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“COMBO”

If you noticed more focus on mental health initiatives in the run-up to this year’s USG elections, there’s a good reason, according to results from the third USG Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO).

35.3% of students surveyed report having mental health challenges that they did not experience before coming to Princeton, and certain groups are more at risk than others. Women were significantly more likely to feel depressed, overwhelmed, out of place, or experience new mental health challenges, as were LGBT students, who are also more likely to take a year off from school than the average student. Black students were only 70% as likely as white students to rate their emotional health as “higher than average.”

Life does seem to be better if you’re an athlete. They’re less likely to report stress due to difficulties with friends or relationships and report feeling social anxiety much less frequently, and they rate their emotional health, social self-confidence, and leadership ability above the average Princeton student more often than non-athletes.

Athletes and Mental Health

Dec 13, 2011

COMBO III: Princeton Will Drive You Crazy. Literally.

By Lauren Zumbach

Posted in Goings On Also tagged mental health, surveys, USG Leave a comment

At yesterday afternoon’s CPUC meeting, USG Treasurer Trevor Martin ‘11 presented to the Council the COMBO II survey results. Remember those depressing survey results? Midway through the presentation, President Shirley Tilghman suddenly exclaimed in horror. What had upset her?

Martin had been explaining a bar graph that showed social sciences, the most popular category of majors, with the lowest percentage of students who said they chose their major based on “academic passion.” Fortunately for Tilghman, the bar graph had been scaled so that the lowest category of majors (social sciences) appeared to be at about 50 percent, instead of the 70+ percent that it actually was. After someone pointed this out to her, Tilghman was able to calm down, but not before exclaiming, “I was ready to shoot myself!”

The CPUC had just gotten a little bit awkward. But the nervous laughter soon subsided, and the presentation moved forward.

We also learned a couple disconcerting factoids about our psychological well-being when the director of Counseling and Psychological Services at McCosh, Anita McLean, gave a presentation about the office’s services.

Dec 15, 2009

Funny/Awkward Things Shirley Tilghman Says

By Brian No

Posted in Faculty, Musings Also tagged CPUC, Shirley Tilghman Leave a comment

Stereotypes tend to be nasty conjectures, and Princeton has plenty of them. But recently released survey results from the USG seem to indicate that many campus stereotypes are more or less true. The COMBO II survey was administered in spring 2009 (the first COMBO was administered in 2007), an anonymous survey that looks at the effects and relationship of family income, high school type, eating club membership, ethnicity, happiness, and academic major choices.

A lot of the findings (analyzed by ORF 245 and James Coan ‘09) are quite interesting and even troubling. For the most part, they just confirm everything we’ve always suspected. A summary of the survey findings (with graphs!):

Income and ethnicity strongly impact which dining option students choose
- Wealthier students and white students are more likely to join an eating club
- White students tend to be from wealthier families than non-white students