Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the biggest barriers to educational equity in today’s university system. Colleges and universities have made significant efforts to admit more low-income and minority students. Some have achieved success in doing so. But research shows that there are a number of ways in which supporting low-income and minority students through the admissions process simply isn’t enough.

It’s not hard to see how having a different SES can impact your educational pathway. Afterall, SES affects nearly every aspect of our lives.

According to the American Psychological Association, your socioeconomic status, and specifically the presence of poverty, “Is not a single factor, but rather is characterized by multiple physical and psychosocial stressors.” They continue: “Further, SES is a consistent and reliable predictor of a vast array of outcomes across the life span, including physical and psychological health.”

Thus, SES affects all of our interactions that we have with the world: physical, social, emotional, and otherwise. In essence, this means that students who are from a lower socioeconomic bracket are more likely to face stress as a result of that, which can in turn impact their physical and mental health.

Students who come from a lower socioeconomic bracket are more likely to fall victim to these kinds of stressors–especially those who are forced by necessity to have outside jobs or work study positions in order to afford college. Military veterans or active duty members can also face similar circumstances and stressors while attending school. The same can also be said for those who are attending college through athletic scholarships.

But until these social challenges can be confronted at a more institutional level in the United States, there must be solutions available to help students who are currently enrolled. After all, college attendance costs are at an all time high in the U.S.What can colleges and universities do to help these kinds of students be more successful? What can the students themselves do to help them be more successful in college?

The answer for colleges is a complicated one. Many have rules and regulations that aim to make it easier for students to balance their work-school life, including rules that limit the hours students can work during semesters they’re enrolled. While well intentioned, those rules can cause students to seek positions outside of the university. Those places of work may be less likely to be committed to a student’s scheduling needs throughout the semester. Though these rules are meant to protect students from being overworked by the university itself, the solutions are clearly not universally helpful or practical.

Currently, it seems as though the most effective way to help students with their work-life balance lies within themselves.

So for students reading this, there are a number of things you can do in order to prioritize your work-life balance.

Step one? Be honest with yourself, your friends, and your family about your time constraints. Often, we find ourselves feeling guilty for saying no to friends, family, and other social obligations. For those who are students, education needs to be at the forefront of your priorities, and it’s something that work, friends, and family need to be aware of. Don’t feel guilty about scheduling out blocks of time that are reserved for study, coursework, and extracurriculars, as it will indicate to friends and family that you have specific times available for socialization.

Next, it’s important that you schedule time for yourself. Unplug from your responsibilities. Let yourself recover from the mental, social, emotional, and physical stresses that you have endured that week. Of course, prioritize the tasks that are necessary to your life, livelihood, social life and schoolwork, but be sure to give yourself time to recover from all of that as well.

For those who are particularly strapped for cash, it may be worth looking into additional ways to pay for college, including scholarship opportunities, available grants, employer-based opportunities, and even taking out loans. Money is one of the main sources of stress regarding the college experience, especially for those that are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Re-evaluating how you pay for college can allow you to open up your work-study-social schedule in a way that allows you to get more out of your college experience.

There are also a number of small day-to-day things one can do in order to help make it through, in the event that none of these solutions are available.

Pay close attention to the signs of emotional or physical stress, which can range from panic attacks, overt pressure, depression, issues with sleeping, or drinking to excess. You can help combat those in a number of ways, including checking in with any campus mental health professionals. You can also be sure to keep up with exercise habits, practicing positive self talk, keeping in contact with friends and loved ones, and being sure to prioritize things that will allow you to achieve highly, but not exhaust you permanently.

Socioeconomic status is a large indicator of one’s potential ease of success in college. While it’s important that colleges and universities look more deeply into ways in which they can best support low income students, it’s important that students and university staff find ways that they can best take care of each other.