Don’t Let College Overwhelm You

In the back of every high school student’s mind is the frightening thought of college. The questions “Where will I go?” “Can I get into my dream school?” “Wait, what is my dream school?” surround our heads and cause loads of stress.

Now although stress is natural and comes with college planning, it can be lessened through doing the following.

  • Before you find your perfect school, make sure you know the following: What you are looking to major in (this can be more than one), the ideal number of students you want at the school, if you want a private or public university, whether or not it is a dry campus, or any other thing that is critical for a college top have.
  • Once you do that, make a list of all possible schools that you may want to attend that fits your criteria. Then put the schools into three categories: Safe, Reach, and Given. Safe schools are those that your SAT/ACT scores along with GPA and all other criteria the college wants are what you offer. The Reach colleges are the colleges that may be a little higher and may want more than you can offer. Remember, it’s normally not too late to better your application, you just have to work harder. And lastly, the Given scores are the ones that you have what the school wants and more, it is almost certain that if you apply, you will be accepted.
  • After you determine the schools that you are interested in attending as well as if they are a reach or safe school, see what else you may need to do to get into your Reach This may include raising your GPA, getting a higher ACT/SAT score or do more extracurricular activities.
  • Once you begin to narrow down schools and feel like you have a rather good chance of going, start visiting them and make sure that the campus is one that you could see yourself at for four years!

After completing these steps, you should have a little more confidence into your future and college life. Remember, college should be a fun and happy experience, don’t let stress take away from that.