How do we trust "trust"? Of course, the trust I'm talking about is our gut feeling. When you're looking at that amazing college and everything about it seems right- the people are funny and friendly, it has all the classes you ever wanted, and the food in the cafeteria is delicious, and the mascot is your favorite animal, and you have this feeling in your gut telling you that this place is right. Almost all the time I would tell you to cannonball in and start tearing through application papers. However, in my experience I realized that it helps to think about our your feeling, rather than taking it at face value. So, what is a gut feeling? How can being aware of your gut feeling help you with college searches?
For juniors that are reading and are already looking for the point (trust me, I was one of them), I’m going to link this to college searches and all that juicy stuff eventually. Just hang on- I’ve got one or two things to plow through first.
What is a gut feeling? Why does it cause me to love a school at first sight?
The gut feeling is basically a type of intuition that we can train with experience, and being aware of how it works can be very helpful. For example, I first learned how to do flip turns in swimming about four years ago. At that time I didn't “turn” as much as flop back first into the wall, scramble in the water for a bit, and then cheekily wade my way back into position. But this is normal- I just learned something, and it has a long way to go until it becomes fluent, and even longer until it becomes intuitive. Four years and probably a thousand turns (and two thousand flops) later; I can flip turn with fogged over goggles and not turn into a wall pancake. The more I did it, the more I felt that tiny voice in my gut telling me when to stroke, tuck, turn, and kick off.
Why does this happen though? According to Carlin Flora of Psychology Today, that tiny voice is actually a cognitive process that condenses reasoning by taking advantage of the brain’s shortcuts. This process can be triggered by even the slightest outside stimulus, such as the color of the pool floor changing near the wall, or the lane line changing patterns. The brain takes outside stimulus, does a rapid search of its memory archives, and picks out the best course of action or reasonable judgment.
So in the context of college searches, know that whether you feel like you immediately like a school or not can be influenced by prior experiences and memories. Always ask yourself why you're feeling attached or hesitant about a college, and the answer does not have to make sense. It could simply even be “the food reminds me of home” or “the campus smells like the gym locker room”. Being aware of why you’re feeling the way you are brings you one step closer to identifying your dream school.
Why do we trust the gut feeling? Why is it there?
I tend to think of the gut feeling as rubber tires to a car. It’s not necessary per se, but without it we would literally be spending two hours deciding on what cereal to eat in the morning. Psychologist Antoine Bechara of University of Southern California conducted a study with mentally damaged patients who lacked the gut feeling intuition. Without intuition and having to manually factor in everything, the subjects took around hours to decide between cereals.
We trust the gut feeling simply because we can’t live without it, and in that process we have become quite attached to it. Your gut feeling is there to help you, and when you’re looking at a school, its most likely matching superficial elements of the school to your current ambitions as a student to help make the judgment process more efficient. Be aware of those ambitions! Before you search up or visit a school, ask yourself: what am I looking for? If you want, write those goals down and bring them with you on the college tour or when you browse through the school site. This will help keep you on track regarding what you’re looking for.
What influences our gut feeling? Should I ignore it?
Don't ignore your gut! During my search, my gut was my best friend, despite the fact that it gets distracted sometimes. The distractions come primarily from memory and emotions. Memories and experiences define the domain of what our gut is familiar with, and our emotional state influences what we are looking for as well as our gut’s judgment. If I feel hungry, I will put the school’s catering services at a higher priority than, say, dorm facilities.
There are a bunch of other things that affect the gut, and this list is most likely an oversimplification. But for the sake of simplicity and streamlining my advice for college searches, keep a list of what you’re looking for and identify why you’re attached to a school. Choosing a college is no small task, and you want everything at your disposal working at your advantage. Your gut can be either your biggest enemy or best friend- so give it a few directions, a cookie and a pat on its head, and let it lead the way.
*Image Credits: Me :) (shameless plug- my instagram is @tehsheep and I have more photos there)