The College Class With a Waitlist—Because It Teaches the One Thing School Never Did
Based on my 2023 conversation with Dr. Tim L. Davis, Associate Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
When psychologist Tim Davis first taught a class on resilience at the University of Virginia, it was tiny.
18 students.
One credit.
Ungraded.
Today, it enrolls 150 students a semester with waitlists just as long.
Not because it teaches finance, coding, or AI.
Because it teaches something students quietly admit they don’t know how to do:
How to struggle without falling apart.
And right now, that skill might be more valuable than anything else universities teach.
Here’s the backstory—and why this class is spreading by word of mouth among students and parents.
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The College Class Students Can’t Stop Talking About
Every fall, millions of students arrive on college campuses carrying the same invisible thought:
Everyone else seems to know what they’re doing.
They assume their classmates are confident.
Prepared.
Sure of themselves.
But the truth is simpler—and more uncomfortable:
Most of them are just as unsure.
Psychologist Dr. Tim Davis spent 20 years watching this play out from the inside.
Before teaching at UVA, he worked as a clinical director for college counseling centers. His job was to help students who were overwhelmed by the pressures of college life.
And the numbers were clear.
Students today are more anxious than any generation measured before them.
More pressure.
More expectations.
More uncertainty.
But Davis noticed something else, too.
The way universities were trying to solve the problem didn’t scale.
Why Therapy Alone Can’t Solve Student Anxiety
Traditional mental health support follows what psychologists call the medical model.
Students struggle → they seek counseling → they receive treatment.
This works.
But it reaches only a small fraction of students.
Think about the logistics.
A counseling group might include 8 students.
It requires trained clinicians.
Administrative time.
Case documentation.
For those eight students, it can be life-changing.
But what about the thousands who never walk into the counseling center?
Davis started wondering:
What if resilience could be taught before students reached that point?
Not in therapy.
In a classroom.
The Experiment
At UVA, Davis tried something unconventional.
He launched a small seminar called “Resilience in Young Adulthood.”
The format was simple.
Students would:
• learn the science of resilience
• practice skills for managing stress
• talk openly about challenges most students hide
The class maxed out at 18 students.
Then something strange happened.
Students started talking about it.
The Class That Grew 10x in Three Years
Word spread.
Students told their friends.
Friends joined the waitlist.
Soon the class expanded.
18 → 35 → 75 → 105 → 120.
Now the course enrolls 150 students per semester—and still fills instantly.
After 15 years in student mental health, Dr. Davis says he had never heard feedback like this.
Students weren’t just saying the class was interesting.
They were saying something much bigger.
It was changing how they approached their lives.
The Assignment That Changes Students
At the center of the class is a project called the Resilience Experiment.
Each student must design a challenge with three rules:
It has to:
1️⃣ Scare you
2️⃣ Create real anxiety
3️⃣ Make you unsure you can succeed
Students propose the challenge, attempt it over the semester, and write about what happened.
Some start difficult conversations.
Some try leadership roles they’ve avoided.
Some confront fears they’ve been carrying for years.
The result?
Stories of growth that often surprise even the students themselves.
Because the real lesson of the class isn’t motivational.
It’s psychological.
The Most Powerful Lesson Students Hear
One idea from the course sticks with almost everyone.
It’s simple.
And almost no students have heard it clearly before.
Give yourself permission to struggle.
In high school, struggle often feels like failure.
You’re expected to get good grades.
Know the answers.
Perform.
But college—and adulthood—work differently.
Struggle is part of the process.
Sometimes, struggle is the signal that you’re doing something meaningful.
Why Parents Are the Real Audience
Here’s the surprising twist.
Davis believes the first audience for these ideas isn’t students.
It’s parents.
Graduating high school seniors rarely pick up a book about resilience on their own.
But parents—watching their kids step into adulthood—are searching for guidance.
The goal isn’t controlling their path.
It’s finding the balance between support and independence.
Davis describes it this way:
Hold on loosely, but don’t let go.
Enough support to know they’re not alone.
Enough space to let them grow.
The Bigger Question
The success of the resilience class raises a bigger question for universities everywhere.
What if we stopped assuming students already know how to navigate pressure?
What if we taught resilience the same way we teach economics or biology?
Not after students burn out.
Before.
Because one lesson students consistently say they wish they had learned earlier is this:
You’re not the only one who feels like you don’t belong.
Almost everyone does.
And learning to face that feeling—without letting it define you—may be one of the most important skills of adulthood.
Timothy L. Davis, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. A clinical psychologist, he specializes in building resilience, team leadership, and emotional intelligence. He previously served as the Executive Director for Resilience & Leadership Development at UVA.
I first stumbled on Dr. Davis’s brilliance in a lecture hall in 2018. Years later, I was able to track him down and get his advice for students and parents on developing emotional resilience in college students. I’ve summarized his advice in the handouts below.
