Eating a healthy and well-balanced diet is usually a major obstacle while being a college student. Therefore, it is not shocking to hear that students nation wide are taking some sort of medication to make up for the vitamins and minerals they are not attaining through their diet. In simpler terms, more and more students are choosing to take a dietary supplement such as “Centrum” or “One-a-Day.” 
The Journal of Nutrition Education performed a study where they looked at how many students take a supplement and for what reason.
Notable results:
– 37% of students report taking a dietary supplement weekly of daily
– Most popular vitamins/minerals: calcium, vitamin E, and vitamin C
– Significantly more users than nonusers believed that food supplements increased pep and energy, reduced stress, were necessary to ensure proper nutrition, were needed if people felt tired and run down, and that vitamin C could prevent colds.
However, what most students and even the general population are not aware of is unless you are deficient in a particular vitamin/mineral, there is no concrete scientific evidence that promotes the use of dietary supplements. For example, it makes sense of pregnant women to take a folic acid supplement because folate is an imperative vitamin that helps the baby develop in the first trimester. I believe that one of the most common reasons as to why people are taking these supplements is because their physician recommeneded it. 
Unforunately, some physicians are very “pill-oriented” and believe there is a medication that can fix 90% of all problems. As someone studying nutrition, this is very frustrating to myself because we can attain all of the vitamins that are in these supplements through the diet and it is much more affordable.
Here is a video that has reiterated these beliefs and presents some other useful information.
Chicken Soup for the College Student's Soul 