“Emotional stress” remains a top reason that students consider “stopping out,” or temporarily withdrawing from higher education, according to a new study. Researchers say promoting campus mental health resources might help win them over.

The report, from Gallup and Lumina Foundation, comes at a time when colleges are facing increasingly severe mental health crises and searching for ways to accommodate student needs for on-campus mental health services.

Photo: Camilla Forte

Amanda Luciano thought the International Academy of Design and Technology was the answer to her prayers—the place that would give her the skills, training, and support to land a dream job in the fashion industry. That didn't happen. 

Instead, IADT was accused of misconduct. But because Luciano had been steered to take out a private loan instead of a federal one, she cannot get debt relief from a recent $6 billion settlement.

More than a decade ago, three states—South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama—banned undocumented students from public colleges. 

The bans, immigration advocates say, are part of a larger message being conveyed by state officials to undocumented students: The doors of opportunity are frozen shut.