EARMUFFS & BLINDERS
Meredith Rogerson, CollegeFind
For high school seniors, winter and early spring often feel a hundred years long. Most seniors have finally made it to their eighth and final semester of high school (hello, senioritis!), and while the urge to cruise through the rest of the year is strong, roughly three months of class, homework, and tests still stand in the way of graduation and—da da da daaa—college! But if you’re a senior, this time of year can also be painful because it is peak waiting time for admissions decisions. Maybe you’ve heard back from your Early Decision and/or Early Action schools, maybe you were deferred, and you know you’ve got until mid-March for final decisions from the rest. Especially in this day and age of instant gratification, finding patience can be challenging. So, as we like to say at CollegeFind, time to break out the earmuffs and blinders!
It can be so tempting to constantly check in with friends, online groups, and message boards to see who got in where and which schools are throwing curveballs. But beware the rumor mill! At CollegeFind, we once worked with a student who had heard from a peer that they had already gotten into a school that was very popular to apply to that year. We received a phone call from Mom and learned that the rumor had indeed spread far and wide; but after looking into it, we discovered that the school in question had not even sent out any decisions yet, and the student had unfortunately been spreading misinformation amongst their peers. Which brings us to our first tip: if you hear something suspicious, ask your college counselor or school guidance
counselor FIRST before letting your mind spiral out.
Read on for our other tips for managing the winter slump!
Trust that you’ve put your best foot forward in your application. You worked hard to get to this point—studied diligently to get the best grades possible, engaged in meaningful extracurriculars, crafted a killer essay, and wowed admissions in your interview (if your schools offered them). You have done everything in your power to showcase what makes you unique and wonderful, so trust that admissions teams will see that.
Comparing yourself to others doesn’t serve you—there will always be someone more qualified and less qualified than you are. It can be so easy for our brains to slip into comparison mode, but this is one of the least helpful things you can do. It is true for most of us in life that there will always be someone better off than we are, as well as somebody worse off, and taking this more grounded and realistic perspective can help us put some distance between ourselves and whatever it is we are worrying about. Plus, even if you think Susie has better grades than you do, you simply have no way of knowing what the rest of her application looks like or how an admissions officer will perceive her, so it absolutely does not serve you to play
the comparison game. Tag yourself out of that ring.
Interrupt with 5-4-3-2-1. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, it can feel impossible to stop thinking about something. If you’re feeling stuck by worry, one of the best things you can do is interrupt your thought train—take back control by counting down from five (out loud if you need to!) and then getting up and changing your environment. Doing this allows you to come back into the present moment where there are lots of opportunities to shift your focus to something more constructive than the worry thoughts.
When in doubt, talk it out. If you are feeling overwhelmed, we recommend finding a trusted adult (parent, counselor, college advisor, even a teacher) to talk it through with. This is a great way to externalize your worries and put them into a healthier perspective. Ultimately, the important thing to remember is that the path you are meant to take will unfold. Trusting in the process can be challenging at times, but in the end it will all be worth it. You got this!!
