The university with the most unhappy students

We recently made a list 21 universities with the most unhappy students In this article, we will discuss the university that topped our list.

Are Americans becoming more and more unhappy?

According to the World Happiness Report 2024 by the University of Oxford’s Center for Well-Being Research, the US ranks 23rd with a score of 6.725. This is the first year since the report’s first edition in 2012 that the U.S. was not among the top 20 happiest countries in the world. They fell from 15th place to 23rd in 2023–2024 alone. The happiness ranking is particularly concerning for younger people (aged 30 and under). The report ranks the U.S. 62nd with a score of 6,392, while the country ranks 10th in happiness among older adults (ages 60 and older). The drastic disparity between the happiness levels of two segments of the country’s population indicates deteriorating estimates for the young population, the vast majority of which are students.

Trends in student dissatisfaction

Recent research suggests that people with higher education are happier. Data from the U.S. General Social Surveys indicate that 94% of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher said they felt happiness in their lives, while 89% of high school graduates said the same. However, these trends do not apply to all students studying at various academic institutions in the US. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that more than four in ten college students reported feeling excessively hopeless and sad in 2021 alone, which translates to 42% of college students.

Similarly, about a third of students (about 29%) struggled with poor mental health. Such complications led more than one in five students (about 22%) to seriously consider suicide, and one in 10 (about 10%) to actually attempt suicide. These trends varied by group, with Black and LGBTQ+ students more likely to attempt suicide and experience feelings of abandonment and unhappiness. Suicide remains the second leading cause of death among young adults, and 39% of college students experience serious mental health problems. Student mental health is affected by almost all indicators. The American Psychological Association reported results of a nationwide survey that found that more than 60% of college students met criteria for at least one mental health problem during the 2020–2021 school year.

Why are American students unhappy?

While there are countless causes for students’ declining mental health and increasing unhappiness, the most important cause remains financial and academic hardship. College education in the United States is expensive and demanding, and only a small class of society can afford it without educational assistance. Similarly, postgraduate studies in the US are competitive, with increasing social and academic pressures pushing most students to the breaking point. These two reasons are also the main factors behind the growing popularity of EdTech platforms in the country. These platforms, such as Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY), offer users an affordable and accessible platform to gain the education necessary to pursue jobs in a variety of industries, without having to worry about high tuition fees and juggling classes and work. Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) was founded in 2010 as an EdTech company and has now expanded globally with hubs around the world. He provides academic and professional tutoring in over 60 different languages. For academic education, it offers self-paced university courses. For students who are looking forward to gaining professional skills to get a job, Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) provides technical certificates. Its business clients include over 50% of Fortune 100 companies.

The story continues

On June 6, Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) announced plans to partner with Amazon Web Services to launch a generative AI skills program. Titled Unlocking the power of GenAI with AWS, program will be offered through the Udemy Business Leadership Academy (UBLA). The six-week cohort learning program will help students become familiar with GenAI tools and use them to drive digital transformations in their organizations. With GenAI applications at an all-time high across industries, the program will help students and professionals alike by offering them an accessible and affordable platform that will enable them to succeed in their careers or start a new one with the right skill set.

On June 20, the company announced the expansion of its badge preparation and certification offerings, which will now be available to all students with a Personal Plan subscription. Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) also introduced new features for Udemy Business users, giving them access to structured content for third-party certification exams. Users will also be able to track their progress via an innovative and personalized dashboard. Since the company is a certified host of 1EdTech Open Badges v2.0, it also allows its customers to host their newly earned certificates and badges on the Udemy Business platform. In this way, the company offers students around the world development and learning opportunities comparable to those offered by brick-and-mortar universities.

A queue of students working on computers at an after-school tutoring center.

Our methodology

We used a consensus approach and a survey of Reddit guests to compile a list of the 21 colleges with the most dissatisfied students. First, we checked ten online resources from education experts to compile a list of the 50 colleges attended by the most dissatisfied students. We then looked at ten Reddit threads in which commenters were asked to name the colleges attended by the most unhappy students in the US. We only selected threads that had more than 20 comments and studied more than 300 comments to create a shortlist of universities that had the most mentions among Reddit users. We then counted the number of upvotes for each comment and selected the 21 universities with the highest number of upvotes. The 21 colleges where students are the most unhappy are ranked in ascending order by the number of upvotes on Reddit.

Note: This list is not exhaustive and does not reflect our opinion. The ranking is based solely on the opinions of mass consumers on Reddit.

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The university with the most unhappy students

1. Simmons University

Number of upvotes on Reddit: 436

Simmons University tops our list of the 21 universities with the most unhappy students, with 436 upvotes on Reddit. This private university is located in Boston, Massachusetts and was founded in 1899. The institute was formerly called Simmons College, founded by John Simmons. However, in 2018, it reorganized its structure, changing its name to Simmons University. The average cost of attending the institute is approximately $18,000 after aid, with an acceptance rate of 76% and a graduation rate of 81%. The institute is well known among the masses and the reason behind its students’ unhappiness is probably due to academic stress. Nevertheless, the institute is a renowned private university with an enrollment of 1,746 undergraduate students in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Do you want to learn more about other universities included in our ranking? Please read the detailed report on the subject 21 universities with the most unhappy students.

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