More than 40% of college students feel that their school experience has been "unfulfilling," according to the latest online poll by the National Federation of University Co-operative Associations to gauge the impact of the novel coronavirus on student life.
The results suggest that the prolonged pandemic has been taking a growing mental toll on the nation's students, particularly upperclassmen.
Out of about 7,600 university students nationwide who responded to the survey, conducted in July, 44.7% said they felt "student life is not fulfilling," up 18.9 percentage points from a similar survey last autumn.
The greatest morale shifts were observed among upperclassmen. Dissatisfaction was reported by 47.1% of seniors, up 33.5 points from last year, and 47.0% of juniors, up 28.6 points. The share of unfulfilled sophomores also rose 23.3 points to reach 46.2%. However, only 30.3% of freshmen said they felt unfulfilled in this year's survey, down 13.2 points from last year's freshman class.
The pandemic has complicated the transition to college life. In the 2020-2021 academic year, many students began their college careers unable to set foot on campus, as remote learning replaced classroom lectures. To combat the widely-reported feelings of isolation and loneliness, it would seem that universities have been offering more face-to-face classes this academic year, particularly those for their freshmen.
Whereas students had reported spending an average of 2.0 days on campus per week in the autumn survey, that number rose to 2.6 in the July survey. By class, average weekly attendance was up to 3.1 days for freshmen and 2.6 days for sophomores.
The surveys also asked students how many friends they had made at college. In last year's survey, 27.7% of freshmen said they did not have any friends at school. The ratio of friendless students from this cohort, now sophomores, fell to only 7.3% in the latest survey. Despite the state of emergencies issued in the interim, it would seem that social media and other resources have helped students make friends.
"As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, we've started to see even farther-reaching effects, such as upperclassmen being deprived of opportunities for research and extracurricular activities," said a University Co-op official involved in the survey. "Extra support for current sophomores is needed along with hopes for a return to normal campus life as soon as possible."
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