Every eighth to eleventh grader will tell you that college is the foremost topic of every
student-to-adult conversation: “What are your plans for the future? Have you done any
volunteer work? What kinds of extracurricular activities have you done? What are you planning to put on your resumé? Do you have any leadership skills or experience?”
It seems like endless hours of studying, stressing, and planning things that are up to five years in the future. And on top of self-inflicted anxiety, parents put on even more pressure. Katherine Pastor-Lorents, a counselor at Flagstaff High School in Arizona, says that the way parents brag about where their children apply for college deeply affects how students function, causing them to become more competitive with their peers and increases their levels of stress and anxiety.
Anxiety and stress are probably the two words most associated with college, which is
fitting because college planning is, to most, the most stressful and anxiety-inducing aspect of their academic career. Many colleges have entire portions of their websites dedicated to explaining how to deal with stress.
When asked if she feels pressure to make big life decisions, Alicia Chowdhury of Herbert Hoover Middle School said, “My parents have high expectations for me” adding that these expectations often cause her significant stress. She then replied to a question of whether teachers and administrators put the same kind of pressure on her with a resounding yes. Finally, she stated that she had “given up trying to decide” what exactly her future might look like.
Alica isn’t alone in her stress. According to The Wall Street Journal, 70% of students say that anxiety is a major problem of their generation, with pressure to get good
grades, do extracurricular activities and fit in socially being cited as its main sources.
Another tremendous source of stress related to college is money. Many students worry
about not being able to pay for college, let alone get into one. So, they often settle for whoever is willing to give them a full ride. According to another Wall Street Journal poll, 64% of students say that getting financial aid is “extremely necessary” for them to be able to go to college.
However, full-ride scholarships are far and few between; only 20,000 students are estimated to get full scholarships per year, according to CBS News. Every year, there are millions of students applying for scholarships and colleges, so one finds themselves wondering, What makes me special? What makes me more appealing than my peers?
These aren’t just broad statements affecting the large population of college applicants; they are real, mentally taxing, and depressing truths that affect millions of teens. So clearly, applying and paying for colleges is anxiety-inducing, but what can be done
about it?
For those in the process of applying to colleges, remember to stay calm and look for support, but for those that find themselves squinting at a prospect that is far in the future, the only thing one can really do is academically and mentally prepare for the chaos and stress that is the college application process.
Article by Abby Nega of Herbert Hoover Middle School
Graphic by Sophia Li of Takoma Park Middle School