College, often described as ‘the best years of your life’, is thought to be a time where you’ll make friends, find yourself, and party the nights away. Yet studies have shown that this is quite the opposite. Students themselves are beginning to tell their stories of depression, anxiety, and how stress has affected them, their grades, and their lives. With this becoming a concern for many schools, the question is what can be done to help the students. Some colleges have a solution that involves therapy animals.
What is causing these students to feel so stressed?
It is hard to try to glide through college when you’re trying to balance several things at once. That has always been a stressful aspect of college, but it has become even more challenging in recent years, given the current state of the world. A study that was done during the pandemic had shown that stress was higher than it ever was before, and mental health was poor, with at least 60% of students reporting to have one mental illness (Abrams, 2022). Major world events and the current state of our society have shaped how students are feeling. However, other students reported feeling pressure to have a great school year, yet they feel no sense of belonging and are embarrassed about their struggles.
How does this impact them?
This number has declined in 2024 compared to 2023, but at least one in three students will consider withdrawing from their programs, according to a study by Gallup (Marken, 2024). In 2025, another study (Rock, 2024), showed that 54% of students reported feeling stressed. There are different outcomes of student stress. Many students who feel stressed may end up failing classes, being dropped by professors, or being placed on probation, rather than leaving certain programs or dropping out of school altogether. Some students will have thoughts of self-harm and suicide, and may even act on those thoughts. Stress can have negative effects on their bodies as well and can lead to weight gain/loss, trouble sleeping, trouble with focusing, memory loss, or even chest pains, which can harm their schooling.
What can be done to help students?
While the primary approach is to provide counseling and access to mental health services, there are also smaller steps that can be taken to create a safe environment and offer a way to relax between classes. This is where therapy animals come in; a therapy animal, most commonly a dog, is used because of their mellow demeanor to help people calm down in moments of stress. Having these animals come onto campus would allow students to have something to look forward to, give them time away from studying and to be out of the house/dorm, and the animals can help the students to start relaxing, even providing companionship that the students may be missing from their peers or their own pets. They may even help mitigate the damage caused by stress by decreasing cortisol levels and lowering blood pressure.
What do students have to say about this?
One student said, “What stands out for me is how comforting it felt to pet the therapy dog, especially when I started to miss my family and own dog at home.” That same student would spend around 35 minutes petting and giving treats to the therapy dog. A different student had written, “The therapy dog is so calm, her energy and mellowness helped me to calm down each session.” Another student wrote that “It was really nice to spend time with the therapy dog before big exams, I felt like it gave me time to relax.” In the end, the use of therapy animals has been proven to help students feel much more relaxed, and more colleges and universities may need to start creating events centered around the use of therapy animals (Kivlen, 2021).
