Why today’s students are anxious

This afternoon I attended a webinar entitled "The Post-Pandemic Landscape of Educational Consulting: Key Industry Shifts and Insights." This webinar covered many useful topics, but perhaps the most important was the changes we've seen in the current crop of high school students preparing to start college, compared to their peers from years past.

I think the overarching theme I took from today's webinar is that students today are more anxious than ever before. There are lots of reasons, but here are a few general trends:

1. Today's students feel unprepared, socially and emotionally, to leave home and start college. Many of them feel that they lost an important year of social development, or more, during the pandemic, and haven't fully recovered. Many of them don't feel ready to be away from home, living in a dorm, and taking on full responsibility for their future.

2. Students feel--and in some cases are--behind academically, especially when it comes to reading and writing. They worry that they will not be able to keep up with the heavy reading and writing responsibilities they'll have as college students, and they worry that they won't understand the material.

3. They worry about the financial side of attending college. They worry that they'll take on large amounts of student loan debt and then find themselves, after college, unable to repay it.

4. They lack confidence in their own skills, sense of purpose, and decision-making ability.

5. They lean more heavily on their parents than students did in the past, especially when it comes to decision making and executive functioning.

I can help students reduce their anxiety in all of these areas. First, I get to know students so that I can understand their hopes, dreams, and fears. Second, I do interest and aptitude surveys with them to help them recognize the skills they do have and feel more confident about them. Third, I advise them while they draft their college lists, personal statements, and supplemental essays to help them see how they will contribute to a college community.

For more on how I can help reduce your student's anxiety, use the contact form on my website and schedule a free consultation!