From High School To University: Can Rejection Prepare Teens For College Life?

Majority of college students go back home before they reach their sophomore year. Apparently, it's because they're unable to cope with the challenges of university life -- several students weren't given proper preparation in high school aside from deciding the school they wanted to go to. However, rejection from their top choice schools may better help them cope with the encouragement and support of their parents.

Spoon-feeding Can Be A Problem

Many do not realize that a high school student's experience can play a part in how they thrive and succeed in college. Huffington Post notes high schools only prepare their students in getting into universities by preparing them for SATs as early as ninth grade, giving them tons of difficult assignments, term papers and pressuring them to get high marks in tests.

Parents also unhealthily get involved by helping their children prepare and even go so far as cheating. However, once their child does enter the university life, students often have difficulty coping and transitioning on their own and thus they go back home frustrated with the challenges of college life.

Most high school seniors and their parents get anxious about applying for university and it is understandable that rejection can be devastating. Individuals have different ways of coping and the best thing that parents can do is to be the support and encouragement of their teens.

College Rejection Letters Are Coming -- How to Cope When They Arrive https://t.co/flCP92SiRw @PsychologyToday

— Debbie Schwartz (@Rd2College) January 4, 2016

Rejection Can Help Overcome Their Fear of Future Rejections

Nevertheless, rejection can be a good thing. While it may be one of the worst feelings in the world, there is a great learning experience behind it and puts another perspective in place.

"Rejection can concentrate the mind wonderfully," Phillip Hodson, a psychotherapist for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, told Daily Mail. "It can make you more determined to prove your abilities, it sharpens your ­competitiveness and gives you an ­incentive to prove people wrong."

Additionally, rejection helps to further push one's self and serve as a reminder that all notable people in the world had to go through being rejected before they succeeded. Parents can also help their teens with their struggle by being a positive role model and letting them struggle on their own for a while without adding any pressure.

According to Family Circle, there have been studies that teens that don't channel their rejection well will result in them becoming more frustrated in the future. This can cause mental health issues like depression, anxiety and poor self-esteem.