Listen and Validate Their Feelings

This waiting period is prime time for seniors to experience a whole range of emotions - excitement, worry, impatience, even anger or sadness if rejections start rolling in. The healthiest thing is for them to process what they're feeling rather than bottle it up. That's why your primary role should be to listen. Resist the urge to instantly solve problems or give unsolicited advice. Instead, use active listening techniques like restating what you hear and asking open-ended questions. Validate their feelings by saying things like "It makes complete sense you would feel worried waiting to hear back." This supportive approach gives them space to air their feelings openly without judgment.

Keep Them Focused Forward

While anxiety about college decisions is understandable, dwelling on it rarely helps. Use distraction and redirection techniques to keep your senior's sights set on the opportunities ahead versus fretting over what they cannot control. Ask about their hopes for college - campus activities that excite them, classes that sound interesting. Discuss what they may want to pack, who they might room with, or how they’ll set up their dorm space. Redirecting the focus forward on the adventure to come helps minimize backward-looking worries. Foster a solution-oriented, hopeful mindset.

Model Resilience and Flexibility

An incredibly valuable skill that will serve teens well in college and life is resilience - the ability to cope with challenges and setbacks by tapping positive mindsets and behaviors. As a parent, consciously model resilient attitudes for your high schooler during this waiting period. Share stories of times you had to pivot in the face of college or career disappointment and how you coped. Highlight examples of when you showed determination and flexibility to overcome obstacles. Demonstrate the power of reframing negative situations into opportunities - one dream school's rejection simply opens the door for discovering the great fit elsewhere. Modeling these resilience strategies helps build your senior's mental muscle to handle college transitions positively.

The college waiting period can be deeply unsettling for both anxious parents and students. While understandable, excessive worrying will not change outcomes. As a parent, the best thing you can do is listen compassionately, foster a forward focus, and exemplify resilience that helps your high school senior roll with whatever comes during this pivotal life transition.