Staring at a computer screen, endlessly typing and trying to finish up what is left on a prompt, your eyes are heavy, and your chest feels like you are gonna throw up. But soon, after a few months of work, you’ll be finished with what about 1.5 million Americans have done that could make or break their next 4 years and even their future careers–applying to college.
Many students who apply have one goal in mind: to get into a highly ranked college and make money. However, recently acceptance rates of many well-known colleges have decreased drastically. The process of getting to a dream college has become too overcompetitive and too hard for some because it has mainly become a stress on their mental health.
Colleges and universities have tried reducing class prerequisite requirements, making applications digital, and even lowering their overall admissions requirements, like GPA or ACT/SAT scores, in order to provide students more opportunities. However, this has only caused an increase in the application pool and a lowering acceptance rate.
Still, students go to extreme lengths to aim for the top colleges. For example, many of the people I know have been up doing homework for hours on end throughout the night, which has worried me as they progress on.
According to the National Institutes of Health, Gen Z students have reportedly had higher stress levels compared to the last 3 generations, with only 47% of overall teens considering themselves thriving mentally. This trend connects with how they manage their time and what teachers’ and parents’ expectations are, which has made an even more stressful environment for these students.
These expectations usually come from legacy or lower-income households, as they want them to get more opportunities to excel in the job market, have access to networks to help them pay, or an increased likelihood of success, which has been a part of the reason students are trying their best academically, but risking issues with their mental health.
Another reason for the overcompetitive nature is that students now have reportedly taken a harder class rigor than what students took 25-30 years ago. As found by the College Board, around 3 million people took at least 1 AP exam in 2024, compared to only 450,000 people in the 1990s.
This has also correlated with students taking an average of 2 APs throughout their high school years due to the increase in materials and school district funding used to increase the rigor of post-secondary classes.
This pressure can also come from the point of affordability. With new laws restricting federal loans and the rise of tuition fees, many students have been trying to find alternate routes to pay for college while also trying to avoid private loans.
AP classes have been something students use to reduce debt and increase their future income by earning college credit while in high school. This has in turn made AP classes more popular and putting more stress on students through their rigorous program. Because of all of this, many seniors that I personally know feel like that they need to take more of these classes, have had pressure to do good in their classes and activities, and have made them more irritable and reclusive.
Finally, with the trend of problems that these students face, many of these students face pressure from social media. For example, many social media apps depict students in research internships, top academic competitions, and how they made it to top-ranking Ivy League Universities. To point from John Hopkins, this causes social comparisons to skyrocket amongst students, increasing depression and low self-esteem rates.
Overall, applicants and college expectations have caused too much stress and effects on students and have made it difficult to get into your dream college; however, there are solutions to this problem that colleges should consider.
One thing colleges can do to give more opportunities to high school students applying is that colleges should try to enhance the student experience by putting more into more programs, personalizing communication between them and the students through them talking to counselors, and improving their yield management skills to get more students from diverse backgrounds into the system.
Colleges have tried to make the process of getting in easier, but the truth is that students are stressed, and they need a break from the pressure that comes from these classes, activities, and the stress of applications.
If this trend goes on, our future generations could be facing problems that they haven’t faced, which is why they should try to fix these problems now in order to face the future of our country later.