This blog post is part of a series that will help you as you apply to colleges. Today, I’m going over tips to help you manage your stress and stay positive throughout the college application process.

Are you late to the party and want to know what’s going on? Start here.

First thing’s first. This post is relevant to you at all stages of the college application process—it doesn’t matter if it’s the summer before your junior year or the fall of your senior year.

Alleviating our students’ stress and staying positive is something that we take seriously at UML. Let’s go over some ways you can manage your stress as you work through the college admissions process.

Check this out: Doctor’s orders: Pat more dogs

1. Schedule a specific ~no-college-talk~ time

A lot of people around you might be as anxious as you are about the college admissions process. You will feel better about managing your stress and keeping positive and refreshed if you give yourself a chance to take a step away from the college admissions process.

Here are some examples of this in action to give you a starting point:

• You could say that every day after 5 p.m. is when all college admissions talk will stop.
• You could decide that all day Sunday works best.

2. Make time to do what you love and reach out to the people who lift you up

The trickiest part of managing your stress when you’re in the thick of applying to colleges is that it’s really easy to put the things and people who bring you joy on the back burner. But taking the time to read a good book, play some video games, learn some yoga poses, go for a run, play a pick-up game or hang out with your friends are the simplest and most fulfilling ways to recharge your emotional battery if you’re feeling drained.

This all comes back to developing time management skills and a realistic understanding of what you’re capable of doing and what’s going on.

The reality is that the college application process and getting accepted into your top-choice college, while important, isn’t going to be the end-all determining factor for how the rest of your life goes.

It might be hard to see it now, but for some perspective, the college application process only takes up about two-ish years of your entire life. Your entire life. Some people live to be 100, so try to keep that in mind if you feel overwhelmed.

Life will go on, and you will succeed and accomplish great things no matter where you end up. Try not to sacrifice the things that make you happy in the name of applying to colleges.

Check this out: You don’t have to fake it ’til you make it

3. Do something fun just because (even if it’s new)

Don’t think about how it will look on college applications. Do something just for you and for the fun of it. Take up extreme hula-hooping, learn to dance, go jogging, develop your artistic skills, do arts and crafts, color, etc.

It doesn’t matter what you do. But give yourself time to do things that aren’t college admissions related.

That’s all I got, folks. There are a ton of other ways to manage your stress and keeping a positive outlook, but I’m starting to stress myself out trying to think of them all. What’s important is that you should try to be mindful of taking time for yourself, reach out to friends or counselors if you get overwhelmed and spend some time doing the things that make you happy.

Check out the introduction to this blog series if you missed a post or want to read more useful advice about applying to colleges.