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All night study sessions. Nails bitten to the quick. Dark circles under the eyes. Final exams are next week, and students at UC Berkeley are gearing up for the most stressful time of the semester. 

Counselors working at the Student Life Advising Services said that for some students, the pressure to succeed is overwhelming. And around finals week, many reach their breaking point. 

“A lot of students come in teary-eyed and frustrated at this time of year,” said Saba Ali, a peer adviser who said her calendar is completely booked with appointments. A small number of the students she advises are so anxiety-ridden that they have contemplated suicide, Ali said.  

But most just suffer from simple procrastination. 

“The majority of people who come in here just want to vent,” she said. “They're not looking for a solution, they know the solution. They know they’ve got to stop talking about how much work they have to do and go hit the books.” 

But hitting the books is not that easy for everyone. Fabrizio Mejia, an academic counselor at the advising service, said that developing good study habits can be a challenge-particularly for students who are the first in their families to attend college. 

“Their biggest problem is realizing that they belong here. They are usually coming from low-income schools where the standards are different than they are for students coming from better schools,” Mejia said. His average caseload during finals week is six students a day, and he said many of them are unfamiliar with academic life. 

“A lot are not just here for themselves, but for their family. They are sort of like pioneers-and that can be a huge burden,” Mejia said. 

According to the Office of Student Research, 16.4 percent of last year’s freshman class had parents with a high school education or less. Harold Campbell, the Director of the Academic Achievement Division, said that some 6,500 students at UC Berkeley are educational “trailblazers” within their families. His program is federally supported to assist 350 of them to stay in school. 

Barbara Mumby knows how tough it can be. A Native American, she became the first in her family to pursue a college degree when she transferred to Berkeley from a community college last year. She said it took her two semesters just to figure out how to find the support services she needed to study effectively. 

“When you first get here there is this fear of the unknown,” Mumby said. “There is this terror because you don't know if you're going to pass.” She said that her family keeps her going. “They are so proud of me for making it this far, and I don't want to let them down.” 

Priscilla Cervantez, also a first generation student, said that when she arrived at Berkeley as a freshman last year, she was ready to hit the ground running. She signed up for study groups and tutoring sessions at the Student Learning Center. This year, she said she has a rigorous twenty-five hour a week study schedule for her economics class, which is a prerequisite for her major. 

“For me, there was no other option than to go to college.” Cervantez said, adding that her parents, themselves immigrants from Mexico, “bought into that mainstream American ideology that the key to success is education. That really rubbed off on me.” 

Though many of these students have a cheering section at home, Campbell said they still need all the support they can get during finals. 

“Finals are a traumatic time for everyone, but is especially so for these students who are still feeling their way through the system,” he said. “They knew the ropes in high school and community college, but this new circumstance is unfamiliar, and they internalize that as a personal deficit.” 

Fortunately, Campbell said, there are many resources at Cal to help first generation students manage the final exam crunch-including student peer groups, individual counselors and tutors. 

“There is a myth at Berkeley that everyone is doing well and that feeds itself,” said Mejia, one of those counselors. “It goes on and on until people finally break down and look for someone to help.”