The Bradley Review in 2008 and the Australian government's response echoed policy concerns that young people from low socioeconomic status are underrepresented in tertiary education. In order to address this, responses to both recruitment and retention are necessary. While many studies have looked at reasons for student attrition, few investigated the factors that enabled students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds to stay in university. Over 1,000 domestic undergraduate students at the University of Queensland completed an online survey, in which students from low SES backgrounds were compared with students who were not. It was found that while most students experienced a combination of financial, relationship, mental and physical health stress, students from low SES backgrounds experienced more stressors as well as higher levels of stress. While the majority of respondents were aware of student support services, these did not appear to be a major influencing factor on students' reported decisions to stay at university.