In high school, you often get tons of unsolicited advice from any and every adult about what to do to get into a “good” college. Whether it be joining all honor societies possible or taking all college-level classes, everyone seems to have an opinion about what you should do with your life.
Often, actually following this advice could lead to anxiety and eventual burnout, as joining a million clubs and classes isn’t going to improve your mental health. Everyone has their own opinion about what is going to get them into college, but at the end of the day, most of the people telling you all of this stuff don’t know what’s going to work well for you.
As your favorite local high school junior, I’m going to let you know that you’re doing too much. You don’t need to add more things onto your plate with the hope that taking this one extra class or doing this one extra club will get you into college because, to be honest, it’s probably not going to make that big of a difference.
All of my friends keep adding things to their to-do lists that are frankly unneeded. I’m not a person who would tell anyone to not go out for a leadership or officer position, but if this position will add much more stress to your schedule than you can handle, then don’t go out for it, especially if you’re already complaining about your heavy workload.
Overall, don’t purposefully add things to your already busy schedule that’s going to just make you more stressed. Your mental health matters more than taking another class or joining another club which, at the end of the day, isn’t going to hurt or help your chances of getting into college.
Also, if you’re worried about getting into college, just know that there’s somewhere for everyone, and just because so-and-so is going to Princeton or UMich doesn’t mean that it’s right for you.
So, overall, you’re doing too much. You deserve a break.
