Every senior in the midst of the college process knows the struggle. You are so ready to be finished, but not quite. You still have to get into college and figure out your life. What if I don't get accepted to a school? Am I going to become a hermit and live with my parents for the rest of my life? What if I don't get accepted to my dream school and all of my dreams are crushed? These are my thoughts now and will be for the next few months, anxiously waiting for those college acceptance letters. Here are a few tips to hopefully help get through this process:

1. Keep a positive mindset

Positive thinking really does have a lot of power and can make all the difference when college decision letters are getting the best of you and your self-esteem.

We worry about college acceptances because we begin to second-guess whether or not we are good enough to go to our top-choice school. Whenever your negative thoughts are getting the best of you, remind yourself that you are worthy and can do anything. Find your favorite positive-thinking mantra. Allow that mantra to be something you repeat over and over whenever you doubt yourself or whenever you feel like you’re not good enough.

And whenever you stop believing you’re good enough to be accepted into a school, write down a list of five (or more!) things that you know you can contribute to that school. It can be anything: stimulating class participation, being a friendly face for everyone on campus, giving back to the community. Remember everything you put in your college application to convince the school to accept you and start believing it yourself!

2. Keep busy

One of the best ways to distract yourself from overthinking is to stay busy. Find a new hobby! Since the hobby would be new, you’d more than likely be super excited about it and have a lot to learn. You simply wouldn’t have the time to overthink your college decision letters. Start a blog. Learn how to sew. Learn how to computer program.

Do something. By getting really invested in something else, you won’t want to think about college or have the time to. Plus, this could be a great time to uncover a hidden talent or to find a new passion, two things that will really help you pick a major or to get into a certain club or activity once you do get to college.

3. Decide if want to talk about it or not

Everybody handles the stress of anticipation differently; some people like to talk through the stress, and some people like to distract themselves and focus on something else. A very important step in waiting on college decision letters is to figure out how you deal with stress. I prefer to not talk about it. I don’t want to focus on it and have it engulf my life.

4. Channel positive energy into extracurriculars & school work

Keeping busy doesn’t just include after school activities. Really investing yourself in your schoolwork is a great way to stay busy. This is a great way to avoid the senior slump and to show colleges who may be checking in on your second-semester grades that you’re keeping up with your grades and school work.

5. Don’t “over-hype” about one school

One of the hardest parts of this waiting game is making sure you don’t build up your top schools too much. Over-hyping schools means thinking you’ll definitely get accepted, thinking a certain school’s program is the only program suited for you or thinking being accepted into a certain school will make or break your entire life. This is definitely something to avoid doing when waiting on those decision letters. Over-hyping a school is something that comes when you start to overthink. When you overthink getting into schools, you begin to idealize them and think that they’re the only option for you, and when you do this, you’re setting yourself up for potential disappointment.

So while you're waiting for those letters to arrive, make sure to keep calm and hold your head high. No matter what the results are, you are worthy and bound to do great! Good luck!