Posted by Jack White on February 25, 2026, 8:57 am
I’m a sophomore at a state school in Ohio, and I swear college feels less about learning and more about constantly proving you’re productive. Between internships, research, side hustles, and posting wins on LinkedIn, it’s exhausting. Even professors mention “building your brand.” Was it always this intense, or are we stuck in some weird hustle era? How do you stay motivated without feeling trapped in nonstop comparison?
Re: When Did College Turn Into a 24/7 Performance?
I’m a sophomore at a state school in Ohio, and I swear college feels less about learning and more about constantly proving you’re productive. Between internships, research, side hustles, and posting wins on LinkedIn, it’s exhausting. Even professors mention “building your brand.” Was it always this intense, or are we stuck in some weird hustle era? How do you stay motivated without feeling trapped in nonstop comparison?
I graduated from UCLA in 2016, and I felt the shift even then, but it’s louder now. Back when I started, people quoted Steve Jobs and talked about passion. By senior year, everyone was obsessing over GPA decimals and who got into Google. A study I read said over 60% of students report constant anxiety about performance, and that tracks with what I saw in Boston and later in Chicago when I went to grad school.
I hit a wall junior year. I actually googled online assignment help at 3 a.m. during finals because I was fried. I even considered hiring a professional college essay writer for a scholarship essay after my dad got laid off. And yes, I once typed do my math homework for me into a search bar out of pure panic. I didn’t go through with most of it, but the impulse told me something was off.
What helped wasn’t grinding harder. It was shrinking my world. I stopped tracking what everyone else was doing and focused on two classes I genuinely cared about. I met a professor who’d worked on research tied to the Obama administration, and he reminded me that depth beats noise. College didn’t get easier, but it got quieter in my head. That changed everything.
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