#FOMO
College Edition
There are two types of students this time of year. The ones who are content and excited about their plans after high school, and those who are not. The reasons for not, are often related to fear. This year, more than ever, I have seen that many students are suffering from a serious college choice variety of #FOMO. Fear of missing out.
What are they so afraid of?
The fears are different for every student and range from the very legitimate financial fears and fear of too much debt, to the paralyzing fear of making a wrong decision on the college of their choice. The run of the mill social fears will also peek their head around the corner from time to time. These range from self doubt or impostor syndrome to a real fear of living on their own, or (gasp) sharing a dorm or bathroom with another person! Their fears are real for each student who experiences them.
I have some thoughts about this.
It is not that students don’t want to make a choice, they do. Some are very prepared with what I call the triple threat of college readiness: They are prepared academically, financially (either by scholarship or birth), and emotionally ready to go!
So what is it? Since I started college counseling in 2008, I have seen the average number of college applications students submit jump from around 3 or 6, to now 8 to 12, and some are even applying to 20+. Yikes!
Let’s compare choosing a college to selecting a hotel for your next vacation.
Imagine planning a vacation, and you don’t hire a travel agent to save some for your spending money. What’s your planning approach to travel and hotels? You may take a few suggestions from friends who happen to have visited the same location, so they give you 3 places that they loved. You find 10 highly ranked hotels on TripAdvisor to fit your needs. You buy a travel guide book, where you a get a few suggestions as well (you might add 5 more). Or maybe you watched an episode of Rick Steves, and he sells you on the idea of a cozy Bed and Breakfast in Northern Ireland so you add another to your list. This really happened to me, and I loved Northern Ireland, thanks Rick. So you book 20 hotels and work backwards from there.
Wait, what? This is not a healthy approach, you would never do this. I mean you shouldn’t ever book 20 hotels, hoping to narrow it down to one! I promise that you will find both positive and negative reviews for each of the 20 hotels you booked. What will make one out of 20 the right fit for your needs? This is way too many TripAdvisor reviews to comb though, and way too many potential #FOMO scenarios! You have made this too hard on yourself! You too will have the travelers version of #FOMO
The amount of options students have in higher education is astounding and its crippling them. Choice is good, but an abundance of choice can be bad. This podcast from “Two Guys On Your Head” shares some thoughts on this dilemma. Counselors and parents can help students keep things into perspective and help them manage the total number of colleges to apply for. Here’s an idea, take a tip from the British.
I am currently writing this from my hotel room in Oxford, where I’m winding down a week long College Counselor visit to universities in the U.K. It was a whistle stop tour, where I visited more colleges in a week than your typical U.K. student applies to. I got a good sense of the universities and all they have to offer in a short amount of time.
So what’s the difference?
For students applying to colleges on UCAS, they are limited to 5. You heard that right, 5!
UCAS narrows down the choices for you based on major or course selection, making it easier for students to choose. The criteria is clear as well. The other difference that I believe helps this problem is that students will apply for programs and universities that meet their academic profile. No guessing, no hoping, none of this, “I just want to see if I might get in” scenario. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it does create an easier menu for students to order from!
More is not always better. Tune out the noise, focus on your own choices, not of your peers. Be logical about the number of applications you plan for, pick your top 6 early and stick to them. Don’t make it hard on yourself.
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