Seniors across Eye Street are grueling and celebrating as one by one college decisions are announced. This aspect of the college process is not of high demand, unlike the application process, yet it can yield the same if not more amounts of stress because of the mere importance it may hold on a senior’s future.
The college application process is one of the most stressful times in an upperclassmen’s life. Many seniors around campus believe that this process bears too much weight on the shoulders of young men and women and should be lightened. Preston Burton ‘24 gives underclassmen a mere view of the grueling process and how much weight it can bear on a senior, wanting to know what their future beholds.
“The most stressful period of my life because you have your whole future in your hands, and you are waiting for people to sit there and determine where you spend the next fours years of your life,” Burton said.
Mikey Settles ‘24 gives great insight and advice to the underclassmen on ways to manage or navigate this stressful time including a key aspect of starting early to get ahead of the task before it is too late.
“Start early because the longer you wait, the harder it is, the more stressful it is in your senior year and you want your senior year to be fun because it’s your last year here,” Settles said.
Other seniors share similar opinions with Settles, and as more interviews are being conducted, the general consensus comes back that the college process yields an immense amount of stress on seniors. This time in a senior’s life is already hard enough while maintaining good grades in school, the system as a whole should review their process and attempt at making it simpler.
“You feel stressed during the buildup for the deadline, and after that, it is pretty chill because you don’t have to work on the applications anymore and all the stress of the deadline is past you,” said Dave McCarthy ‘24.
McCarthy’s statement backs up Settles’ point of starting the application process early because of how stressful the deadline for applications can be, it is keen to spread out all the applications over a long period of time instead of cramming them before the due date.
“Do not apply to too many schools, and anywhere from six to eight is a good number because if you apply to many colleges it is a lot of work due to all of the colleges having different questionnaires; some have supplemental essays you have to do,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy’s advice to underclassmen is on par with what we have heard from many other seniors, which highlight the importance of not putting more stress on yourself in an already stress-filled time period by limiting hours of work and spreading it out over longer periods of time.
The college process is a difficult one for seniors and causes great stress among seniors finalizing their high school career. Through tips such as starting the process early and not overloading the amount of work you have to do through many applications, underclassmen can greatly reduce the stress they will endure going through this process.
