GET THROUGH COLLEGE WITHOUT STRESS! HERE ARE THE 30 BEST STRESS MANAGING COLLEGES

Boston College's wellness team is highly proactive! They've always got a health campaign running and are always improving. Some of their current campaigns that directly address stress include Let's Talk Stress, which organizes fun competitions, talks and other perks; and BChill, which has 10 core messages that it promotes to all students. The BChill messages are to BOrganized, BRested, BBalanced, BConnected, BActive, BCalm, BNourished, BGenerous, BAuthentic and BSilly. Students can access resources that allow them to achieve all 10 of these messages throughout the year.

When people's minds are engaged in a relaxing, creative way, they feel less stress. There is a range of activities that achieve this, and the University of Santa Barbara has picked a few that do this in the best possible manner. One is pottery. The college runs pottery classes for beginners, intermediates, and advanced learners. A similar program teaches students how to weave and loom fibers, enabling the students to make bags, scarves and much more! Both classes provide fun and rewarding activities completely unlinked to college coursework.

Dartmouth has fine mental health-related stress services, but its innovative technological solution is what puts the college on this list. The college created a unique app called StudentLife, which records students' levels of stress and other emotions. It then predicts the students' GPA based on this mental health assessment. Their initial test of this app showed incredibly accurate GPA predictions. This app is useful because many students will not seek out help and may not realize how strongly stress is affecting their wellbeing. However, an app that indicates stress to a mental health team can be incredibly useful and help get the student back on track. The next phase of StudentLife is still in development, but when it's ready it could be a gamechanger for colleges all over the world.

Another leader in alleviating stress is the University of Georgia. One area where the University of Georgia's health team is leading is with massage therapy. The benefits of massage therapy should be obvious to anyone who has ever received a massage. Each therapist tailors the session to the particular student's situation, massaging a particular area. Some of their techniques include Swedish relaxation massages, deep tissue massages, trigger points, aromatherapy and reiki energy healing. Massage therapy is surely something that all colleges should implement, as most students will benefit from a relaxing massage.

The University of Southern California is really taking stress management to heart. It has a rigorous amount of wellness events that run regularly throughout the year. They also encourage others to submit their own events to their wellness center, so that students are fully aware of the opportunities open to them. And last but not least, the USC marching band has its own way of encouraging students. On the night before the students' last exams, they play encouraging songs outside the library, motivating them to do well.

If you're looking for a college that is dedicated to helping anyone, then look no further than Berkeley. UC Berkeley has extensive destressing programs for all its students and more. For example, the college's Undocumented Student Program protects its students who are undocumented immigrants. They provide counseling, legal and financial aid to these students to ensure that they get through their college years. And for people not studying at the college, they offer a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in the Science of Happiness. Anyone can sign up here and spend 8 weeks learning all about the best ways to be happy.

The University of California, San Diego has implemented a range of helpful programs for its students. Their stress relief efforts are spearheaded by something called the Resources and Relaxation (R&R) squad. This consists of a group of students who are educated in calming other students and providing them with the information they need for things that are stressing them. Additionally, they provide free 4-5 minute neck, back, and shoulder rubs. The R&R Squad is based in a place called The Zone, which offers a range of wellness services, including yoga classes and DIY craft workshops.

The winters in Chicago are harsh. This can have the effect of making stress relief harder for students to access. After all, you can't get to your counseling session if there's a blizzard. That's why the University of Chicago has curated its own array of online stress-reducing resources for students to access any time. This includes a 10-minute meditation video and some mandala coloring pages. The college's physical mental health services are well catered for, though. Pet therapy and yoga are offered. They also encourage students to share their own stress-reducing resources for the benefit of all.

The majority of Arizona State University students have reported excessive levels of stress. Therefore, the university's health center is tackling it head-on. From initial wellness profiles and checklists for students to fill out, to spa nights designed to relax students, there is a range of options. The ASU health center, which additionally offers counseling and other resources, also waives its fees for any student who can't afford it, ensuring that everyone gets the help they need. On top of this, ASU has produced a series of wellness videos that teach students how to look after themselves while studying.

Like Harvard, Tufts University is channeling its stress in a productive way. Their stress pages are largely based around forming effective strategies. This is unsurprising for a college that has pioneered something called retrieval practice, which alleviates student worries by making them take practice tests. Their research has shown that this activity can protect the mind from the negative effects of stress and make it more effective at remembering information. This and other discoveries make Tufts one of the best locations for student stress alleviation on the globe.

Emory University, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is an institution that is combining traditional therapeutic techniques with technology. On top of counseling and group therapy, the university's psychological services are employing the use of a biofeedback clinic. This uses state of the art equipment to monitor a student's muscle tension levels, which then shows which therapeutic techniques are working on the individual. The result is a highly personalized and impactful form of stress relief, which indicates to both the student and counselor which techniques will be best for future implementation.

NYU has recognized the toll that stress is taking upon its students. In the last several years, they've been implementing a range of solutions to stress that actually works. This includes a really impactful mindfulness program, MindfulNYU. It's award-winning and teaches its students eastern philosophy techniques to combat stress. Every day, MindfulNYU has yoga classes, meditation sessions, mindful workshops and more. MindfulNYU has even teamed up with the app Calm College to give their students the ability to access stress-busting tools anywhere.

Wake Forest University took a bold step to reduce stress. In 2013, it gave itself a facelift! What that means is that the college's dean commissioned Dan Biederman to drastically modernize its quad. Biederman, who had previously revamped NYC's Bryant Park, turned the quad into a beautiful place that takes student relaxation to heart. Now students can engage in a number of fun activities on the quad, such as playing an outdoors piano, playing sports, reading books and much more. Many students present at the time of the revamp have attested to the refreshed quad's stress-busting and social atmosphere. The college is so proud, it even put up a webcam. Watch here and feel the stress melt away.

At Malacaster College, the staff, professors, and alumni have come up with an adorable and fun way to destress their students. When it's the height of finals, they bring their dogs onto campus and allow the students to hug and play with them. It's officially called the Petting Away Worry and Stress program, or PAWS for short. This gives the students a well-earned break before diving back into the difficult work of study. Dogs are also deployed during other times of stress. For example, the day after Donald Trump won the presidential election, PAWS members made dogs available for hugging and playing.

St. Andrews, the British college located in a remote corner of Scotland, has learned much about stress. They've even turned to the digital world to help their students who are experiencing stress to excessive levels. They offer all students a cognitive behavioral therapy based stress-busting module that is delivered entirely online. Students can access this resource at any time, and over seven segments the module encourages participants to de-stress themselves. It takes approximately 8 weeks and is a highly convenient solution for busy students.

You may be surprised to see MIT, one of the world's greatest colleges, rank so low on the list. However, it's a college that is in transition. It used to be known as a tough school, with harsh workloads. But in 2015, it suffered from four student suicides. Since this, it has put considerable work in improving student wellness. For example, it has lightened homework loads. Its mental health services have also put much more work into stress relief. The products of this work are a range of stress managing services, such as Koru Mindfulness. This is a class that students can participate in, which is built on evidence-based meditation techniques. These classes focus on developing emerging adult minds in the best possible way.

Oberlin College's students maintain a strong sense of friendly community. There are cooperatives on campus, which house and feed students who contribute. But as Oberlin's website states, "An Oberlin co-op isn't just a place to eat and live. It is a home that is defined, built and sustained by its members." And the students that participate in the co-ops forge strong bonds, helping them get through college without too much stress. Part of it is due to the shared beliefs that co-op members have. For example, the co-ops cater to the group members' dietary requirements, with vegan, vegetarian, Muslim and Jewish dietary co-ops existing. Getting through college with like-minded individuals working together really makes an impact on stress.

UCLA makes the most out of its sunny environment to combat stress. Its outdoor recreation centers are the best in the world, and not just in terms of colleges. They're equipped with an obstacle course, sports stadium, basketball courts, tennis center, aquatic center, adventure center, rock wall, swimming pools and more. That isn't even covering the indoor activities. It makes sense when you think about it. Exercise is a well-known stress and depression fighter, and so is sunlight. By combining the two, UCLA has an amazing stress fix.

The New Orleans based Tulane University has a number of programs in place that ensure students are happy and coping with stress. A leading workshop is called Prioritize YOU!, which gives students tips for sleep promotion, calm breathing, and environmental techniques. It even provides students with a self-care bag to use throughout their studies. For more specific stress-inducing situations, Tulane also runs a range of group therapy programs. They cover the transition into careers, life after a sexual assault, body image worry, grief and worry, self-compassion and more.

The wellness team at the University of North Dakota has done research and put it into an incredible action plan. They cater their stress-busting services around something called "7 Dimensions of Wellness." These seven dimensions are spiritual, social, occupational, environmental, intellectual, emotional and physical. Each student experiencing excessive stress symptoms is treated with the express intention of ensuring that each of the seven dimensions is being catered for. Once these are all in line, then students thrive. It may sound new agey, but really it's all based around science!