We talked to Georgetown students about how stressed they are

Georgetown’s motto of “cura personalis” is defining of the university’s culture.

Students are encouraged to not only have a breadth of knowledge and intellectual pursuits but also activities. Alongside this encouragement, there seems to be a culture of judgment directed towards those who do nothing, at least “nothing” as it is understood by a typical Georgetown student.

In order to more fully understand the culture of busyness at Georgetown I, with a group of friends, conducted a survey, hoping to confirm the theory of there being a correlation between the desire to fulfill “cura personalis” and stress.

The gate to Hell (at least during finals season)

By doing nothing, I don’t mean scrolling through Facebook or watching Netflix, the type of nothing that is seemingly judged at Georgetown.

The definition of “nothing” which I’m referring to is a “still moment for reflective thought…[or in other words], introspection.”

Aside from just wanting to be busy, a report by Georgetown’s Committee on Intellectual Life concluded that students find it “unpleasant to be alone in a room with their thoughts for just 6 to 15 minutes.”

So it’s not surprising students at Georgetown are happier while working within a busy schedule than they are when being introspective. However, it is important to understand the downside of this busyness: stress.

Having surveyed 160 students (who were largely freshmen) at Georgetown, asking them how stressed they usually felt on a scale of one to ten, almost 30 percent picked “seven.”

No one picked “one” and barely anyone chose “two” or “ten.”

The average number was actually 6.5, suggesting students feel rather stressed on a daily basis.

Fourth floor of Hell

With this level of stress, can students fully engage with the motto of “cura personalis”? How can the “life of the mind” be expected to “flourish” when students have no time to do “nothing?

Skimming those final readings at 1 am, rushing to music rehearsals, training for sports, working on your internship, and partying, sometimes all in one day doesn’t sound very conducive to flourishing.

At one point, your body and mind will not be able to keep up and stress will take over. Unfortunately, this is the case for many students at Georgetown.

We also asked students what the contributing factors to their stress were at Georgetown.

When considering that the average number of hours spent in class for a student taking 15 credits is 15 hours, Hoyas do a fair amount of time in Lau. Almost thirty percent of respondents said they study or are in class for 30-40 hours during an average week. That’s almost a fourth of your week dedicated to studying.

With regards to extracurriculars, 23 percent said that they dedicate six to eight hours of their week. (As for a point of comparison, at Pennsylvania State University, students spend an average of less than 5 hours a week on club activities.)

With regard to “social interaction,” which we defined as nights out/partying, 40.5 percent responded that they went out twice a week, and 31.3 percent said once. Interestingly however, there was a negative correlation between socializing and stress.

So, those who go out more experience less stress – which confirms that partying is a stress reliever.

Me praying to God for help in Hell

The feeling of stress is not unique to Georgetown.

It is a recurring theme around most universities in the US: “A national survey in 2013 found that 82.8 percent of students reported feeling stress during the last year.”

Aside from sleeping, and supposedly partying being stress relievers, I would include the activity of doing nothing.

Aside from finding time for introspection, the conclusion that can be drawn from the survey is that, if experiencing stress, students should be less busy, and should rather party and sleep more.