A recent New York Times article interviewed 11 high school seniors about their journey through the college application process this past year.
Some of the commentaries is perhaps obvious on the surface— no, attending a higher-ranked college will not lead to a happier life. But, if you stop and seriously think— do I really know that to be true in my full self? There might still be a tiny part of you that questions if there might not be some truth to it. And that’s okay!
As a culture, we are obsessed with rankings, including college rankings, so how can that not influence you even a little bit? Where we can get stuck is in the part of our thinking minds that knows— I don’t cognitively believe a particular outcome will make me happier, but in my heart, I want to be happy, so if there’s something that might make me happier, then I want that! Even if it’s not related to rankings, it can be really helpful to reflect honestly about what are my unconscious expectations or hopes about this application process or about my time in school?
What might I be believing about myself in this moment? It’s very possible that we can be holding certain self-critical or self-defeating beliefs, like I’m not good enough, I’ll always fail, or I have worked so hard, none of it will matter if I don’t get ___. I’ll introduce a very helpful technique called RAIN to really get into the heart of facing these limiting (and untrue) beliefs and self-talk.
College rankings and our cultural obsession with them is a longer, different conversation, but I really like the idea of incorporating student mental health into rankings! Unfortunately, I doubt this will become integrated into the ‘mainstream’ rankings like US News, but there are some good resources to check out to see how colleges stack up when it comes to mental health.
We can see from these students’ honest feedback that the college application process, on top of full-time studenthood and trying to soak up the rest of life is A LOT. Please know that you are not alone. The more students can plan ahead and reach out to find trusted adults and support to manage the process, the less stressful it becomes.