Humans like being able to predict the future, and much of our cognition is shaped to do so. So it makes sense why uncertainty is highly stressful. And uncertainty is even more stressful for adolescents. 

In the context of university admissions, this means a great deal of uncertainty. Simply not knowing where one will be living and doing in a year's time in itself is stressful. And if highly selective US institutions are on your list, the increasing competition every year adds a significant amount of uncertainty, and therefore, stress. 

Perfectionism is the "tendency to demand of others or oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance", according to the American Psychological Association. 30% of teenagers and young adults may struggle with unhealthy forms of perfectionism, which is troubling because perfectionism is often found to be correlated with negative mental health outcomes. 

 Perfectionism is on the rise in adolescents, and it's attributed to increasing competition and achievement-based culture. Although this analysis does not pin it to increasing competitiveness in the university admissions landscape per se, the link between neoliberalism, meritocracy, and university competition is easy to make (read more about meritocracy later). 

The competition as well as the ease of access to seemingly perfect arcs of university admissions narratives on social media -- are easy breeding grounds for perfectionism in the university application process. 

The jury is still out on whether the number of homework hours have increased from before, but the amount of workload can possibly impact mental health. Students spend a lot time on homework, sometimes more than 17.5 hours per week. Some researchers say that more than 2 hours of homework may be counterproductive, and "homework" is cited as one of the most common responses to the question of: "right now in your life, what, if anything, causes most stress?". Despite these, the demanding workload is a begrudgingly accepted reality given in rigorous college preparatory curricula such as the IB. 

And this doesn't account for university applications themselves that can add hours and hours to an already burdened year of high school. If students apply to multiple countries, which is recently an increasing trend, then that can multiply easily. 

In the senior year, there is the unavoidable experience of rejection, regardless of how stellar or hardworking of a student you were. Rejection is painful, as humans are wired to be social beings. Given that adolescents are particularly sensitive to social cues, and this may be likely the first time to face a major life challenge like this, the experience of rejection may be a particularly difficult experience. Certain individuals may be extra sensitive to rejection, and the experience may bring about even stronger reactions (which should be referred to the social emotional counselor). 

As college counsellors, you may work with students from diverse backgrounds. They may all come with unique needs shaped by their demographic/sociological factor. Examples include, but are not limited to: socioeconomic status (SES), LGBTQ status, English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, and certain citizenships. 

Students from low socioeconomic status groups face psychological barriers not only during the actual university experience, but also in university application process as well. Higher estimated family contribution (EFC) usually means that there will be more universities available to apply and that will open their doors for them (further analysis here). Especially in 2024, the FAFSA bungle made it harder for US domestic students, but the same is also true for domestic Australian students. This paper also shows how lower SES correlates (and being female) correlates with lower confidence in the university application process. 

The rest of this section won't launch into such a detailed look into rest of other demographic factors. But on behalf of your students who are members of a minority group (LGBTQ, EAL, international, a certain race etc.),  do note the need to look for additional support servicees offered by institutions to which they may be applying. This adds on one extra layer of 'finding the right fit' beyond the usual factors (e.g. climate, size of campus, teaching style, etc.) which takes more time and consideration. 

Finally, the meritocratic framework and its perceived fairness unquestioned in the university application process may impact student well-being. 

We often assume that the university admissions process is a fair game and hard work & talent is rewarded appropriately, but in fact, it's far from the truth. Socioeconomic status (SES) undoubtedly plays a significant role in increasing one's chances in many ways (e.g. SES correlation w/ higher SAT scores, access to enriched extracurricular choices and learning in general , not requiring financial aid etc). Moreover, the idea of meritocracy itself is not ideal for developing a healthy sense of self-worth, as it can lead to hubris for the 'winners' and humiliation for the 'losers'.

The hyper competitive university admissions process is summed up elegantly in the following quote: “Meritocractic arms race - for those who lack the apparatus of advantaged it is unfair; for those entangled in the apparatus, it is oppressive." (Michael Sandel, Tyranny of Merit.)

A fully-fledged article of mine on this topic will be released and linked here on July 5.