A few things you can do to help relieve stress:
– Truly understand in your heart of hearts that there are tons of amazing colleges and universities out there where you can have a great experience and get where you want to go in life. Do not focus on one or two “dream schools” – the people who do are the ones I see who get most hurt by the process if things do not work out as hoped.
– Develop an application list that gives you a good realistic mix of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (run net price calculators if you need to) and that you would be excited to attend. Be honest with yourself in terms of where you are academically when compiling this list. IMO finding great safety schools is an under-rated but very important part of the process.
– If possible apply to a few schools that are non-binding early action and/or rolling. For both of my kids getting an acceptance in hand before the end of December took a ton of stress off of the process.
–And if you like knitting, go for it (for me knitting would probably add to my stress level LOL) !!