By Blake Birenkrant, Manalapan High School
Applying to colleges today is vastly different than it was in the past. The main reason for this is how increasingly competitive getting into college has become, especially for schools deemed in the top 20. It’s not that these colleges are just trying to seem like they are super competitive by rejecting many students to lower their acceptance rates. It’s a fact that the number of students applying to college each year has increased dramatically, mainly due to the ease of just submitting any application. With this highly competitive college application environment comes high levels of stress for high schoolers all across the country. As a junior myself at Manalapan High School, I can safely say that there is a lot of pressure with this whole process. Luckily, there are a number of ways to deal with the stress and anxiety that comes with teens applying to colleges. But first, let’s dive into what exactly makes college so competitive and, consequently, so stressful for students today.
The Common Application
Why is applying to college so easy today? It’s because you can apply to almost any college you want on one website: The Common Application. Better known as the Common App, this website allows you to create a universal application that can be used to send to almost every college in the country. Of course, there are exceptions, such as Georgetown and the University of California schools, but many students only use Common App since all the schools they are applying to are already on it. This universal tool makes it easy to apply to all the colleges you want, but it’s the main contributor to the increasingly competitive environment of college. Students today try to do everything to stand out in the thousands of virtual applications these schools receive, which can be very stressful and high-pressure for high-achieving students.
Academics
The main part of college applications today, and possibly the most stressful, is the academic portion. To get into competitive schools, students need to get the best grades possible while taking the hardest classes possible, on top of trying to beat out their peers in class rank.
Grade Point Average: Perhaps the biggest indicator of a student’s academic ability is their GPA. The GPA is a calculator that assigns a certain amount of points to each letter grade (A+, B-, etc.) and finds the average of these points across all of the classes the student has taken. A common scale for GPA is out of 4.0 points, but many schools also have what’s known as a weighted GPA system, where classes that are more difficult get awarded bonus GPA points. This system is great for being a good measure of how academically capable a student is, but it also creates a lot of stress as students attempt to keep straight A’s throughout their entire high school career.
Course Rigor: As if getting perfect grades wasn’t already challenging enough, colleges today like to see that students are challenging themselves in their course load. The difficulty of a student’s high school schedule is referred to as their course rigor. To stay competitive in college applications, students are expected to take some of the hardest courses their high school offers. These classes can be a variety of honors, advancement placement (AP), dual-enrollment, and International Baccalaureate (IB).
Class Rank: Another big contributor to the stress that comes with applying to college is the idea of class rank. Class rank is a ranking system that places students in order of their GPAs, and while not all schools consider it, those that do usually value it very highly in their admissions process. This concept heavily increases pressure among students who are always trying to one-up their classmates, and even friends, in their classes, fostering a somewhat unhealthy competitive environment.
Standardized Testing
SAT and ACT: Another large and stressful part of applying to college is standardized tests that students take to showcase their academic ability further. The two tests that students can take are the SAT and the ACT. These tests are very difficult because they test students on the knowledge they’ve accumulated throughout their entire high school career in a timed exam format. These tests require tons of preparation as they aren’t ordinary high school exams. However, many schools still do still have a test-optional policy that doesn’t require students to submit a test score on their application.
AP exams: One other major standardized test score that students can put on their applications is their score on their AP exams. AP classes are college-level courses designed to be introductory classes in subjects such as biology and U.S. history. The culmination of these courses is the AP exams, which are standardized finals where students can possibly earn college credit and show colleges that they can excel in advanced classes on a standardized level. Although these tests are completely optional, they still add stress to students who want to do well on them since these tests are extremely difficult and can possibly require months of preparation.
Activities and Honors
Extracurricular activities: For top colleges, such as the Ivy League schools or other private schools, having good grades is not enough to be admitted. That is why extracurricular activities have become such an important part of applying to college. An extracurricular activity is anything that you do that isn’t eating, sleeping, or schoolwork. However, the activities that colleges are looking for students to do are more complex than simple hobbies like being part of clubs, doing in-school or out-of-school sports, having a job, etc. The reason that these activities put a lot of stress on students is due to time management struggles. Doing all of your homework and studying for challenging classes while working on outside activities for a club and having a job can be very time-consuming and hard to manage, putting a lot of stress and pressure on students.
Honors/Awards: Colleges today want students with a lot of talent and ability to really thrive at that school and go on to pursue great accomplishments. Students can present this talent in college applications through awards. Awards can be any recognition received at a club competition, for a test score, or some achievement in being part of an organization. This aspect of having to compete and actually win in something is just one more thing that adds stress to students.
Essays (Common App and Supplemental)
The last large aspect of college applications is the essays that students have to write to share information with colleges that cannot be displayed in the rest of their application. The first and most important essay for students to write is the Common App essay; this is the essay written on the Common App website and is sent to every college to which a student applies. In addition, many colleges have their own separate supplemental essays that are specific to their school (such as “why do you want to attend here”?). Essays add a lot of stress to students because thinking of something interesting to write about in a short amount of space can be extremely challenging and require a lot of intense thought.
Ways to Deal With the Stress of Applying to College
As a junior currently in high school, I have been experiencing all of the college application aspects above, including maintaining good grades, taking hard classes, doing well on standardized testing, etc. The main reason why applying to college can be so stressful is because all of the aspects of applying can be very overwhelming. There are a lot of different things that go into college applications, and staying on top of all of these while simultaneously worrying about whether you will get into these colleges can induce a lot of stress. Luckily, I have found different ways to deal with the stress of applying to college, which for me has so far proved effective.
- Staying Organized: The overwhelming aspect of college applications comes from the fact that there are so many things going on at once. I have found that by really focusing on one task at a time and organizing different parts of my application, I have been able to feel much more confident and thus less stressed throughout this whole process.
- Taking Breaks for Pleasure: Applying to colleges can almost be a full-time job with the amount of essays and different application parts that have to be filled out, on top of maintaining good grades and staying involved in activities. That is why I found it so helpful and important to take breaks from everything by engaging in activities that I like, such as playing video games and watching sports. This helps me to stay grounded and not get burned out in this process.
- Seeking Support: I found it so important to realize that I am not alone in this whole college process. Taking advantage of the support that others give you is critical to reducing stress and feeling overwhelmed. Friends, family, teachers, counselors, etc., can all be helpful in the college application process, whether it’s for technical purposes or just for reassurance and encouragement.
- Maintaining Perspective: Having the breakthrough that getting into college is not the be-all and end-all for the rest of my life was so helpful for reducing stress in this process. Of course, applying to college is important, but realizing that not getting into one college isn’t the end of the world helped me to feel more relaxed with college applications and to know that a rejection isn’t the end of the world.
- Limiting Comparison: Another surprisingly huge contributor to college application stress is when we compare ourselves to our school peers and to other people our age on social media. This can make us feel that we aren’t good enough for a certain skill and foster an unhealthy competitive environment. When I started to focus on myself and what I could do, I found that everything became a lot more chill rather than stressful.
The current era of college applications and admissions can be quite stressful for students. Between all the required college application elements and the general competitiveness, this whole process can be extremely overwhelming for students. In the grand scheme of things, college is just one part of everyone’s life. Of course, it is important, but knowing that it isn’t the be-all and end-all is important. The methods above for reducing this stress are effective, and it is crucial to remember that you are never alone in the college application process. Although it’s competitive, everyone is in it together.