According to the American Psychological Association’s 2013 Stress in America survey, teenagers are now America’s most stressed out group. On a scale of 1-10, teens rate their stress at 5.8 (adults are 5.1).
For kids, stress can come from lots of things besides college admissions—family issues, economic challenges, environment, etc. There’s no easy fix for stresses like those.
But if you’re a student in the United States whose stress comes in part or primarily from worrying about getting into what you think is a good college, it might help to remember you live in the country with the most accessible system of higher education in the world. We’ve got over 2,000 four-year colleges here and recent statistics have shown that 2/3 of students who apply to college get in. Your success in life will have a lot more to do with your work ethic and character than it will have to do with the name-brand prestige of your college. That’s why you’ll never meet an adult who says, “I could have made something of my life if it weren’t for that damn SAT!”
A little stress can be OK; it comes with the hard working territory. Even the occasional late night is totally normal for hard workers.
But stressing about whether or not an Ivy League school will say yes? That’s an easy fix.