The study examined the relationships between stress and coping strategies among 283 college students. Participants completed questionnaires relating to their stress perceptions, actual academic loads and their coping strategies. The main objective was to explore the effect of stress perceptions on coping behavior while accounting for objective loads and demographic parameters. Multilevel analyses revealed several indications: first, students' coping behavior could be predicted from their reported stress perceptions and their appraisals of their academic-related stress levels; second, students employed mainly task- and emotion-oriented coping strategies; and finally, students' age was a significant factor in determining their coping behavior. Our findings suggest that, in stressful environments, each of the coping strategies functions independently, with the type of strategy adopted depending largely on the specific profile of each student's stress perceptions and demographic characteristics.