“So, where are you thinking about for college?” The age-old question used by adults to bring up conversation. They say it with ease, like it doesn’t hold the weight of a baseball bat.

See, college isn’t something trivial for teens. It’s been 4 years of pressure cooker stress. Teens are much more scrutinized for their grades, activities, and social media.

Around 19.9 million students will be attending college in the fall of 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

College has been on the forefront of at least some of these 19.9 million teens minds since they have entered high school. It seems that college applications have also been an incredibly popular subject in the news through the ongoing trials of the Varsity Blues scandal. 

College has always been a stress point for students; there’s no denying that. But recently the competitiveness of college has reached a peak. This has been due to the competitiveness among students to gain scholarships and benefits based on merit. Test scores and grade point averages climb higher and higher to appease colleges. This is why services offering test tutoring to rapidly increase scores are so prevalent nowadays. But, it’s not only about the highest test scores, it is also  about what school you get into and how much money you receive from said schools. The Hope Scholarship is an example of this. The Hope Scholarship is a scholarship based in Georgia that is funded by the state lottery. It funds a large part of college tuition. While this is a fantastic opportunity for many to receive financial help, it’s availability for those who need it is slipping. The competitiveness has risen. This factor leads to the qualifications to receive the scholarship to rise. In turn, students have more pressure to perform perfectly to receive funding.

The pressure students are facing to be the perfect student and the cookie-cutter applicant for universities needs to end. It’s harming teen’s mental health and hurting their chances in the future. Competitiveness has made many students feel inadequate because they cannot live up to the monumental expectations. This isn’t what college is about. Students shouldn’t be dreading application time, instead they should be excited to be occupying a new point in their future.