(directed toward high school students)

 

I know that the word “college” may bring a whole bunch of words to mind- independence, adulthood, dorming, friends, hard classes, doctors and professors, and so much more. This list is endless. As a whole, I have talked to many students who appeared to be overwhelmed with the idea of college and/or have built this grand (intimidating) story of what college is like (based off of movies or stories).

 

College, in my view, is simply another step forward in life, just like moving up from elementary school to high school. Although we all have been under the impression of college being this huge, serious aspect, we have to acknowledge that it should not scare us nor drown us into anxiety and fear. 

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I remember when I was in high school, I had a constant mentality of getting good grades solely for the sake of getting into a good college. Since I wanted to go into healthcare, I started volunteering at the hospital every time I had days off of school, or even half days off. I prepared for college from the very start of high school. Thus, I missed out on a lot of things I could have enjoyed as a high school student. I missed out on having those memories I will never be able to take back and relive again. Not to say that I did not have a good time in high school, but I know I could have been happier if I lived my life as a high school student, not pre-college student.

 

Advice to you: Create those memories and enjoy your time in high school. If you do well in school, your grades will naturally reflect that and applying to colleges and universities will be bearable to do. You only have 4 years to enjoy your time in high school, filled with dances and proms, other school events, and more; cherish those moments because there is no such thing as college prom.

 

This varies for everyone, but I am generally a good writer (or I hope it comes off that way). Over the summers, I took the time to write short essays I knew college essays would typically ask such as “Why do you want to attend XYZ school?”, “What is something you want us to know about you”, or “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” I did a lot of essay writing and had more than enough time to go back, fix grammatical errors, and really put effort into my writing. When it came to application times, all I simply had to do was copy and paste my pre-written response into the application itself. This made the application forms less stressful because I planned ahead. Also, because I made sure my responses were thoughtfully written, I was more confident when I submitted the application. All in all, it’s best not to procrastinate; do the essays now if you can.

 

Advice to you: Although you should leave time to enjoy yourselves in high school, you can at least leave 10-15 minutes to reflect on questions and have some sort of idea on what to write about. If you are not a good writer, but have good speaking abilities, record yourself talk or talk to someone about it. If you can explicitly record your answers. If you can transcribe that and formulate your words formally to create good essays, you should be all set.

When you look at an application, now you’ve already done the long, strenuous essay writing portion done, so now the application does not look like this anymore:

Again, college is simply your upgraded version of high school. Think of it as this way if this helps lessen the anxiety on your shoulders. The format of education does not change- you still have a teacher, you have a desk and chair, you have textbooks, and you do the homework or assignments. College, in that sense, should help you mentally transition into college more seamlessly.

 

But keep this in mind: Be happy. Don’t get caught up in anxiety over things like college admittance. Things will work in your favor when you put in effort and have the mindset to be something more. Although education is an essential part of your life, it is only a snippet of what makes up your life. You have family. You have your health. You have other things that may be just as important to be aware of. Enjoy every part of life and take things day by day. Like I said, things will naturally fall into your hands when you put in the time and effort.

 

Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.