University Stress

Is anyone else feeling the heat of applying to university? I was stressed out beyond belief. I still don't know where I want to go and I'm not sure if my marks are high enough to get into my program. Last night I was in tears while I was starting to apply, but then I had a nice, calming talk with my mom and she helped me see all my options. I hope that her advice can help some of you if you are stressed as well. This is the essence of what she said to me:

1. Stress won't help anything

She pretty much made me see that stressing isn't going to solve anything. My parents used to put a lot of stress on me to get high marks and to get tons of awards and what not (they are brown after all) but then my mom came to the realization that all of this stress was just breaking me, not making me. Of course, some people work better under stress. I for one get a lot done when I am stressed, but the stress that I was feeling was the wrong kind of stress. The stress that helps be get stuff done comes from realizing that I have to meet a deadline. The stress from university application came from pessimism and thinking that I won't be able to get into my program. So she told me to stop stressing so much about getting into my program and concentrate that energy in trying to raise my marks, and if I can't get my marks high enough there are other options.

2. My options

My mom sat down with me and explained the worst case scenario to me. The worst case scenario would be that my marks aren't high enough for my program. In this case there are two things I could do. I could go back to high school and do a victory lap and retake the courses that I need to get a higher mark in. This wouldn't be a huge deal for me because I am a year ahead in school, but I know a lot of people may be unwilling to do this for whatever reason, whether it be pride or lack of time. In that case there is another option that my parents opened me up to. The second option is that I take either arts and science or undecided major for first year at university and take the courses I need for my program to raise my marks. I know money is tight for a lot of people and if you are in that situation, I would suggest taking the first option. My mom didn't give me this option, but there is a secret third option. You could take a year off. This option is generally for people who are unsure of what they want to do, but since I have everything planned out I won't be taking this option. You could get a job, take some evening or online courses to bring your marks up, and this way you will have some money towards your tuition as well as a better chance of getting into your program. And if you need to, you could use this time to figure out what you want to do with you life, who knows, university may not be for you after all.

3. Talk to your teachers or your school's guidance department

My main source of stress is my marks. I just moved across the country and I am now part of a separate school board and education system and I am so anxious as to how the final exams look like here. What my mom told me to do is to talk to my teachers one on one and express my concerns to them. If you have good teachers, they will try to help you out and help get you prepared for the final exams. If you are unfortunate and have been burdened with bad teachers, you can talk to you school's guidance department, they are there to help students out with their school related or personal problems.

I really hope this has helped take the stress off of some people, I know it definitely helped me out a lot. Good luck with applying to university/college everyone! May the odds be ever in your favour ;)