I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.
See all posts Frank GogolFinancial Stress, International Students, and Academic Performance
Updated on April 10, 2024
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It probably won’t surprise you to learn that stress will negatively impact people. What may surprise you, though, is that a staggering 70% percent of college students reported experiencing stress related to their financial situation. In fact, 80% of top university executives say that mental health is more of a priority today than it was just three years ago.
There is a strong correlation between stress (and the resulting anxiety) and academic performance among college students. For international students — who are burdened with additional stressors that their U.S. counterparts are not — the correlation is all the greater.
Below we’ll explore some of the major sources of financial stress faced by international students and how stress and anxiety can negatively impact a student’s academic performance.
Why International Students are at Greater Risk of Financial Stress
To better understand the financial stress of international students, we surveyed 1,000 Stilt customers who are studying in the U.S. on an F1 visa. We found that most international students experience stress around the cost of attendance and travel costs related to attending school in the U.S. We also found that a large majority of those students felt stressed due to their lack of access to
67% of International Students Feel Stress Related to Cost of Attendance
The cost of attendance is not necessarily more expensive for international students, specifically. Rather, public universities in the U.S. split the cost of attendance into in-state and out-of-state, with the latter of the two being the more expensive and the category that every F1 student falls into.
For example, let’s look at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Undergraduate Studies:
- In-state students pay $5,624 per 12+ credit hours
- Out-of-state students pay $19,464 per 12+ credit hours
That’s a nearly 4x great cost for out-of-state and international students.
The playing field between U.S. and international students is more level at private universities, but no better. The average cost of private university education in the U.S. is similar to, if not more expensive than, the average out-of-state tuition at schools in the same state.
Given this reality, it’s no surprise that 67% of survey respondents said that the cost of their education was a source of stress for them. The U.S. counterparts reported similarly — but that’s where the similarities stop.
75% of International Students Feel Stress Related to Cost of Travel
In our survey, a staggering 75% of international students said they feel “very high” financial stress around the costs associated with travel to attend school. One of the biggest financial burdens international students face is travel to and from school for semesters and breaks.
Of course, students who attend school from out-of-state incur higher costs due to travel, but the cost is much less than it is for international students. To illustrate just how large that disparity is, let’s look at an example.
Below is a breakdown of what hypothetical one-way flights. The first is a one-way cross-country flight within the U.S. The other two are similar flights to major cities in India and China, where most international students hail from. All flights were booked at the time of this writing, three months in advance, and using the same travel service. The results are very revealing:
| Miami to Los Angeles | $150 – $350 |
| Miami to Delhi | $530 – $1,000 |
| Miami to Beijing | $600 – $1,300 |
For a similar flight booked for the same dates from Miami to Delhi, that cost rises to $530 – $1,000. From Miami to Beijing, $600 – $1,300. The flight to Delhi is, on average, 306% more expensive than the flight to Los Angeles. The flight to Beijing is 380% more expensive.
And this is just for one flight. Most international students fly to school at the start of the school year, travel home and back to school during winter and spring breaks, and then return home at the end of the school year. That right there is a minimum of six flights per year for four years at between $500 and $1500 per flight.
With yearly travel costs nearing as much as $9,000 (in addition to the high cost of attendance), it’s easy to see why three-quarters of international students are stressed about school-related travel.
87% of International Students Feel Stress Due to Lack of Access to Loans
Most students surveyed said that cost of attendance and travel costs related to being an international student were sources of financial stress. But the item that, understandable, caused the greatest financial stress among F1 visa holders studying in the U.S. didn’t have to do with the costs, but with how they would be covered.
In our survey, 87% of international students said they felt “extreme” stress due to the inability to get
Unlike U.S. students, international students do not qualify for federal
Of the Stilt customers surveyed, 73% said they’d applied with another private U.S. lender before applying with Stilt. Of those students, only 24% reported having their applications approved and 12% reported receiving an interest rate comparable to the national average.
Again, with the high cost of college and added costs faced by international students, it’s not hard to understand why F1 visa holders would feel stress about the financial aspects of getting an education in the U.S. Factor in the extreme barriers to funds to pay for those costs, and it’s plain to see why international students are stressed.
Stress, Anxiety and Academic Performance
Most people don’t realize that there’s a difference between stress and anxiety. Stress is a response to a threat in a situation — like not being able to complete your education because you can’t afford your tuition. Anxiety is a reaction to stress and anxiety has massive negative implications for students.
A 2018 study from the National College Health Assessment found that a staggering 63% of college students in the U..S felt “overwhelming anxiety” in the past year.
That survey also found that 21.9% of students (up from 18.2% in 2008) reported that anxiety had negatively affected their academic performance in the last twelve months. Some of the negative effects included:
- receiving a lower grade on an exam
- receiving a lower grade on an important project
- receiving an incomplete
- dropping a course
It’s also worth noting that these numbers are on the rise. The 2008 National College Health Assessment found that just 18.2% of students have reported that anxiety had affected their academic performance.
In our survey of Stilt customers, we found that 68% of international students reported experiencing “overwhelming anxiety” in the last twelve months and that 32% of those students reported that their academic performance was negatively impacted by their anxiety.
Final Thoughts
Given what we know about the financial stresses facing international students, combined with the information above what we know about the negative impacts of stress and anxiety on academic performance, it’s not hard to see how things like cost of attendance, travel, and access to
It’s also not hard to see how international students with all of their additional costs and more limited access to funds, are at even greater risk.
Frank Gogol
I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.