The Gap Between What Colleges Offer and What Students Actually Need: Insights from AACRAO 2026
The Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring at UMass Boston was proud to attend the AACRAO 111th Annual Meeting in New Orleans this April, where Assistant Director Mia Lamont presented findings from their mixed-methods study, “The Transition to College: Understanding Challenges Through a Student-Centered Lens.”
The study asked a simple but underutilized question: instead of having students check boxes on a researcher-designed survey, what if we asked them to describe their own biggest challenges in their own words? Using an adapted version of the Top Problems Assessment (Weisz et al., 2011), 182 first- and second-year undergraduates at a minority-serving institution (MSI) and a predominantly White institution (PWI) named, rated, and ranked their top stressors across the academic year, generating over 1,000 open-ended responses coded across 11 thematic domains.
The findings offer a clearer picture of what college students are actually up against, and what institutions should prioritize in response.
Finances are the #1 priority, even when they aren’t the most distressing challenge
Academics was the most frequently reported challenge category (23.7% of all responses), followed by personal life stressors like family conflict and caregiving, and time management. But when students were asked to rank their single biggest problem, finances rose to the top, despite accounting for only 7.7% of all coded responses. Students at the MSI and first-generation students reported financial challenges significantly more often than their peers at the PWI and continuing-generation students. First-year students reported more financial concerns than second-year students, a pattern that may reflect attrition: students who cannot afford to stay are less likely to return.
Mental health challenges were rated as the most severe
While finances dominated in terms of priority, mental health challenges were rated as the most emotionally severe on a 0-10 scale. The sample showed elevated rates of psychological distress overall: 62% screened positive for anxiety and 36% for depression on the PHQ-4, compared to national averages of roughly 32% and 22%, respectively. Notably, students who did not meet clinical thresholds still identified mental health-related challenges, most commonly around motivation, concentration, and self-esteem, underscoring that subclinical struggles are widespread and warrant attention before they escalate.
Student experiences are not one-size-fits-all
The study found meaningful variation by institution, generational status, and year in school. MSI students reported significantly more financial challenges and less focus on career planning, consistent with the idea that students navigating acute financial strain have less bandwidth for longer-term goal-setting. First-generation students were more likely to report financial and transportation barriers compared to continuing-generation peers. Second-year students, having cleared some of the first-year adjustment hurdles, were more likely to shift attention toward career and future planning, suggesting that challenge type evolves with the student’s developmental moment in college.
What institutions can do
The study points to three evidence-based recommendations: expand proactive financial supports (emergency grants, textbook stipends, financial aid text nudges) without requiring students to self-identify in crisis; integrate Youth-Initiated Mentoring principles into first-year programming to help students, particularly first-generation and students at minority-serving institutions, build the bridging social capital they need to navigate institutional systems; and scale no-cost digital mental health interventions paired with human support, which research suggests outperform unsupported digital tools in nearly 50% of comparisons.
As Mia put it in her closing slide: students told us exactly what they need. Money keeps them enrolled, mental health support keeps them functional, and mentors help them navigate. The task for institutions is to stop guessing and start listening.
Please reach out to Mia to request a copy of the presentation slides: email Mia Lamont
