How are you doing?
If you’re the average NU student filling out The Daily’s Spring 2025 Campus Poll, probably not too badly overall.
A majority of students described their current mental and emotional well-being as “good” (58.8%) — not quite “excellent” (12.8%), but better than “fair” (22.8%) and “poor” (5.6%).
We dug into the poll data to better understand how different aspects of student life, from sleep habits to friend groups to political identity, are influencing how students feel. You can read about other poll results at the main story here. Here are some of the trends that stood out.
Relationships improve mental health, current events don’t
Let’s start with the good news. On net, students report that their mental health is positively impacted by interpersonal relationships (74.0%), extracurricular activities (60.4%), and physical health (42.8%).
And the bad. Students almost universally felt that current events were negatively impacting their mental health (74.6%), with academics (50.9%) and career factors (45.9%) following behind.
Men and women reported similar results on well-being, with 69.4% of women and 75.5% of men describing their mental and emotional well-being as “good” or “excellent.” Between the two options, men were more likely to describe themselves as having “excellent” well-being at 16.7%, compared to 10.2% for women.
Women were slightly more likely than men to say that academics, physical health, current events and their financial situation were negatively impacting their mental health. Men were not significantly more likely than women to say that any of the listed factors was negatively impacting their mental health. If you’re curious, we tested the differences at a p-value of 0.05 and only reported the ones that were statistically significant.
Unsurprisingly, therapy and sleep closely related to mental health
About a quarter of students say they currently attend therapy (24.0%), while another 30.9% say they’ve attended therapy in the past.
Here, there are notable gender differences. Only 19.0% of men attend therapy currently, with another 26.6% having attended in the past. For women, those numbers are 26.4% and 35.1% — meaning women are generally more likely to attend therapy, according to our poll numbers. Other gender identities are not included due to small sample sizes.
It might not be surprising that students currently attending therapy generally report having worse mental and emotional well-being. Only 4.7% described their well-being as “excellent,” and over 40% said it was either “fair” or “poor,” compared to 19.3% of students who had never attended therapy — though over half of students currently attending therapy still report “good” mental and emotional well-being.
That’s not to suggest anything about the efficacy of therapy; more likely is that students who attend therapy have a reason to attend it.
How does sleep play into all of this? Most students say they sleep for either seven (41.8%) or eight (26.9%) hours per night on average, with 20.2% getting six hours and approximately five percent each getting five or fewer hours and nine or more hours.
Students who get more sleep tend to be doing better. Only 6.0% of students who say they sleep for six hours per night say they’re doing excellent, compared to 10.5% and 21.3% of students who sleep for seven and eight hours, respectively.
How current events affect mental health depends on students’ politics
Mental well-being also varies depending on how closely students are tuned into the world beyond campus. If it feels like keeping up with current events is taking a toll on your mental health, you’re not alone — especially if you’re someone who pays close attention to politics.
According to our data, the more politically engaged students are, the more likely they are to say that the news is negatively affecting their mental well-being.
Among students who described themselves as “very political,” 86.6% said current events were negatively impacting their mental health. That’s nearly nine out of ten students — and higher than the 77.6% of “somewhat political” students who said the same. For students who said they’re “not political,” things looked a little less bleak, but still not great: 57.7% reported that current events were hurting their mental health.
The trend holds when looking at political beliefs, not just engagement. 89.3% of students who identified as “very liberal” and 75.7% of “somewhat liberal” students said current events were negatively affecting their mental health. But among moderates and conservatives, the numbers dropped sharply.
Only about 45.7% of students in the combined group said the news was hurting their mental health, and nearly as many (43.4%) said it had no impact at all. A small share — roughly 7.5% — even said current events were positively impacting them.
Academic stress, career anxiety vary based on school
While current events were the most commonly reported stressor, academic pressure and career anxiety weren’t far behind — and those experiences varied depending on what school students are in.
At first glance, students across schools report similar levels of mental and emotional well-being. But a closer look at the specific stressors, especially academics and career-related pressure, reveals the variations.
Overall, 50.9% of students reported that academics are negatively impacting their mental health. Students who were most likely to report academic stress were from McCormick (54.3%) or Weinberg (52.3%).
Career, another major source of strain for students (45.9% reported a negative impact), told a slightly different story. Medill and Communication students were most likely to say their career outlook was hurting their mental health, both at 53.1%. Weinberg followed close behind at 46.8%.
McCormick students stood out here, with just 37.6% citing career as a negative stressor and nearly a quarter (24.2%) saying their career trajectory was actually improving their mental health.
Despite the variation in academic and career stress, students across schools reported comparable levels of social satisfaction. Roughly one in four students in each school said they were “very satisfied” with their social lives, and between 53% and 59% said they were “somewhat satisfied.” McCormick students — despite facing the most academic pressure — had the lowest rate of social dissatisfaction, with just 1.6% reporting that they were “very dissatisfied” socially.
Things get better over time: Most seniors are satisfied with their social life at NU
There’s some good news for those who’ve been around campus longer. Seniors are doing slightly better, both emotionally and socially. 77.9% of seniors reported having “good” or “excellent” mental well-being. Only 3.6% of them indicated “poor” wellness.
Additionally, 82.1% of seniors answered that they were either “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their social life at Northwestern.
As the years pass, it seems like student connections grow stronger. 63% of seniors reported that they feel closer with their college friends than their friends at home, up from 55.6% of juniors, 43% of sophomores and 31% of freshmen.
Unfortunately, as some relationships develop, others have faded. Only 12% of seniors said that they feel closer with their hometown friends. The freshmen and sophomores are holding on best, with 37.8% and 34.4%, respectively, saying they’re equally close with both groups.
The Class of 2025 is wrapping up their final quarter — and it turns out, they might be onto something. Emotionally steadier, socially fulfilled, and finally getting more sleep, seniors seem to offer some hope to the rest of us: maybe, it gets better. Or maybe that’s just what happens when you can see graduation on the horizon.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @_gracewuu
Email: [email protected]
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