Teens all over the country have been feeling the pressure to get into colleges. With college deadlines creeping up on seniors and college career planning stressing out juniors, the pressure to balance schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and a personal life is on. 

Seniors and Juniors here at Falls church high school feel the pressure in all different aspects. Some feel the pressure from academics and others from parents and sports. Yet finding a balance between all of these can take time and practice. Falls Church High School students Kat Nguyen (12), Taryn Heuvelman (12), and Meagan Alvino (11) shared their experiences with college and career planning stress and how they deal with it.

The stress of college and career planning tend to be more focused on seniors but juniors are also starting to feel the stress. 

In stressful times, we all need some sort of activity to destress. “I just go out with my mom to DC and we have a fun time, and I destress; I put my school work aside and relax,” Alvino said. This destressing activity sets her up for success when she gets home. “I usually prioritize my school work above anything else, and how I do that is I usually look at the deadlines and I prioritize what’s upcoming and the most recent stuff that’s due”. 

Not only are juniors stressed, but senior student-athletes tend to feel the pressure more due to the demanding sports schedule chaos. Yet sports has also been a way for them to destress and organization. 

“I think so in ways where it gives me less time for college apps and homework and I’m more busy but it relieves the stress because that’s where I release all my stress through sports”, Heuvelman said. 

Time management is key for students in general and not just for student-athletes. It helps them manage stress levels and make time for other things. It can be difficult to find ways to manage one’s time, but some seniors have found the hang of it.  

“I manage it by using my time very wisely. I have my planner where I write down all of my homework and all the college stuff I have to get done,” said Heuvelman”. 

Despite students’ time management skills and perseverance, there are some who do believe despite these efforts, that the college admission process has become a bit more rigorous and stressful over the years. Stressing out more students planning on going to college even more than before. 

“What I have noticed is that straight A’s is the new standard”, said Alvino. 

Seniors especially have been feeling this pressure. 

 “Standards with new technology, everything has become so competitive. Everything that’s been really extravagant is becoming the norm”, said Nguyen. “It takes so much more effort now than it did before to stand out in a crowd when you’re applying to college.”

However, it’s not just the pressure and rigor that’s getting to seniors; it’s also the task of managing college emails and the process of actually filling out college applications. 

 “It’s a constant process; even if you put in two hours of work, you’ve barely made a dent… It’s a constant process that keeps going,” said Heuvelman. “There are a lot of emails to keep track of, which is really hard sometimes. I actually have to call a couple of colleges because I didn’t receive certain emails or they got lost somewhere”.   

To manage this overwhelming workload, students have had to develop effective time-management strategies. Some ways being time blocking, limiting distractions, time tracking, to-do list, and planners. 

 “It did take me a good while to find a balance but what I did was that I created a set schedule for myself”, said Nguyen.