Imposter Syndrome is an issue that many, many college students are all too familiar with. Google dictionary defines imposter syndrome as “the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills.” The more of my peers I talk to, the more common I have found this issue to be. Some feel inadequate because they’re first-generation students or because their parents have a lot of money to send them to great schools or because they’re athletes on scholarships, and so on.
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As for me, it’s something I’ve been struggling a lot with lately. I’m a grade level above my cohort, and I am definitely made very aware that I am the youngest person in the room often. Professors make it a point to announce to the class that there’s a second year in their upper- division class. It doesn’t help that I’m also born later in the year, so in a lot of my classes, people are two or three years my senior. But what makes me feel inadequate is the experience that comes with their age. They always ask such interesting questions in class, and always seem to know so much about the class before it even begins. We’re taking the same classes, but they just seem so far ahead. So far, in fact, that often I feel like I will never catch up to the people I’m graduating with.
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But after working up all these feelings before my first quarter taking upper-division courses and starting my undergraduate research, I realized something. Being the youngest person has its advantages. My classmates have really taken me under their wing; they totally get that I don’t know as much because I haven’t been in college as long. My TA’s go out of their way to make sure I’m doing alright. My counselor is super proud of me. The reason why I feel inadequate is why I stand out in a lot of environments.
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So here’s the thing: nobody is really expecting you to be on the same page as your peers. Even the ones who seem to all be on the same level are at different stages of their college journey. No matter what, the one thing that is always fundamentally true is, you got into college just like everybody else did. You filled out an application, maybe you wrote an essay, and they chose YOU. If you’re first-gen, keep making your family and yourself proud. If you feel like money got you in, it didn’t, you are smart all on your own, you got into college and are still surviving your classes. If you’re a talented athlete, your skill should be shared at the collegiate level, and you very much deserve to study while you do it. And for people who say college admissions are just shots in the dark, then congratulations, you got super lucky! Don’t waste your good luck and valuable time feeling like you don’t deserve to be there. Own yourself, accept where you are on your academic path, take the steps, and utilize the resources you need to get to where you want to be.