The college admissions process can be anxiety-inducing — miserable, even. But it’s relative; not everyone feels it in the same way, or to the same extent. All these factors can affect your experience with college admissions:
Even if all these factors are going your way, it’s still normal to deal with some level of application anxiety. What matters then is how you cope and push through.
Here are some insights to help you overcome application anxiety.
Starting the college application process late in your senior year of high school is like putting a turkey in the oven at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day: not advisable.
Ideally, your college aspirations should inform the decisions you make about classes and extracurriculars as early as ninth grade — maybe sooner. USF’s latest College Planning Guide starts with steps you can take in seventh or eighth grade, then provides a substantial checklist of steps you can complete for each year through high school graduation.
It’s an ongoing process. You can search for scholarships before you reach senior year, take and retake standardized tests to raise your score, and enroll in advanced courses that add rigor to your record (and earn you college credit). The earlier you start, the more time you’ll have to work on all this.
Filling out applications for prospective colleges is the last lap of the race. Your success will depend on your ability and preparation. Make a habit of being studious and organized:
There’s wisdom in the saying, “Those who fail to plan are planning to fail.” Feeling anxious about everything you haven’t done yet can hinder you from doing what’s still required, keeping you from your goal. Conversely, knowing what you need to do and when can feel empowering. Try this:
Forming these habits will lead to success not only in college admissions, but long after.
When you start filling out a college application, it is the culmination of every class and activity you’ve chosen, every grade you made, and every standardized test you’ve taken. Before you type a single line, soak in that feeling of accomplishment!
The paperwork push itself is a herculean task, but you also need to invest time and effort into some peripheral tasks before you can begin in earnest:
These parts of the overall application process can be painfully daunting; that’s why the process conjures words such as “stress” and “anxiety.” Some people are shy, some struggle with creative writing, and some get freaked out during test-taking.
When you aim high, achieving your goals won’t be easy! Are you prepared to put in the effort required to overcome these challenges?
College admissions are increasingly competitive, so there will inevitably be applicants who have more natural talent than you. Don’t sweat it; it’s something we all have to recognize about life. Putting in a lot of effort — showing you really want this — can help you narrow the gap and make you a stand-out applicant, too.
In short, it’s all about being willing to expend the necessary effort at the right time. When you sit down to start the final paperwork, you’ll have finished most of the truly hard work already.
When you’re waiting for a decision from a college you applied to, feeling on edge is a totally normal, human response. There are three types of college admissions letters, and waiting to see which you’ll get is an emotional rollercoaster.
Knowing you’re on top of every detail will help you feel in control. Here are some best practices:
With so many deadlines and deliverables, you might feel the need to rush through every step, but you should resist that urge. Be quick, but don’t hurry. Hurried people make costly mistakes. Work with urgency, but go slow enough to pay attention to detail.
Paying attention to detail also means that you go into the application process knowing the timelines and platforms used by your target schools.
Let’s use USF as an illustrative example because — not to sound too cocky — we should definitely be one of your targeted schools!
A prospective USF student should begin by visiting our Freshman Dates and Deadlines page. That’s where you can find application deadlines and supporting materials deadlines for Early Action, Regular Decision, and Rolling Admissions, the three application periods, so you know how long you have left to do the work. For each period, we also provide a specific decision release window, so you’ll know how long you’ll be waiting for our reply, too.
The How to Apply page gives you the exact steps you need to follow and clarifies some of the application requirements and terminology. It explains that the first step is submitting an application, either through the USF website or through the Common App. There are a few things to remember:
Once you submit the application, you’ll gain access to the Applicant Portal using your unique log-in. That’s where you’ll complete the rest of the application process, like paying your application fee and submitting your grades via STARS. You’ll get confirmation within the Applicant Portal when your documents are received and processed.
Colleges like USF strive to make all this information clear and available online. If one of your targeted colleges doesn’t explain their application process in plain language on their site, don’t hesitate to contact their admissions office and ask them to explain the steps. Be sure to also ask which platforms or apps they expect you to use during the process and how they work.
Remember: Get all the details you can! The more you understand the process, the more you engage with it, the more you’ll feel in control.
Once you’ve submitted your application and supporting documents, you might feel ready to disengage while you wait for a decision, but that could open you up to issues.
Stay engaged and follow through. Phantom problems won’t wake you up in the middle of the night because you’ll always know what’s going on with your application.
Try these tips:
The professionals working within this system are great at what they do, but errors happen and delays are possible. This is your dream! Take ownership and make sure you’re getting the fair shot you’re promised.
Your application process is a team effort made by you and some combination of friends, siblings, parents, counselors, and reference providers.
You can’t choose your family, and you probably can’t choose your counselor, but you know who your friends are and personal engagement should teach you what to expect from your references.
Consult friends who are already in college, or who graduated from college within the last few years. You can learn a lot from their first-hand experience. Hindsight is 20/20, and their regrets may be your warnings.
When it comes to reference providers, the more time you’ve invested in the relationship, the more you can depend on them. Talk to your favorite teachers and administrators about your ambitions whenever you have the chance, and model responsibility at school. Being a teacher’s pet is nothing but beneficial when it’s time to ask for references!
The team you assemble will help you navigate the application maze. When you struggle with the inevitable anxiety the process produces, you can turn to them to help you cope.
These days, students are applying to 13 to 15 colleges. If you submit that many applications, odds are you’re going to get at least one rejection — and it may be to your top choice school. The specter of that disappointment can be hard to shake.
Along with the possibility of being denied admission, the application process produces other stressful scenarios:
That list reads like a high school senior’s top five horror movie plots, so some emotional turmoil is understandable.
When it comes to stress and anxiety, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. All the time and effort you spend getting the applications right will help minimize stress and anxiety down the line.
When the going gets tough, lean on your college support team to help you cope. Seek out pro tips on managing stress and anxiety, and if things get out of hand, seek help from a mental health professional.
No matter what you’re feeling, take heart:
If USF is on your college radar, contact the Office of Admissions for help. We’re always ready with advice and answers.