How to deal with this overwhelming pressure of applying abroad as a Bangla medium student?

 

How to deal with this overwhelming pressure of applying abroad as a Bangla medium student?

I am a Fall '25 applicant from a typical Bangla medium background. I know there's still so much time left till my application even starts. But I have been feeling extremely frustrated lately and being devoid of any guidance, I am a bit lost right now to be completely honest.

At this point, I don't even know the right questions to ask. So I'm just gonna point out my problems down below. I would really really appreciate if you would help me out with a bit of guidance.

(long post alert!)

Academics: Do I need to say anything about NCTB curriculum? It's so intense for no reason at all. Our HSC exam is in April/May '25. In just these 16 months, we have to finish 13 books with a pretty big syllabus and on top of that, there's the whole admission pressure. Everyone at my school is in this unhealthy obsession with admission exams. Most of them do nothing but their studies and being in a environment such as this does affect you a lot. Preparing for unis abroad (especially US unis) takes a shit ton of time and energy. 

"Should I really be dreaming about studying abroad?", "What if I fail in both places?", "What would become of me if I don't even get into a good uni in Bangladesh?" these are the types of questions I am having to fight with in my mind every single day.

Support: Being from a typical Bengali family, my parents are not that enthusiastic about me applying abroad. I had several talks with my parents (since I was a little kid!) about studying abroad. The outcome of those were always pretty similar. My family's concerns are very reasonable but a dream is a dream, right? Other than that, as I have mentioned before, my school doesn't really have a good environment for applying abroad. As far as I know, no one ever even tried (maybe someone might've tried but didn't get into anywhere). So, no support from there either.

Bangla medium and English medium: In the recent acceptances I've seen, most students are from an English medium school. Only a handful of them are from Bangla medium and even among those, over 80% of them are usually from the top schools in Bangladesh (ndc, vnc, hcc, sjs etc.) I am not even from Dhaka, let alone be in a top school.

I do have a few (what I would say) good ECAs and hopefully will sit for SAT in March. Even after that, 'Do I really stand a chance?'

Choosing the right college: I would really like to have a good education and experience college life to my fullest. But my situation is not that generous. I don't have the option to pay 20-30k per year. So I really need a full ride or at least a full tuition. Only a handful of colleges offer full ride to international students but almost all of them have less than 10% admission rate. Even if I completely focus on applying abroad, I can't even guarantee my admission. If I keep on going like this, I will be taking a huge gamble on life that might or might not ruin my entire future.

No guidance: That brings me to my final point. I don't really have anyone to talk to regarding these things. I did find some mates who are also in a similar position as me but they are also confused. So there's that. I thought about consulting with a consultancy but after researching a bit, I found that they are way too expensive. I did talk with a few seniors but their suggestions are always vague and didn't really help me much.

So, I would be really grateful to you guys if you could share your thoughts and experience on my situation. Also, If you are a Fall '25 applicant facing similar frustrations as me, do share what are your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance to anyone reading this!