Negativity has a tendency to seep unnecessarily into all aspects of the college admissions process. Some parents respond by not just soaking it in, but also spraying it back out to people around them. They contribute to the escalating arms race-like nature of the process by talking about how difficult it is to get into what they think are the best schools, by comparing the accomplishments of their kids to others, and by generally refusing to find or even acknowledge the joy that can be found in this process. And as I shared back in January, science has shown that negativity can spread like secondhand smoke.
If your college admissions process—or any aspect of your work or personal life–is being tainted by someone else’s negativity, here’s an article that gives you some mechanisms to defend yourself. Coincidentally, the expert I’m referencing today and the one in that past January post are husband and wife. I can only imagine how positive their household must be.