Staying Sane Through College Application Season: Self-Care for High School Seniors
October 8, 2025
There are plenty of pressing reasons why it might feel difficult to stay sane and centered right now, in the back half of 2025. The sheer quantity of noteworthy news seems to be ballooning every day, each item more urgent than the last. Add all of that to the daily concerns of school, work, finances, health, and relationships? There is understandably little time or headspace left for anything resembling self-care.
But for the class of 2026—the seniors who just started their final year of high school, many of whom are now in the thick of college application season—this problem is only magnified. Taking time for yourself, and taking care of yourself, has most likely dropped to the bottom of the to-do list (if it’s even still there at all). But what if I told you that the rest of the list, all the myriad tasks, responsibilities, and activities filling your calendar, will all feel more manageable, easier even, if self-care is at the top?
This doesn’t mean shirking your obligations to lounge in bed all day surrounded by your favorite snacks (although I will advocate for one luxurious day like that at some point in mid-November). What it does mean is finding small ways to check in with yourself every day, to establish a grounding routine that you can rely on, so that you can better meet the inevitable ebbs and flows of stress and overwhelm as they come.
So what does this look like in practice?
What works best will vary from person to person, but there are some specific components of a self-care routine that will be particularly useful for current high school seniors in the throes of college applications. Here’s where you can start:
Make a Calendar
Yes, an actual physical (or digital) calendar. Counterintuitive as it might sound, my first self-care recommendation is to get a handle on the logistics now, so that when deadlines and midterms start creeping up—often, annoyingly, in tandem!—you already have a plan of action.
College application deadlines will often come in clusters, at roughly half-month intervals: October 15th, November 1st, November 15th, December 1st, and so on. This might feel overwhelming if you have a lot of deadlines around one or two of those dates. Even if you’re using the Common App or a similar centralized application to apply to all or most of your schools, you should prepare for each college to still have some of its own tasks, such as writing supplemental essays, submitting graded materials, or filling out online application forms.
Once you know the deadlines you’re aiming for, spreading the tasks out evenly. Be sure to leave a buffer of a few days to a week before the deadlines themselves, just in case any technical difficulties arise! Additionally, make a note of when you know you will be busier than usual due to class assignments, sports, school events, travel, or other reasons. Plan your calendar around those obligations so you don’t end up falling behind or missing deadlines.
The act of making the calendar, and seeing the amount of work laid out before you, might be stressful. If that is the case, remember this: you’re frontloading the logistical planning in order to make the rest of college application season much easier. It is important to have a visual record of your plan, in one form or another. This takes the onus off of you to remember everything yourself. Which brings me to the next—and equally critical—step.
Trust the Calendar
By which I mean, to some extent, forget the calendar. I’m not saying to forget what you have to do today, or this week. Rather, the intention of making a calendar and a schedule for yourself is to not have to hold all of it in your mind at once. You can only accomplish the entire process one task at a time, one day at a time. When you’re not worrying about steps 8, 14, or 37, you can devote more of your brainpower to the step right in front of you.
Trust that you have made a reasonable and actionable plan for yourself, and then keep your eyes on what you can accomplish today.
This creating and trusting of the calendar will allow you to get through the application process more smoothly, but it will also give you more space to breathe, and more time for yourself. When you’re being pulled in so many directions, as high school seniors very often are, it can sometimes feel like the easiest way through is to go on autopilot. To disconnect from your immediate wants and needs and just lock in. It has to happen, so we make it happen: one thing, to the next, to the next, to the next. But here’s the problem. It’s impossible to live like that without consequence. It’s not sustainable. We have to pause at some point, or we risk burning ourselves out. We have to take care of our bodies and our minds, in equal measure.
Pay Attention to Your Body
The body’s needs are the base of the pyramid—visualized so famously in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Before we can effectively do anything else, our basic physiological needs (food, water, shelter, sleep) have to be met. This body you’re in right now is the same one you’re going to take with you to college, and beyond. It’s the only one you get.
If you’re used to pulling all-nighters to finish homework or forgetting to eat until you get hangry, you might be thinking: “Well, it’s not totally necessary! I can still function this way!” But just because you can, does not—cliché as it is—mean you should.
We often treat ourselves like we are machines. Our economic system, our educational system, and our broader culture, in fact, reward this kind of thinking. But our bodies need rest—and will demand rest, if not given it, at some point or another. I want you to avoid reaching that burnout stage.
The best way to do this is by actually paying attention and responding to your body’s cues: when it wants to eat, when it’s thirsty, when it needs to sleep, when it needs to move, get fresh air, or see the sun. When we ignore these bodily cues, it is to the detriment of our health, our happiness, and yes, if it’s easier to stomach, to the detriment of our productivity too.
Taking care of your body in these foundational ways will give you a leg up in the college admissions process—if not over other applicants, then at the very least over that alternate, less focused, sleepier, and more anxious version of you. You’ll think more clearly, which will allow you to write more clearly, interview or audition with more confidence, and meet deadlines with minimal stress.
Take Care of Your Mind
The needs of the body and the needs of the mind are deeply intertwined. Studies show that regular physical activity helps relieve mental health symptoms and promote cognitive health as we age. But there are many additional things you can do to take care of your mind, and refill your mental and emotional resources, especially during such a stressful season:
1) Spend time with friends and family
Whether you plan to attend college close to home or far away, high school graduation will change a lot about how your life looks, how your friends’ lives look, and how often you will be able to spend time with the people you care about. It may feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to see all the people you love, especially during the busiest points in the season. But one thing to try is to get intentional and creative with the things you already have to be doing. For example, eating breakfast or dinner with family (and really being present together during those meals), or co-working/body-doubling with friends to keep each other motivated and supported through deadlines. Savor that proximity while you can!
2) Take intentional screen breaks
In many ways, we live by our screens. They are practical tools, near necessities for school and work, and a main driver of our social connection. But as ubiquitous as our phones and computers have become in our lives, there are also real tangible benefits to taking time away from screens. Recent studies have shown that extended screen and internet breaks improve mood, attention span, and sleep patterns.
But even shorter limits throughout the day, and especially before bed, can have positive impacts on mental and emotional health. Start with small changes, like leaving your phone in another room while doing homework, or going for a short walk without taking your phone with you. You might find it gets easier, the more you do it, especially when you see your mood and focus improve.
3) Do the things you love
Whether it’s making art, going rock climbing, watching your favorite comfort show or movie, reading for pleasure, playing a board game, or watching a live sporting event or live music, what makes you feel alive? Joyful? More in touch with the world, and yourself, rather than less? Find ways to fit those things into your routine, whether it’s daily, weekly, or a special occasion to look forward to. This might look like reading for a half hour before bed every night, or watching a movie on Saturdays with your family, or scheduling a monthly dinner date with friends. Maybe it looks like getting tickets to see your favorite band over winter break as a fun thing to look forward to after your applications are all submitted.
There are many different degrees and flavors of joy and fun and relaxation that you can make space for. Not only are you allowed that—you deserve that. Not because you’re so busy, and you’re doing so much, and you earned it. But because you deserve to feel that way, at base, no matter what else is going on.
Final Thoughts
This season is a difficult and overwhelming one, but it is just that: a season. You will get to the other side sooner than you think. And in the meantime, do what you can to ease that passage, so that when you get there, you’re a little healthier, happier, and more grounded than before.
Ready to make a plan? Check out these additional resources:
