Learning pressures—both internal and external—play a critical role in shaping academic performance and psychological well-being, especially for first-year college students navigating the transition to higher education. This longitudinal study, conducted at a Midwestern design college, investigates how learning pressures experienced by first-year design students evolved over a four-year period, spanning before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study draws on data collected annually from 2019 to 2023 via digital surveys, allowing for a rare and robust comparison of student perceptions across distinct educational and, to an extent, societal conditions. All students in the study participated in a common first-year core curriculum required for admission into their final design discipline. A total of 358 students completed the survey, which included eight demographic questions and 17 items representing nine dimensions of pressure: peer pressure, self-expectation, situational pressure, future uncertainty, time constraints, emotional health, financial concerns, achievement, and access to resources.

Initial findings reveal that self-expectation was consistently the most significant source of pressure, surpassing external factors such as peer and situational pressures. Comparative data analysis reveals notable shifts in pressure patterns during and after the pandemic, especially in areas related to emotional health and time management. These trends point to broader systemic and pedagogical implications for supporting first-year design students in increasingly complex learning environments.

In addition to quantitative results, the study incorporates newly analyzed qualitative data to enrich understanding of students’ lived experiences beyond Likert-scale responses. These insights provide a nuanced understanding of how learning pressures manifest and change over time, offering guidance for how institutions might better adapt support systems—while also shedding light on the specific impacts of the pandemic on student stress and expectations. The research framework developed for this study may also serve as a model for replication at other institutions seeking to assess and respond to the pressures faced by their own students.

Keywords: Learning Pressures, pandemic, student well-being.