Title: Combating Student Loneliness and Isolation in College: Help, Support, and Resources
Headings: Helping College Students Combat Loneliness
Helping College Students Combat Loneliness
The Isolation Epidemic and the Explosion of Loneliness in College Students
How Common is Loneliness?
What’s Causing Our Loneliness?
Signs of Loneliness
Loneliness vs. Solitude
Loneliness
Solitude
Overcoming Loneliness
Five Things You Can Do About Loneliness and Five Things to Avoid
Do This
Avoid This
How Schools Are Combating Loneliness
Mental health centers
Counseling
Task forces and initiatives
Hotlines
Advice from a Student on Beating Loneliness
1) In your experience as a hall director, how and when did you need to offer emotional support for your residents?
2) At your school where you were a hall director, did they offer on-campus counseling services for students? If so, did students take advantage of it? Are there any other resources on that campus that you would refer students to in tough times?
3) Do you have a personal anecdote for when a student came to you with negative feelings that stemmed from feelings of loneliness, anxiety, depression, or homesickness? If so, how did you offer support?
4) What is something that first-year students should know, in your opinion, about dealing with living away from home for the first time, making new friends, or acclimating to new surroundings?
5) Being a new college student is tough. Any tips for time management, both for academics and social life so that students give themselves a chance to adapt and learn at the same time?
What Parents Can Do to Recognize & Combat Loneliness
Student Loneliness FAQs
Is it okay or normal to be lonely in college?
Is homesickness the same as loneliness?
How long does homesickness or loneliness last?
What if you have no friends in college?
Should I leave college if I’m lonely?
Loneliness as a Symptom of Something Else
Additional Resources
American College Health Association Mental Health Index
HealthLine.com: How to Deal with Loneliness in Today’s World
InsideHigherEd.com: All by Myself
Mayo Clinic: What Parents Need to Know
Mind.org: Loneliness
Mon Ami.io: What You Should Know About Being Lonely in College
PsychCentral.com: Feeling Lonely at College
The Foundation for Art and Healing: Fact Sheet

Content: Feelings of loneliness and isolation also impact returning upperclassmen and graduate students. How Common is Loneliness? To put things in perspective, let’s consider a study completed by the Foundation for Art and Healing. In 2017, the foundation conducted a survey with 48,000 college students: 64% of them reported they felt very lonely in the previous 12 months
62% reported overwhelming anxiety
69% said they felt “very sad”
53% reported feeling hopeless
Approximately 12% had seriously considered suicide
Suicidal thoughts or threats to oneself, which are frequently linked to loneliness and are among some of the most common concerns for college students in the U.S. today, have risen in recent history. A study completed by Penn State University’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health reported that, over the course of nine years between 2010-2019: Non-suicidal self-injury has risen by 6.9%
Serious suicidal ideation by 12.7%
Suicide attempts increased by 2.6%
No doubt, student loneliness and isolation cause serious issues among college and university populations and affect more young people than the general population knows. Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors that may be causing loneliness and negative feelings among students today so we can more easily identify the signs. What’s Causing Our Loneliness? The causes of loneliness and negative feelings for college and university students come from both potentially obvious and surprising sources.