Well, her babysitter is apparently *not* miserable at college, so why assume she's naturally stressed-out?

Honestly, the workload at GDS is pretty intense and there are lots of pretty demanding extracurriculars.

The three-meetings-per-week class schedule seems to mean more classes (and more homework and less in-class practice -- which matters in things like math and foreign languages) than I had in high school.

"Balance" often takes the form of spending as much time doing extracurriculars (sports, debate, drama) as academics -- which can really cut into sleep (not to mention leisure).

The open til 10pm and on Saturdays campus and lots of homework over the weekend can create a feeling that you're never "done" with school (for the day or week). I certainly didn't grow up like that (though I've BTDT as an adult and, yes, it's stressful). For some kids, GDS probably feels like a bootcamp for future workaholics.

For all miserable GDS babysitters, there are a few happy go lucky GDS babysitters. Some people (probably your babysitter is one of them) will be miserable whether they are at GDS, NCS, PBS, ABC, NBC, JFK, IAD, or any other place. Nothing to necessarily do with the school.

We had a babysitter who was a senior at GDS 2 years ago. I have almost never seen anyone as stressed out as this poor gal. Her parents said College was a relief for her. Maybe she was more type A than others but I have trouble forgetting her misery when I think about the school.