For most high school students, the school year is winding down. AP exams are behind you. Final exams are impending. The sweet release of summer is imminent. And the college-bound will soon walk the stage at graduation, say goodbye to high school, and prepare to assume their place on campus this fall as college freshmen.
For current juniors who will soon follow that path, this is the perfect time to observe those in your senior class.
The college admissions process encourages an intense focus on the completion of applications and the admissions decisions that follow. That focus applies disproportionate weight to comparatively temporary time and emotion.
You sensed the pressure the seniors were feeling. You heard their stories of the application process. You witnessed the high drama and intense emotion when the decisions started arriving. Highs and lows. Ups and downs. At some schools it would be easy to surmise that you have an arduous rite of passage awaiting you that will be almost as difficult and stress-inducing as Navy SEAL training.
But how do most of those seniors seem today?
Do most of them seem upbeat? Do they seem excited about what’s next? Do they seem to feel positively about where they’re heading to college?
Don’t look for the anomalies. Yes, some seniors are still stuck in the purgatory of the waitlist. Some might still be having a hard time getting over the breakup with the college that said no. Just because they’re all in the same graduating class doesn’t mean those seniors are all the same.
But en masse, how would you describe the current mental and emotional state of the senior class? Chances are that it’s not at all reflective of the turmoil and angst they experienced during the throes of the admissions process. And even more importantly, you’ll probably see that the vast majority of them feel pretty good about where their lives are headed next.
Now the more important question: what will you do with that observation?
Will you choose to notice that as anxious as they may have been at one time, as crushing as those college denials may have felt when they arrived, most of your college-bound classmates are in a pretty good place today? When your own college application process begins, will you choose to remember how most of their stories ended?
Or will you forget this observation and choose instead to remember those admissions-related experiences that soaked up disproportionate focus for everyone involved?
I’ve always said that families should choose how they approach the college admissions process. That choice—what you consciously decide to notice—will influence your own college admissions experience. So make that choice intentionally. Decide how you’d like to feel during your own journey to this moment one year from now and what you’d like to remember about it when you look back.
If you want to learn from the experiences of the college-bound, this is the perfect time to observe them.