Academic Stress among Professional and Non Professional Students

There is growing body of evidence suggesting that attending university for the first time entails a transition in young people’s lives that incorporates a great deal of stress. Although for most students this period is a chance for personal growth but for some this is a critical time involving drastic changes which could be overwhelming and at times leading to negative consequences like anxiety and depression. Students, after finishing schooling may either get selected to professional courses or may enter non-professional courses. Usually entry into the latter may either be by choice or due to not being to be selected in professional courses despite making an effort and the resulting frustrations may lead to stress.  On the other hand, demands for high quality performance may be imposed on students in professional courses leading to different types of stresses among them. The primary purpose of this study, hence, was to identify different sources of stress in professional and non-professional courses. A sample of 400 students including 200 boys from I.I.T., B.H.U. and 200 boys from Faculty of Science, B.H.U.) Student Stress Scale which assesses stress in five areas, viz., academic, environmental, family, financial and hostel was administered on these students and result showed there was significant difference on academic, family, financial, hostel and overall stress areas as the mean scores of non professional students was significantly higher among non professional students than professional students.