The Mix 2024: Managing stress at admissions time
By Ava Drakeford, Hunter College High School
and
Sophie King, Athens Drive High School
A stressed high school junior hunched over a desk, the only visible light coming from a computer screen, palms sweating and tears forming, is an image that comes to mind when thinking of the college admissions process.
Sitting down to make a college list feels like the beginning of a future you are not even the slightest bit ready for. So how do you deal with stress?
One way to handle it is simply to minimize your workload, explained UNC admissions officer Allee Olive.
“They’ve done a study recently where they saw that stress in the senior year was really exacerbated when students had a really long college application list,” Olive said. “Thinking more carefully early on about what really is important…keeping it manageable so that your senior year isn’t entirely dedicated to stress and applying to colleges.”
With a larger number of students applying to a larger number of colleges in recent years, the admissions process at elite schools has become increasingly competitive, resulting in lower acceptance rates.
In a subjective process, students need to prioritize their mental health, and not focus too much on perfection. It’s important to not forget who you are outside of college admissions.
“People can find themselves up really late, 1 a.m., rewriting a single sentence and that can burn someone out really quickly,” said Nathan Pabst, rising senior at Raleigh-based St. Thomas More Academy.
While many elite schools become nearly impossible to achieve acceptance to, many top students overlook how college application stress can be minimized by simply understanding the various colleges available to them. As students continue to narrow their focus on schools with acceptance rates as low as 3%, they fail to consider that the average acceptance rate across U.S. colleges sits at over 70%. There are hundreds of colleges with high acceptance rates that give students strong academic opportunities. Learning not to overlook those colleges will help reduce stress that comes from a fixation on those top schools.
Creating a list of colleges involves finding the right mix of target, safety, and reach schools. Research each school you put on your list.
Olive said it can be a challenge to keep up with each school’s various priorities and deadlines.
“Every school is different,” Olive said. “(There are UNC) deadlines… and another school is going to say (its) deadlines, and we care about these things. I think that that’s tough. So I think as much information as you can get from the school’s website or a school’s regional representative so you can reach out to their admissions counselor.”
Students aren’t the only groups stressed out by the college application process. Many parents find the college search just as daunting. As their children leave home, parents grow anxious over the safety of their college-bound freshman. It can be a major factor in deciding where to spend the next four years.
“I want to make sure that the college is safe. With recent shootings around different colleges, it is very important as a parent to send your kid to a college where you feel they will be safe on a day-to-day basis,” said Geetu Arora, parent to a student at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The College application process is not something a student should tackle alone. While each individual student comes from a different background of resources and connections, many can often reach out to friends and family, school staff, as well as college admissions staff for help. By relying on others, students can better navigate emotional turmoil.