College student stress levels are on the rise, thanks to financial worries, time spent on digital devices, social and academic pressures, job planning, and recent Covid lockdowns and vax mandates, and it’s no different in Blacksburg or Charlottesville.
In fact, the mental health of young adults has become a critical issue in the past few years.
Preply did a study to find out exactly which college towns were the most and least stressed by scraping tweets in 150 geolocations and then using a tool to measure stress.
Study findings:
- Blacksburg was the #22 town with stress-related tweets, coming in at 24.8%.
- Charlottesville came in #8 with stress-related tweets at 29.4%.
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While financial stress is common among students, Blacksburg’s cost of living came in at 5% below the national average, compared to areas like Berkeley, California at 82% above it.
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Most of the more relaxed college towns are located in the Midwest. Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana is the #1 least stressed college town.
- Two Ivy League colleges made the list of the most stressed college towns and they both happen to be in the top 10 – Harvard University (#2) and Cornell University (#10).