Most American teenagers are no strangers to the weight placed on receiving a college education. In many households, it’s essential not only to get into college but to get into a “good” school with a brand name. There is something to this logic. After all, attending a top university is a key to socioeconomic mobility for many low-income and first-generation students. The data shows that adults with prestigious degrees out-earn their counterparts who went to lesser schools or did not go to college at all. America’s alumni from elite universities are the closest thing we have to a ruling elite in this country. It’s not always a fair or equitable system, but it is the reality in the 2020s.

At Ivy Coach, we deeply understand the emotional toll of the admissions process. We’ve seen firsthand the dashed hopes, battles with self-esteem, and familial conflict that can arise during admissions season. But it doesn’t have to be this way. With a flexible mindset, a healthy understanding of your academic strengths and weaknesses, and realistic expectations, you can navigate the process without unnecessary turmoil.

5 Tips for Managing Stress During the Application Process

1. Give yourself plenty of time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither is a successful application to a top school. Ivy Coach’s clients begin prepping their college applications well in advance. They craft strategies for pursuing singular hooks early on in high school, ask for letters of recommendation from their teachers in the spring of the junior year, write compelling essays and put the finishing touches on their applications during the summer before admissions season. Budget enough time to tackle this process and save yourself a ton of stress.
2. Be careful who you take advice from. We’re looking at you, English teachers! Most people are blissfully unaware of what makes an application competitive in 2024. Run for the hills if anyone tells you to try a well-rounded approach. If someone encourages you to write about your service trip to Guatemala, kindly ignore them. If your English teacher wants you to include college-level vocabulary in your essays, don’t let them dull your colloquial style! Instead of listening to every last Tom, Dick, or Harry, tune in to Ivy Coach’s team of former elite college admissions officers to get the right advice that won’t waste your time or kill your odds of admission.
3. Don’t let the numbers daunt you. Getting into a highly selective school is harder than ever in 2024-2025. It’s easy to get demoralized when faced with these odds. But don’t let it bring you down! Remember, the vast majority of college applicants, even to Ivy League schools, don’t know the first thing about college admissions. You, on the other hand, have already made the wise choice of arming yourself with knowledge by turning to Ivy Coach.
4. Remember that your self-worth has nothing to do with college admissions. An elite college education isn’t everything. Ten years from now, you probably won’t remember why you were losing sleep over this moment. Allow yourself to relax and unwind throughout this process — your self-esteem will thank you! And anyway, colleges want to admit happy-go-lucky students, not balls of anxiety! 
5. Tune out the noise of your peers. Social media is not your friend during the admissions season. Remember that you never know the whole story, even as others flaunt their acceptance. Keep your head high and refuse to buy into the college acceptance rat race on social media. No one likes a bragger or boaster (least of all admissions officers!).

Not Everyone is Meant to Attend a Highly Selective School

If they were, these schools wouldn’t exactly be highly selective, would they? While Ivy League graduates may seem ubiquitous in the top rungs of American society, that doesn’t mean every student must attend one to make their dreams come true. The students who line the campuses of places like Harvard and Yale were the academic and extracurricular exceptions in their various applicant pools, not the rule. You might think they worked hard to wind up at such a prestigious institution, but chances are they always loved school and academic excellence came easily to them.

Instead of receiving this news as a blow to your ego, consider how much unnecessary stress and time you can save by recognizing how competitive an applicant you are early on. If taking BC Calculus sounds like an impossible task that will exhaust you and soak up all of your time, don’t set yourself up for a curriculum that’s doomed to fail to try to make it into a college that probably won’t admit you. If by some miracle they do, you’ll be doomed to four years of constantly trying to keep up with your peers. Instead, look into the reputable schools that typically admit students with your academic profile. Attacking the admission process with a pragmatic approach like this spares you from the disappointment and depression of rejection. There’s no shame in strategic self-understanding!

How Ivy Coach Helps Families Avoid College Admissions Stress

Often, college admissions stress is both self-imposed and comes from your parents. It’s hard enough to navigate your expectations, and to do so while negotiating with family members can create a pressure cooker environment that’s no fun for anyone. That’s where Ivy Coach comes in. Our mission is threefold: dispel the misconceptions that abound around the admissions process (especially the things that may have been true when your parents applied to college — like that colleges supposedly look for well-rounded students — that are no longer true), save you time by giving you the truth about your competitiveness and preventing you from applying to schools that will not admit you, and optimizing your odds of admission to the most selective and prestigious school within reach.

Our team of former elite college admissions officers will communicate sensitive topics between parent and child that might otherwise lead to conflict. If your child won’t get into Princeton, we’ll break this news to them so you don’t have to and help them pivot. If your parents think that as long as you volunteer at the local homeless shelter, you’re guaranteed admission anywhere, we’ll curb their enthusiasm for you. With Ivy Coach as your intermediary, your family will avoid the tensions that have torn other families apart.

If you would like to optimize your child’s odds of admission to a highly selective college, fill out our complimentary consultation form and we’ll be in touch.