4 wouldn't be able to make it," says Tulane sophomore Chris Hall, a double major in biochemistry and mathematics. "You're putting 18,000 bucks a year on the line, and you want to do well." The heavy financial freight, in turn, ratchets up worries about landing a good job after graduation. "There is a high value placed on money and making money," says Bradford King, director of the USC counseling center, "and students feel a great pressure to measure up." Given today's Yup-scale yearnings, meanwhile, measuring up at many an acquisitive campus means landing not merely a rewarding job, but a lucrative and prestigious one that promises a vacation house by the beach and a Jaguar to get there. "Students today," says John Corazzini, director of counseling at Virginia Common- wealth University, "want what it took Mom and Dad 20 years to get, and they want it now." Emotional rescue: Colleges have been known to take a Darwin- ian attitude toward stress, figuring that the strong students would always muddle through somehow. But far more institu- tions today have developed health services that treat students' emotional as well as physical problems. Confronted with a horrific 75 percent minority attrition rate before graduation, for example, the University of Maryland this fall began train- ing residential advisers to be especially sensitive to the prob- lems of isolation these students may face. At Tulane, the coun- seling service runs a telephone "warm line" staffed by students every evening from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. And such schools as Notre Dame offer courses in time management, relaxation technique and other low-key mechanisms for dealing with stress. Collegiate tensions tend to follow certain patterns, the ex- perts say. Freshman year, of course, is rife with separation anxieties and fears of the unknown. Sophomores endure their notorious slump because they "don't have the excitement and plans they had as freshmen," says Tom Crady, associate dean of students at Iowa's Grinnell College. Many may also feel aban- doned by the resident advisers who lavished doting support and attention on them as freshmen. Juniors go through a make-or- I Lock, stock and over the barrel: Trying to make the grade break year, trying to establish their academic credentials. And seniors, says Crady, "start to realize there isn't much time left. They start thinking about what the future holds." But while all students may experience these sources of stress, not all, obviously, suffer burnout and depression. Burnout remains a somewhat inexact label for a range of unhealthy reactions to stress, but counselors have identified early-warn- ing signals. One commonality: an abrupt shift in normal behav- ior patterns, such as the onset of either insomnia or sleeping too much; suddenly skipping meals or bingeing; becoming more withdrawn and/or irritable. Shrugging it off: An overstressed student also tends toward reclusiveness, despondency and unexplained apathy. "A big shrug of the shoulders" in response to questions is a tip-off for the Rev. Thomas Heger, who counsels many students at Ore- gon's Campus Interfaith Ministry. He also looks for "exagger- ated responses to seemingly little problems, like 'I can't be- lieve my roommate left her socks on the floor'." Should any or all of these signs persist for more than two weeks, experts say, it's time to suggest-to a roommate or yourself-that help be sought. In its more severe manifestations, burnout can lead to clinical depression, which displays its own characteristic symptoms. Besides undergoing changes in eating or sleeping habits, a depressive lacks motivation and cannot get involved in the usual daily routines, cannot handle even slight stress and depends for his self-image on the approval of others. He is moody and weepy, feels worthless and hopeless, fatigued and listless. He is unable to enjoy anything. As one recovered depressive put it, "It's the feeling that you can never smile again." In a significant minority, probably about 20 percent of these cases, depressives also go through "hypomanic epi- sodes," bouts of uncontrollable eating, spending, exercising or other frenetic activity. What differentiates those who survive from those who succumb? There are many factors, including biology. Medical researchers increasingly link clinical depression to a genetic Lost in emotion: Romantic tensions can be most traumatic 6 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS OCTOBER 1987