luck and that someday someone would find out) ...

Hahaha! You too, huh? I have a recurring dream that I get a letter in the post telling me that somehow some irregularity in my high school career has been uncovered and that I'll have to go back (I graduated in 1980!) to re-do several subjects, wearing the same old uniform and with a bunch of 17 year old students. It's extremely unpleasant. Oddly, I mentioned it to an ex-girlfriend and she said she had the same recurring dream!

[ZephyrusX]

Are these your own observations on the impostor syndrome or did you get this material else where? I'd like to pursue the matter in more detail as it is relevant in my own life, so if you know any good resources, can you pass them my way?

Originally Posted by aelle

It wasn't so long ago that I was a student...

My biggest challenge was impostor syndrome (feeling that, in a way or another, I didn't suffer enough for my achievements, that all my brilliant results were somehow a mistake or pure luck and that someday someone would find out) and the people (professors, students, employers) who preyed on it.
Solution: 1. deconstruct what, in my environment, was feeding this belief (as not only a grad student, but a female grad student in a very male oriented and competitive field, let me tell you it was a handful)
2. Step away from who and what was feeding this belief
3. Replace it with a more empowering belief.

I know tons of people who still haven't dealt with it years after graduation, and their career and quality of life suffer from it.

[LifeFirst]

1. Homework is too hard, can't get it done on time, don't understand class fully.

2. Practice practice practice practice and read a lot.

[aelle]

Originally Posted by ZephyrusX

Are these your own observations on the impostor syndrome or did you get this material else where? I'd like to pursue the matter in more detail as it is relevant in my own life, so if you know any good resources, can you pass them my way?

Ah, these are my own observations. I'm not sure where to point you to for more reading, except for PhD Comics (not a serious source, but so true).

[Sayde]

I've always been a great learner,got high grades.

Lately there are many things that kind of keep me back:

1.Hours are boring
2.We don't have much time to do anything truly fun after school without leaving homework behind
3.My head hurts as hell sometimes or I just come back home wishing to sleep only.