Between rushing to meet application deadlines, cramming for the ACT and SAT exams, and putting together your personal essays and reference there’s a lot to do! It’s no wonder that the college admissions process is one of the most stressful hurdles for juniors and seniors— especially as we approach the final stretch of the school year. Fortunately, there are a few steps that you can take to make applying to colleges less stressful.

Make a Timeline

Much of the stress caused by the college admissions process can be traced back to the fact that there are a lot of things to take care of in a short period of time. A great way to keep stress at bay is to create a timeline that outlines the college admissions process from start to finish including soft and hard due dates. This will allow you to stay on top of deadlines and give you plenty of time to draft essays, study for entrance exams, and submit any required documents.

Apply to Multiple Schools and Programs

Another cause of admissions-related stress can be the fear of not being accepted into your dream school, especially when students fixate on attending only one particular school. This can add a lot of pressure as there is a lot riding on whether or not they are accepted into that program.

Instead, you can avoid this stress by creating a list of multiple schools that you would be happy to attend and applying to them. This list should include a mix of reach, match, and safety schools to ensure your acceptance into one of the schools.

Plan Out Your Personal Essays

If you’re dragging your feet to write your personal essays or you know that you have a habit of procrastinating, the best thing that you can do for yourself is to take a moment to plan out a timeline of the writing process from start to finish. Be sure to set milestones along the way such as a due date for your first draft, another for editing, and one more for your revised draft. Breaking up your writing into small chunks with several checkpoints along the way can help you progress at a constant pace without the stress of doing everything at once or at the last minute.

Cultivate Academics Las Vegas

Cultivate Academics empowers students and families to thrive through their high school experiences by supporting self-awareness and employing a data-driven college admissions strategy. To learn more about how we can help guide you through the college admissions process, visit our college admissions offerings or call to schedule a meeting with our team.