40% of Stanford undergrads receive disability accommodations—but it’s become a college-wide phenomenon as Gen Z try to succeed in the current climate

The pandemic has shaken up college life for good: Since then, social media and AI have revolutionized classroom expectations, and the bar for landing a job after graduation has become impossibly high. Many are now questioning whether getting a degree was even worth it.

The ripple effect of those strains is already showing in campus accessibility offices, where diagnoses of ADHD, anxiety, and depression are rising—and so are requests for extended time on coursework.

At Harvard, 21% of undergraduates received disability accommodations last year, an increase of more than 15% over the past decade, according to data published by the National Center for Education Statistics analyzed by the Harvard Crimson. Top schools like Brown, Cornell, and Yale reported similar numbers, roughly in line with