Hi everyone!
It’s the time of the year. I’m a senior currently, and I am looking to apply to some top notch schools in US as an international. (I know that the chances are 1-3%…)
I started my college search in the summer of my junior year, and it seriously stressed me out a lot because I was dead set on ‘getting into top universities’. I wasted so much time scrolling through chance me threads and actually posting one, and had so many sleepless nights. I lost confidence in myself and started thinking that I was worth nothing.
Thanks to some posters on CC I managed to get over the obsession with top universities. Someone told me that not only the top unis are unis worth going, and suddenly everything clicked. I tried picturing myself in my match and safety schools and I noticed that I would also be happy there (I like those schools too!).
That said, getting into dream university is indeed a dream come true. It’s so easy to stress out and lose confidence in ourselves at the prospect of having to compete with so many competitive applicants, so I thought discussing about ways to ease that stress would be a good idea.
Those things worked for me:
- Let go of the obsession with top/reach schools. This is a must. It’s important to love the schools you are applying to, but obsessing over it will do no good to you.
- Find things about yourself that you like. This is important in maintaining your confidence (and sanity!!) during the application process.
- Do not let college application take away your joy of life. It is OK to have some fun, do things that you like and relax while dealing with school work and college essays.
- Tell yourself that college life is going to be fun regardless of where you end up at. I watched a lot of YouTube videos about university rejection, and people still enjoy in schools that were not their top choice.
- Stop wasting time comparing yourself to the people on the chance threads! Do more constructive stuffs instead. I used to do this, and trust me it only makes you feel worse.
- Be mentally prepared for rejection, but know that rejection does not reduce your value. Competitive colleges have way too many eligible applicants than they can accept. So even if you get rejected it doesn’t mean that you’re not gonna be successful.
- Finally… Be yourself! Universities accept you for who you are, not who you try to be.
I would be glad if anyone could share their methods of reducing admission induced stress, as seniors need a lot of them at times like this! 