The college decision horse race: Students need to focus on themselves

The first wave of college acceptances — the Early Decisions and Early Actions — have come and gone, leaving some seniors assured of getting into their top choices while others find themselves rejected or on wait lists.

According to the college-planning website Naviance, at least five seniors have already been accepted to Ivy League institutions (the actual number is known to be significantly higher).

To some students, these students’ success foreshadows the dimming of other people’s college prospects. They think: These schools already have their students — where will I go?

This mindset is both problematic for both the students, accepted or not. As hard as it is, the regular decision college applications going forward need to avoid biases caused by knowing how many students the colleges have already accepted, and those already admitted need to be treated with respect rather than disdain rooted in envy.

The problem is that college decision season at the school is a time of ratcheted-up gossip and particularly fragile psyches. To hear that another senior has gotten into a top school, while perhaps you have not can be a painful blow to your confidence and security that can easily result in self-doubt or mean disbelief.

Throw in decidedly unfair admissions policies like legacy or affirmative action, and the antagonism toward, in particular, others runs rampant.

One way of decreasing this antagonism is for students to realize that college decisions are extremely volatile and random. No one can be absolutely sure that someone will be accepted into their top college, since so many different factors are involved in the decision-making process. With the subjective judgments of admissions officers, almost anyone’s admission fate is little more than a matter of chance.

Also, students should stop keeping up with other people’s college decision news like sports scores from their favorite teams. Of course, this whole process is difficult, but the best thing to do is to focus on yourself and disregard any of your peer’s acceptances, despite how enticing it might be to hear all the gossip.

College acceptances will always be a time of stress and fear, and it should not be someone else’s decision that annoys and lowers your self-confidence. That said, not focusing on other’s decisions can help relieve your disappointment and also prevent the vicious competitive atmosphere that too often affects the school.