Student sample example
Dayanara Cervantes
Professor Ralph Velazquez
English C1000
14 September 2025
What Barriers Do College Students Face?
Being a college student I know that having a strong confident mindset is key to gaining
success, being in an environment where I want to grow and gain more knowledge about topics is
my main focus. Which hasn’t changed, but what I didn’t prepare for was the change in adapting
from constantly working a tireless minimum wage job to still working that job all while having
to come home to work on assignments and devoting time to focus on acing them. Being a college
student while working is a big barrier for me because I struggle with self-doubt, procrastination,
anxiety and proving that I can still be on top of everything. I understand that I am not the only
individual facing challenges in balancing academic responsibilities and employment. There are
many low-income students that struggle with their mental health because of this.
A big barrier for me has always been financial problems and stressing, ever since I was
little I can recall moments in school where I struggled mentally because my family wasn’t
financially stable which negatively impacted me and the trauma never seemed to go away, it was
like gum stuck under my shoe. Never having my own room or space to truly focus on
assignments made it even harder too, everything felt more and more difficult and discouraging.
“Paul Dosal, vice president for student success at the University of South Florida, also was
surprised to see how high self-doubt ranked. The finding shows that institutions need to focus on
students’ emotional well-being, in addition to their academic and financial needs, he
said.”(Amour) pg.429. It’s difficult to prioritize our everyday needs when struggling financially
because we start to think about student loans, cost of tuition, and stress in making enough money
while prioritizing school. This is because our fight or flight kicks in, anxiety from financial
stresses impairs brain function making it difficult to retain information and focus.
A barrier I struggle with the most is time management, sometimes I find myself
submitting assignments before their deadlines and feeling the most confident in my work and
other times I feel completely lost and far behind on assignments, leaving them to the end all
because of my social life and work at my grocery store job. My High school years consisted of
many AP and honors classes which had me devote more time and focus on them but looking
back if I had better time management I felt that I would’ve done better and could’ve gotten into a
good college like a UC school or a Cal state. This is all new and challenging to me, the best piece
of advice I can give myself with this is to prioritize tasks and create a schedule planner that
works best for me, there is always room for improvement when it comes to school and work so
recognizing what I need to fix is a great first step in bettering my future from here on.
I feel that struggling with understanding complex subjects needs to be talked more
about because that also falls on becoming distracted easily and not being engaged compared to
topics that are interesting. When subjects aren’t the most interesting I tend to lose focus and my
mind begins to drift off to other subjects which makes learning the most difficult to me. I know
that not every school subject is going to be intriguing to me but I need to find ways to fix that
because I feel the most drained and belittled when others are engaged and excited about subjects
I find hard to understand. The main thing that keeps me distracted instead of engaged in school
work is screen time because I find myself easily drifting my attention to websites like online
shopping and apps, but especially texting my friends. This is very infuriating to me because I
know I’d do better on my assignments if I just lock in and push those distractions aside.
Every students faces their own challenges and setbacks but we must not stay
discouraged, we must keep fighting for the future we deserve and prove to our families and loved
ones that we are smart and want what’s best for our future. “People do not choose to fail or
disappoint. No one wants to feel incapable, apathetic, or ineffective.”(Price) pg.441. Despite the
days where we feel lost and everything feels too heavy and impossible there is help all around us,
whether that be family, a significant other, school, or faculty it is ultimately up to us to reach out
and make that first step in improving our mental health and ways to benefit time management
because if we don’t then we’re giving up on our future.
I fear that I will never get the college experience I want until I get a car, transportation
has always been very hard for me as well. As of right now I am saving for a car and I don’t feel
safe on buses. I felt drawn to signing up for in person classes because I feel more engaged when
a teacher is present in front of me but transportation is a big struggle for me at the moment. I feel
in a way robbed of getting to experience making friends and socializing because I feel my
happiest when I create friendships and trust within classmates. I will say though that Rio Hondo
was very welcoming when I decided that I wanted to make a comeback since the pandemic, they
called me about workshops and made me feel cared about in our community and involved which
I admired a lot. I know I still have time to put myself out there and hopefully join in person
classes next year.
Finally, I will have to say one of the most challenging barriers I have faced is staying
organized and calm. I feel this way because life can throw us in all different directions and throw
any obstacle your way, life doesn’t care if you’re struggling as it is already. I believe staying
organized and calm is a good skill to have in the academic field because college consists of
working under high pressure so mastering this skill will not only help with that but will boost my
confidence and establish healthy habits for my well-being. It’s ultimately up to me to stay on
track of my assignments and work schedule and I’m not perfect, when I’m late on an assignment
it’s because work got in the way and I stress myself out quick but I know I can change that by
changing my mindset.
In conclusion, having to deal with working and attending school all while being on top
of it all can be stressful and time consuming. Learning ways to help with time management is
very rewarding in the end and possible for everybody as long as we prioritize and commit to it.
Many college students have self-doubt causing us to underestimate ourselves, procrastinate, feel
anxious and makes it harder for us to focus. But this only urges me to stay on task and develop
better time management to my road to success which will be very rewarding and fulfilling.
Despite all the barriers and hardships that have tested me in college I know that there is always
room to grow and persevere my goals.