Running head: Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College?

Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College?

A Solution to the High School Students Fixation on Getting Accepted into College

Anna Boettcher

Edina High School

Author Note

This paper was prepared for Pre-AP English 10, Section 1, taught by Kari Discher.
Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 2

Are high schoolers more stressed about getting into college than they need to be? Many

people would answer no to that question. Most would tell you that in order to be accepted, you

need perfect grades, lots of activities, volunteer time, and more. But what if I told you that is

actually not the whole truth? That you actually do not need to be so worried? High school

students are more stressed than they need to be about college because they have misconceptions

about college admission, but if they are educated about the truth, their stress will be reduced.

There are many reasons for this stress in high school students. The first is pressure from

parents. According to Denise Clark Pope, quoted in a Stanford News article, Pressure by

parents and schools to achieve top scores has created stress levels among studentsbeginning as

early as elementary schoolthat are so high that some educators regard it as a health epidemic

(2005, para. 4). Parents want to see their children succeed, and can, unconsciously, cause stress

in their kids by setting high expectations for them. One way that many parents do this is by

encouraging their kids to apply to Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, among

others). As shown in the book Where You Go Is Not Who Youll Be by Frank Bruni, .if

youre a parent whos pushing your kids relentlessly and narrowly toward one of the most prized

schools in the country and you think that youre doing them a favor, youre not. Youre in all

probability setting them up for heartbreak. (2015, p. 55-56). Elite schools have a well-known

reputation for being very selective. This means that they only accept a very small number of the

students that apply. So even though most of the kids that apply are very smart, not all of them

can get in. Naturally, parents want their kids to be accepted to those schools because that is a

very hard thing to do and it shows how accomplished their children are. The problem is, even
Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 3

though parents are very well-intentioned, it often causes stress levels in their kids to rise

dramatically.

Another reason for stress in kids is pressure from the colleges themselves. This is called

recruit to deny (Strauss, 2015, para. 5), which is explained in this quote from Frank Bruni,

The [U.S. News & World Reports] rankings factor acceptance rates into their evaluation of

schoolsthe lower the rate, the loftier the evaluationand many schools have inevitably

responded with efforts to bring their rates down by ratcheting up the number of young people

who apply (2015, p. 43). Because having a low acceptance rate makes a college look better,

they essentially market their school to more students, causing a higher number to apply. Then,

because the school has more applicants, it needs to reject more of them because they dont have

the capacity for more students on campus. So even though the school is still accepting the same

amount of people that they do every year, it looks like they are accepting less. These lower

acceptance rates, understandably, raise the stress in kids because it makes them think that the

school has higher standards for admission.

This stress causes many negative effects on the health of high school students. These

effects are both physical and mental. For example, according to The Atlantic, In the short term

it can cause anxiety; over long periods of time, elevated levels of stress hormones can degrade

the immune system, cause heart problems, exacerbate respiratory and gastrointestinal issues, and

bring on chronic anxiety and depression (Ossola, 2015, para. 5). This quote shows how big of a

problem this stress really is. College is meant to be an enriching academic opportunity, and

getting in should not be this stressful. The fact that preparing for college can cause all of these

health problems to occur tells us that high schoolers need to find a way to reduce their stress
Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 4

level. A good way for them to do that is to be educated about what they really need to know

about getting into college.

There are many reasons why kids are stressed about getting into college, but there are

also many reasons why high schoolers are more stressed than they have reason to be. First, a

common misconception about the college admissions process that is not entirely true is that a

student needs many activities in order to get into a school. According to the Admissions Review

and Selection Process page on the University of Minnesotas website, the strongest consideration

in an admissions decision is given to academics, such as coursework, grades, and GPA. Two of

the secondary factors, which are still considered but are less important, are commitment to

community service or leadership and outstanding achievement in a specific area (2014, para.

3-4). Those two secondary factors, out of a list of 11, are the only ones that relate to

extracurricular activities. This shows that the quantity of activities that a student has participated

in is not as important as the quality. In other words, colleges like to see commitment to a small

number of activities over a long period of time, rather than a long list of clubs that the student

joined for a year and then quit. So while commitment to activities is important, academics are

much more heavily weighted in the decision.

Another misconception about college is that going to a more elite school will give you

more success in life than a less competitive school would. D. Michael Lindsay conducted the

Platinum Study, which explored how many successful individuals in our countrys businesses

and government reached their positions. In his book about the study, View from the Top: An

Inside Look at How People in Power See and Shape the World, Lindsay says, While we often

assume that the most direct path to national influence goes through major academic universities
Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 5

(such as Ivy League schools), nearly two-thirds of the leaders I interviewed attended schools that

are not considered elite institutions (2014, p. 28). Among the people he interviewed are former

Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, CEO of Under Armour Kevin Plank, and CEO

of JPMorgan Chase James Dimon (The PLATINUM Study, 2014, para. 6). The fact that these

four well-known people, among over 500 others, went to schools that werent Ivy Leagues

displays that going to an elite school is not necessary for achievement later in life. While

exclusive colleges can provide many valuable connections and experiences, they are not the only

path to success. In addition, most employers dont hire people based on where they went to

college. For example, Frank Bruni summarizes a nationwide poll conducted by Gallup,

Field-relevant knowledge was by far the employment criterion that business leaders most

frequently called very important. Nearly 85 percent of them described it that way. But where an

applicant had gone to college? Only 9 percent of the leaders described that as very important

(2015, p. 141). So, for most jobs, where you went to school is not all that important. The more

valuable skills are things such as work ethic, creativity, and communication skills, because those

determine the kind of worker you can be. A college degree does not automatically make you

qualified for a job, because college does not teach you all of the life skills you need.

An additional misunderstanding that many students have is that there is a secret

formula needed to get into college. This was what Dr. Wayne Sigler, who is the former Director

of Admissions at many schools, including the University of Minnesota and George Mason

University (Wayne Sigler, 2016, para. 2-3), told me about in my phone interview with him. He

told me that many high school students think that if they can just figure out what the admissions

officers want to see (the secret formula), then they have a ticket into college. Dr. Sigler
Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 6

explained that, contrary to the common belief, admissions officers are not keeping secrets from

students, and that they want to say yes to everyone, but that simply is not possible. Because of

this, the admissions officers only admit the students who they think will be most successful at

their institution, because their goal is to help students succeed (personal communication,

November 19, 2016). This is something that many high school students need to hear, because

many of them think of getting into college as a sort of puzzle that they have to solve, when in

reality, it is simply meant to help students find the place where they will fit in the best.

Furthermore, high school students need to know that what they put into their college

experience is what they will get out. For example, Frank Bruni interviewed Condoleezza Rice,

former Secretary of State, who went to college at the University of Denver. She told him, Great

educations arent passive experiences; theyre active ones (2015, p. 92). That means that in

order to succeed in college, a student must be eager to learn, and willing to take every

opportunity that comes up. Rices point was that every college can provide a good education, but

a student just has to know how to get the most out of it. Another example of this is shown in a

study conducted by Alan Krueger and Stacy Dale about income of college graduates. Krueger

told Frank Bruni, A good student can get a good education just about anywhere, and a student

whos not that serious about learning isnt going to get much benefit (2015, p. 140). Their

conclusion was that someones income does not depend on where the student went to school.

Rather, it hinges on how well they advocated for themselves and their education during their

years in college. The overarching message is that hard work, not the caliber of the college, is the

most important thing for succeeding in life after college.

Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 7

In conclusion, students feel stress about getting into college because of pressure from

families and schools, but this stress can be reduced if the students are educated on the truth about

college admission. Grades are more important than extracurriculars in an admissions decision, an

education at a less competitive school has just as much worth as an education from an Ivy

League school, college admissions officers want to see students succeed, and no matter where a

student goes to college, they will get out what they put in. This is the real truth about college

admission, and by bearing this in mind, a high school student can reduce their stress level and be

able to better enjoy their high school years.

Are High School Students Too Stressed About Getting into College? 8

References

Admissions Review and Selection Process. (2014). In Admissions - University of Minnesota

Twin Cities. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from

http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/admissioninfo/fresh_overview.html

Bruni, F. (2015). Where you go is not who you'll be. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

D. Michael, L. (2014). View from the top. Hoboken: Wiley.

Ossola, A. (2015, October 9). The Atlantic. High-stress high school. Retrieved November 16,

2016, from

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/high-stress-high-school/409735/

Palmer, B. (2005, February 23). Stanford News. Pressure for good grades often leads to high

stress, cheating, professors say. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/february23/cheat-022305.html

The PLATINUM Study. (2014). In Gordon College. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from

http://www.gordon.edu/platinumstudy

Sigler, W. (2016, November 19). Phone interview.

Strauss, V. (2015, March 5). The Washington Post. Are colleges gaming their applicants?.

Retrieved November 25, 2015, from

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/05/are-colleges-gaming-

their-applicants/

Wayne Sigler. (2016). In AACRAO Consulting. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from

http://consulting.aacrao.org/consultants/wayne-sigler/