Every year, millions of middle and high school students across the globe start thinking about college. They consider where they wish to go, where they could get into and what they might major in. The process of thinking about college starts at a very young age for many students, often long before senior year of high school when students finally submit their applications. Many students feel enormous amounts of pressure and stress at young ages that can weigh them down through high school.

First, the process of applying to college is well known to be stressful and extending that stress to freshman year results in an unhealthy mentality and obsession with results. Thinking too much about college too young results in many students feeling as though they need to be perfect academically and that they are not allowed to get bad grades.

This can discourage students from taking classes they may be interested in that are not honors or AP level, as that could affect their weighted GPA negatively.

Another reason thinking about college too early can be detrimental is that it can lead to disappointment. Some students set their heart on attending an individual school, or end up fixating on the idea of attending an Ivy League school or other very selective university. This may create unrealistic expectations that they struggle to live up to and could prevent students from considering schools that might be a better fit for their interests.

A final reason that students should not focus on college too early is that getting into a certain college often becomes the end goal for young students. Students who focus and fixate on college starting as early as middle school often create an end goal of getting into a certain college. But what happens after that?

Many students like the idea of getting into a top college more than they like the reality of going to one and it leaves them questioning what they want to do when they get there. The point of the education system is to help students become productive citizens and find potential professions. However, students who are purely result-oriented are not going to be as focused on what they want their lives to look like.

This can lead to students not knowing what they want to do with their studies once they get into a top college or what direction they should take their education in, resulting in students who end up unhappy with their majors and waste money on a college education they don’t want to use.