Mental health, stress top reasons students leave college: Gallup

"Much work remains to be done to ensure institutions retain currently enrolled students while working hard to attract new students amid continued concern about enrollment trends in the U.S."

by Cassie Buchman | May. 15, 2024

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A Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2024 State of Higher Education Study conducted in the fall of last year found that 35% of 14,032 current and prospective students polled reported that they thought about leaving their program in the past six months.

Of those students, 54% reported emotional stress and 43% reported mental health as the reason they wanted to drop out.

Students getting their bachelor’s degree were more likely to say they were pausing their studies because of emotional stress (67%) or personal mental health reasons (56%).

(NewsNation) — More than one-third of college students asked in a Gallup survey say they considered dropping out, with most saying it’s due to emotional stress or mental health challenges.

A Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2024 State of Higher Education Study conducted in the fall of last year found that 35% of 14,032 current and prospective students polled reported that they thought about leaving their program in the past six months.

Of those students, 54% reported emotional stress and 43% reported mental health as the reason they wanted to drop out. Cost was the third most-cited reason, at 31%.

“While colleges and universities report they have stepped up their investments into programs designed to mitigate personal mental health issues and emotional stress for students, findings from the Lumina-Gallup State of Higher Education Study confirm that mental health and stress are still the leading reasons students struggle to remain enrolled,” Gallup wrote. “Much work remains to be done to ensure institutions retain currently enrolled students while working hard to attract new students amid continued concern about enrollment trends in the U.S.”

Students getting their bachelor’s degree were more likely to say they were pausing their studies because of emotional stress (67%) or personal mental health reasons (56%). Still, half of students trying to get an associate degree also said they wanted to quit for the same reasons. “Far fewer” students studying to get their higher-education certificate or industry certification said the same, according to Gallup. About 32% of those getting a certificate cited emotional stress, with 24% mentioning personal health reasons. Of those getting an industry certification, 37% said emotional stress was the reason they considered ending the program, and 23% said it was personal mental health.

Gender discrepancies also exist: female students (64%) say they have felt like dropping out because of emotional stress, and 52% said the same because of mental health reasons, compared to 37% and 27% of men.