Well it is that time of year again. Up until this point a majority of seniors will tell themselves that the thought of college has never really crossed their minds. Most will even say that they don’t have a clue as to which school they want to go to. The moment senior year begins… bam! It happens all at once and it’s difficult to know how to juggle it all, especially with the added stress of getting it in before the deadline.

The SAT and ACT are the first steps towards getting a college acceptance letter. The college application process starts during junior year because MCPS mandates that all students by the end of their third year of high school must take either the SAT, ACT or an Accuplacer exam. Besides the one standardized test, the whole college application process is not viewed as a priority for juniors. Most students tell themselves the same thing, “I will start over the summer and handle the rest next year.”

“I thought I could get ahead of things during the summer, but it’s a lot harder to get stuff done then. Therefore, I procrastinated until school started,” senior Brunda Bellamkonda said.

Senior year rolls around and it all begins to pile up. During the summer, everyone tries to accomplish as much as they can, but nothing ever turns out perfect. The list of things seniors have to do goes on and on, and as the summer goes on, most students realize that less and less is getting done. Most come out of the summer with their resume, application, essay, self evaluation and list of schools they want to apply to partially complete.

Each student handles the process differently. It depends on their personality and how they approach stressful situations. Most end up walking the fine line of being organized, but not stressing too much about it, because the last thing you have time for in this difficult process is stress.

“Now whenever I have free time, I like to work on college apps. During the weekday, I mix college apps with homework to maximize my time. They are a lot more time consuming than I thought,” senior Madeleine Stewart said.

The one thing to keep in mind during this whole process is that no one is alone. There is a whole support team helping the senior class through this tough time, so no one should be afraid to ask questions. Remember that they know what they are doing and this is not their first time handling a situation like this.

“One piece of advice I would give is, stay organized. Watch your due dates and get everything in on time. Also double check to make sure everything is spelled correctly on your forms. Stay organized and everything else will fall into place,” Gayle Evans, the College and Career Coordinator, said.

Most are trying not to get bogged down because they remember that they have high school as well, so they can’t sacrifice their grades.The key is to remember the end goal buried deep under the piles of applications. The senior class will conquer the dreaded college process, and when they are standing on that podium at graduation, they will all be laughing about this time.

On the bright side, approximately 150 days till graduation!