Dealing With College Application Insecurities

I'm currently a high school senior in the midst of the college application process, and I’ve found myself running into a problem: insecurities. From what I've seen, many students suffer from these insecurities, no matter how stellar they actually are. It stems from a sense that they are inferior; there’s always the thought that, "this person has a higher GPA than me," or "that person has more leadership roles than me."

A friend came up to me the other day and said, "Jenny, there’s so much competition. I’m applying to all these schools early because I thought I’d get a leg up in the game, but so many of my classmates are also applying to these schools early, and their stats are so much better than mine, their extracurriculars are so much better than mine, and it’s all just making me really unsure of myself." And, I agreed with her, because I suffer from the same crippling insecurities. I do well in school and I’m relatively well-rounded with decent involvement in extracurriculars and community service, but I just can’t escape the thought that there’s so many people who are still doing better than me, and as a result, are going to get into better colleges than me and/or be more successful than me. 

In these cases, I like to remind myself that each person I think is superior to me probably feels inferior to somebody else, and that somebody else feels insecure in comparison to someone else. And this isn’t to say that everybody’s suffering anyway so it’s okay – no; it’s just a reminder that even if you’re on top of the world, there’s always going to be someone flying in an airplane above you or something. There’s really no need to feel insecure because there’s always going to be someone better than you, but that’s not a bad thing! Take it as a chance to grow, to improve yourself. 

In terms of college application insecurities, I say just put them away and try your best to put yourself out there. And once you’ve done that, then there isn’t much else to do, because you’ve tried your hardest and put your best out there, and colleges will see that. 

I think it’s safe to say that all college students had their own insecurities while applying to colleges, and they were probably nitpicky with all the little things and were sure that that one tiny detail was going to ruin their chances for everything, just like we are – but, most of them end up alright. And I’ll bet you that you and I – we will too.