Avoiding Burnout in College

College is exciting, but it’s also full of pressure. There are new classes, performance expectations, social changes, and always more to do. But what happens when that pressure starts to take a toll on your mental and academic life? A recent study by Gong and colleagues (2023) helps us understand the connection between learning stress, psychological resilience, and burnout, and provides insights into how to protect yourself from burnout during college. Here’s what their study found, and how you can use those insights to get through college.

What the Study Found

1. Stress and burnout go hand in hand.
   The more learning stress a student reported, the higher their burnout tended to be. 

2. Resilience is protective.
   Psychological resilience was negatively correlated both with stress and with burnout. In other words, students who scored higher in resilience tended to report less stress and less burnout.

3. Resilience acts like a bridge.
   One of the most interesting findings: resilience mediates the effect of stress on burnout. That means that higher stress tends to push you toward burnout in part because it erodes resilience. But if resilience remains strong, it can weaken the pathway from stress to burnout. 

4. Some extra factors matter.

• Older students tended to report lower learning stress. 

• Higher family income was associated with lower stress and lower burnout. 

• Resilience tended to increase with age.

Main idea: you can’t eliminate all stress in college, but building your resilience can help you buffer burnout.

What This Means for You

Based on what the research found, here are strategies you can try to keep your stress from tipping into burnout:

1. Recognize signs early

• When you feel consistently drained instead of energized, constantly procrastinating, or you lose interest in classes you used to enjoy, these might be indicators of burnout creeping in.

• Notice if stress is eroding your sense of self-efficacy (feeling like you can’t “measure up”), that’s where resilience often takes a hit.

2. Cultivate your resilience

Because resilience mediates so much of the stress-to-burnout pathway, strengthening it is key. According to the study’s definitions, resilience involves things like:

• Emotional control: Learning how to regulate your feelings (pause, breathe, reframe)

• Positive cognition: Interpreting challenges in a more hopeful or growth-oriented way

• Goal focus: Staying clear about your aims and breaking them into manageable steps

• Support systems: Leaning on interpersonal help (friends, mentors, family)

• Environmental support: Recognizing and using resources around you (campus counseling, peer groups, academic help)

Some ideas to build resilience:

• When you feel overwhelmed, try reframing (“This is a challenge, not a failure”).

• Identify one or two trusted people you can talk to when things pile up.

• Set smaller sub-goals to maintain a sense of progress.

• Give yourself emotional check-ins (how do I feel? what’s draining me?) and self-regulate (pause, breathe, move, reset).

3. Manage your stress intentionally

While resilience helps buffer the impact, reducing unnecessary stressors also matters:

• Organize your study schedule (don’t overload yourself on high-stakes courses in the same term)

• Be realistic about your limits, and avoid perfectionism

• Talk with professors, advisors, or mentors when workload feels unmanageable

• Use campus resources (study groups, tutoring, counseling)

4. Leverage your age and resources

The study found that older students and those with higher family income tended to have somewhat lower stress or burnout. While you can’t instantly change those, it’s a reminder that experience and stable support help.

• Seek wisdom from more experienced classmates or mentors

• Use campus financial, academic, or counseling resources

• Track what’s helping you over time and build resilience gradually

A Short Self-Check You Can Do Now

You won’t always be able to completely eliminate stress in college, but you can work on your resilience so that your stress doesn’t become exhaustion, procrastination, or disengagement. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I feeling emotionally drained more often than energized after studying?

  What this question helps you notice: Early sign of burnout

• Do I catch myself thinking, “I can’t do this,” or “I’m failing”?

  What this question helps you notice: Negative cognition can weaken resilience

• Do I have at least one person I can lean on when I’m stressed?

  What this question helps you notice: Support is a resilience booster

• Have I broken down large assignments into smaller, manageable steps?

  What this question helps you notice: Doing this helps reduce stress load

• Am I using campus help (tutors, counseling, study groups)?

  What this question helps you notice: Environmental support strengthens resilience

References:

https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-023-04783-z?utm_source=chatgpt.com