10 Key Steps To Best Prepare Yourself Emotionally For What's to Come After HS Graduation

Let’s face it, in today’s world, college preparation starts much earlier than your senior year. Regardless of what you want to be, you’ll most likely be heading toward higher education of some kind, and our Prelum guides can help you prepare. But preparing for college goes well beyond the school selection process — including whether you’re emotionally prepared for the changes college brings.

How is your emotional readiness?

Late nights, elevated social media activity, new routines, new-found independence, plus academic and extracurricular load, are all contributing to the rising incidence of emotional stress facing so many college students today. According to a Gallup study of more than 2,400 college students, when asked: “did you experience the following feelings during part of the day yesterday”? Their replies broke out as follows:

• Nearly 8 out of 10 felt enjoyment, however:

- 66% felt stressed.

- More than half felt worried.

- Nearly 4 out of 10 felt lonely.

- 36% felt sadness.

- 25% reported feeling angry.

Although college is supposed to be a joyful entrance into adulthood, negative feelings can arise. But there are steps you can take to prepare yourself (or your child, if you’re a parent) for the potential emotional changes when entering college. Here are 10 tips that can easily be applied while still in high school, according to Psychology Today:

1. Set realistic expectations of your academic performance. You won’t be great at everything; college is a time for learning who you will become as an adult.
2. Not everyone is good at taking tests, don’t position your whole worth on just that one aspect. Traits that are more predictive of success are work ethic, integrity, and a can-do attitude.
3. Avoidance as a strategy, when feeling stressed and uncomfortable, is not helpful. It’s important to push through and tackle whatever problem has presented itself. 
4. Manage stress by utilizing self-care, like eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and engaging in exercise or any other stress-relieving activities.
5. Conflict management is heightened in college, whether addressing concerns with a professor or a messy roommate. It is best to confront issues sooner rather than later before resentment sets in.
6. Procrastination can lead to increased anxiety. Break down tasks into small, manageable steps that can be completed more easily.
7. Learning to problem solve is a vital coping skill. Define problems so they aren’t vague to determine possible solutions. Have a plan B in place. 
8. Limit social media if you’re feeling insecure. It is easy to withdraw and substitute virtual relationships for real ones.
9. Don’t be ashamed to ask for help.
10. Learn to laugh at yourself. It’s natural to make mistakes; having a sense of humor is beneficial. 

But this isn’t all, there are also other steps that can help ensure a better college entrance experience. 

Additional steps you can take to best prepare for college

Take a gap year: If you feel that you’re not quite ready for college and need some breathing space, a gap year can also be highly productive. According to Forbes Advisor, a gap year, if taken abroad, can be made affordable by teaching English or working for a U.S. firm with international offices, for instance. In addition, a study by the Gap Year Research Consortium found that gap year participants exceeded their predicted GPAs by 0.15 percent with positive effects lasting throughout college.

Do an internship that aligns with a potential college major: According to Gallup, more than 4 out of 10 U.S. college students hold internships while in school. These training jobs have proven to give students valuable workforce experience. In fact, research shows that graduates who worked at a job or completed an internship that aligns with their degree are more than twice as likely to obtain a good job in their field of interest upon graduation. To underscore this point, Linkedin notes:

• 89% of employers agree that internships may provide the same advantage for high school students, as they provide a competitive advantage when looking for college internships or full-time jobs. Plus, they are an important asset to add to your college applications.

Find a mentor: Attainable anytime during high school, a mentor can be a school counselor, teacher, boss, or coach. Any adult who understands what makes you unique can help you draw up a list of interests, talents, future career paths, and colleges that might be a good fit. They’ll also be of great help by providing letters of recommendation for your college applications.

Align your interests and activities with potential scholarship opportunities: There are many no-cost ways to align your interests with potential scholarships. Here is a helpful list of free resources to pursue, provided by StudentAid.gov:

• Financial aid office at a college or career school.
• Federal TRIO* programs: *TRIO consists of eight programs targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities in progressing through the academic pipeline from middle school on.
• U.S. Department of Labor’s scholarship search tool.
• Federal agencies.
• Your state grant agency.
• Foundations, religious or community organizations, local businesses, or civic groups.
• Professional associations related to your field of interest.
• Ethnicity-based organizations.
• Your employer or your parents’ employers.

Test out college-level, online courses while you’re in high school: Prelum university partners are among the top-rated colleges and universities in the country.  Each Prelum partner has pre-college enrichment programs, offered in the form of dynamic online courses. Testing out subjects that interest you prior to attending college will help you narrow down potential majors. Here are a few notable examples:

• Notre Dame’s Pre-College Online Program currently offers four courses for motivated high school students: law, biology, business, and psychology.
• The Georgetown University Pre-College Online Program is rich with subjects that range from entrepreneurship, marketing, and investing to law and government courses, a range of medicine courses, as well as STEM, journalism, and leadership. They even have two course options — psychology and biology — that can earn you college credit.
• Wake Forest University’s Pre-College Online Programs is the epicenter of medical and stem courses for high school students who want to get a taste of what a pre-med future might look like. This renowned university offers a host of online medicine courses such as: cancer medicine, medicine, sports medicine, and women’s medicine. You’ll also find STEM courses such as bioscience, and psychology. This robust program also offers online courses in business and criminal law. 

Setting yourself up for college prep success can be a more streamlined experience with help from Prelum, powered by Kaplan.