by Hanna Souhail
Senior year is
one of the most stressful year of any student’s life. Aside from the rigorous courses, students
also have to fill out all applications for college. How does one expect 17 and 18 year olds to
plan the first steps of their future in the first month of senior year? Instead of trying to cram all of this into
such short time, wouldn’t it be easier to start addressing college applications
junior year? According to some seniors,
it would be.
Senior Andrew Lindquist is feeling
the stress of senior year. He is not
only taking the most difficult classes offered to a senior, but he is also
starting the process of applying to college.
“We have way too much work to do out
senior year. Senior year is the year
people have the most AP class. We do not
need the stress of college applications as well as the stress of all the AP
classes,” said Lindquist.
Instead of scheduling last minute
college visits, students could look into the schools during junior year. Spreading the research, visits, and
applications over the course of two school years instead of a few months during
the beginning of senior year, the stress would be slightly eased. However, the teachers have the ability to aid
the students in the process as well.
It has been practice at WMHS that
the Common Application essays are addressed senior year. For some students, this changed. Senior Emily Lissner was extremely angry when
she found out that her senior year English teacher decided she was not going to
teach her students how to write the essays for the Common Application.
“I was prepared for the stress of
the college application process towards the beginning of the year, but I didn’t
realize how difficult everything would actually be. I was preparing to start my Common App essay
with the help of my senior year English teacher, but when she told us she
wasn’t going to teach us about it, another thing I had to do was added to the
list,” complained Lissner.
After learning from personal
experience, senior Martin Borys has some suggestions for incoming classes and
the staff.
“Instead of cramming everything into
the beginning of senior year, shouldn’t our junior year teachers help us? A week should be dedicated to explaining the
application process as well as helping us with the essays we need to
write. Even if everything doesn’t get
done, at least we would have an idea of the events to come. If I was more prepared, I would be so much
more relaxed,” said Borys.
Even though the graduating class of
2014 is overwhelmed, it’s partially the students’ fault. Teachers cannot be blamed for
everything. Although their guidance
would be beneficial, students need to be responsible for themselves. By addressing everything only a couple of
months before the application deadline, senior Brandon Heath is feeling the
most stress he’s ever felt before.
“Where do I begin? Not only do I have to travel to visit the
colleges I would like to possibly go to, almost none of them are on the Common
App. This means I have to fill out tons
of applications instead of just one.
This means multiple essays, too.
The difficulty of my classes this year isn’t helping out much either,”
said Heath.
So, there it is. Not only are seniors stressed by the courses
they are taking this year, they are freaking out over applying to college. The college a student attends determines the
education one earns and ultimately the occupation for which one has potential. However, many precautions can be taken to
prevent this.
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