Are You More Excited or Anxious with College on the Horizon?
- skessler81
- Apr 16
- 3 min read
"How many high school seniors in this room are excited to go to college?" A flurry of hands are raised.
"How many of you are anxious about this next chapter on the horizon?" What appears to be the same number of hands jump up.
Excited, anxious anticipation is what the vast majority of college-bound high school seniors claim to be experiencing at the moment.
It does not matter whether we are talking to public high school seniors on a Zoom in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio or to a room full of college-bound high school seniors at a teen youth group convention in downtown Stamford, Connecticut.
The questions are often the same:
Am I going to find my life-long friends?
Will I live on a beautiful college campus surrounded by thousands of people my age but still feel all alone?
What am I going to do if I don't love my major?
The list goes on and on.
The questions are the same since the feelings are totally normal.
We started the GapWell Guide in an effort to positively impact this challenging moment of time AFTER high school and BEFORE college.
We listened carefully to the survey results from over 1,000 college students and their families (in Spring 2024).
College has changed since I graduated from college in 1994.
The worries were similar, but how teens experience this transition today has intensified immensely. In some ways, advancements in technology have reduced their ability to grow independently from their previous chapters. FOMO is one click away and everyone thinks the grass is greener had they just done what their friend Alex did — chose a different school, picked a different major, pledged a different fraternity. That's not life. That's an algorithm.
Everyone wants to help teens succeed, but it doesn't matter. Teens want what they want.
They want to hear from wiser, older students who have been there, done that recently. 93% of students surveyed picked that as their #1 choice of where to get life advice.
93% of those surveyed chose "older students" as their preferred source of advice.
Interestingly, the university and social media are tied for last place in the same survey. When a recent alum shows up on a Zoom or via video, the faces of the college-bound high schoolers light up. They know and trust these recent grads and want to hear what they wish they knew when they were in their shoes.
I may be a parent, which means I think I know better, but what is most important is that our teens get good advice. No need to force it. They will learn how to fish if you let them.
College is hard.
That is what one wise first-year student said to me recently. First in her family to go away to college. No older siblings to lean on. She's thriving in college, but she's also extremely transparent about all the work that she's doing to set herself up for success in this new paradigm.
Growth can be difficult, but we know today's teens will all be better off for it.
How do I know? Some wiser older college students told me so.
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Have a college-bound teen in your life? Give them the gift that they really want — the advice that will set them up for success in college and in life, but delivered by older students who genuinely want to help them succeed.
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